Transformational Leadership, Part 1

 
 

Transformational leadership is a leadership style that is focused on inspiring others to accomplish great things.  Transformational leaders excel at helping their followers to reach their full potential.  They create a vision for the future, and then motivate their teams to accomplish it.

If you want to understand how transformational leadership works, it helps to compare it to the opposite leadership style, transactional leadership.

A leader with a transactional leadership style says, “If you do X, I’ll give you Y.”  (For example: “If you get these reports done by the weekend, I’ll give you a bonus.”) On the other hand, a transformational leader says, “If you do X, then we can accomplish Y.” (For example: “If you get these reports done by the weekend, we can wow our client with amazing customer service.”)

Great transformational leaders have high emotional intelligence (EQ) and use it to build trust and facilitate collaboration with their teams.  They have clear values and principles, are open to feedback, and can consider diverse perspectives.  Transformational leaders respect their team members by being mindful of each person’s feelings and needs, and they support each team member.  They aim to help their followers reach their full potential. In turn, team members who are collaborative and harmony-focused tend to thrive under transformational leadership.

Is transformational leadership right for your team?  In our next post, we will look at some of the pros and cons of transformational leadership.

Chew on This:

What can you do today to make your leadership less transactional and more transformational?