Transformational Leadership

Transformational Leader how Beneficial it Can Be

Understanding the transformational leadership What is … the Transformational Leadership Principles focus on fostering organizational collaboration with leaders seeking a style that is appropriate for today's fast-changing, diverse and highly technical workforce. But first, you need to understand transformational leadership. Transformational leaders are more focused on facilitating organizational collaboration that drives their vision rather than creating strategic plans. To gain a clearer understanding of transformational leadership, it is necessary to look at the different components and strengths of leadership styles.

Here are the most essential traits & effective transformational leaders.

Good transformational leaders practice self-awareness : transformational leaders thrive on personal growth and know their strengths and weaknesses. They often take time to reflect and set daily or weekly goals. These leaders believe everyone, including themselves, should be continually learning and improving.

They remain open-minded: remaining open to new ideas and fresh perspectives is an important aspect of transformational leadership. Rather than jumping to conclusions, these leaders regularly gather feedback and ideas from a range of sources before making strategic decisions(Tsui, Zhang and Chen, 2017). The best transformational leaders are adaptable and innovative: good transformational leaders understand changing business dynamics and are always finding innovative ways to stay ahead of the curve. They’re unafraid to alter traditional approaches that have worked in the past as they look toward the future(Kodama, 2019). Good transformational leaders are proactive : leaders cannot simply sit around and wait for change to happen. Rather, they make proactive decisions and bold choices that can set the tone for others to follow(Lam, Lee, Taylor and Zhao, 2018). They lead with humility : finally, transformational leaders take little issue with admitting they don’t have all the answers. While they can remain confident in their goals and abilities, they’re also able to keep their egos in check and do what’s right for their team or organization(Qin, Chen, Yam, Huang and Ju, 2020).

Advantages of Transformational leadership

Leaders, it’s important to note a single leadership style. In many cases, combining different approaches can enhance organizational outcomes. Transformational and transactional leadership are two styles that have been thoroughly researched, and a given leader may exhibit varying degrees of both styles. Transactional leadership is based on a system of exchanges between the leader and each employee. Employees receive positive reinforcement for meeting specific goals. An effective transactional leader is adept at recognizing and rewarding accomplishments in a timely manner(Billingsley, 2007). Within this leadership style, team members are typically evaluated and given feedback based on predetermined performance criteria. Workers aren’t necessarily expected to think innovatively about the tasks at hand.

In contrast, transformational leaders inspire employees in ways that go beyond exchanges and rewards. This approach can increase a team’s intrinsic motivation by expressing the value and purpose behind the organization’s goals. A transformational leadership style inspires employees to strive beyond required expectations to work toward a shared vision(Roueche, Baker and Rose, 2014), whereas transactional leadership focuses more on extrinsic motivation for the performance of specific job tasks. Learning to balance these styles can help leaders reach their full potential.

Transformational leaders work with their employees to implement effective change, they rely on communication, charisma, adaptability and empathetic support. In practice, this leadership style comprises four primary elements below article

Components of transformational leadership

1. Individualized consideration — Transformational leaders listen to employees’ concerns and needs so they can provide adequate support. They operate from the understanding that what motivates one person may not motivate someone else. As a result, they’re able to adapt their management styles to accommodate various individuals on their team.

A component of transformational leadership is individual consideration. Individual consideration refers to behaviors in which leaders identify the unique needs and expectations of their subordinates and strive to meet them. This means that subordinates are not regarded as a simple group, but as a collection of individuals with various talents, knowledge, and goals.

To this end, transformational leaders actively provide the coaching and mentoring they need to develop their careers. He spares no time or material support to develop the competencies essential for the success of his subordinates. It also shows a caring figure of contemplating their future together.

Currently, the most frequently used method for measuring transformational leadership is a questionnaire called MLQ (Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire). This questionnaire, developed by Professor Bass and consisting of a total of 45 questions (see www.donga biz.com), began to be used extensively by his colleague Professor Avolio to measure and develop transformational leadership among executives.

2. Inspirational motivation — Transformational leaders are able to articulate a unified vision that encourages team members to exceed expectations. They understand that the most motivated employees are the ones who have a strong sense of purpose. These leaders are not afraid to challenge employees. They remain optimistic about future goals and are skilled at giving meaning to the tasks at hand.

Motivation of inspiration is a term used to describe how leaders communicate their vision to their followers. Transformational leaders talk optimistically and idealistically about the future. This makes subordinates motivated to achieve this future on their own. Transformational leaders convince followers that the work they do is not just a means to earn a living, but that it is a worthwhile work that is essential to achieving organizational goals.

Transformational leaders have stronger confidence in the future than anyone else. Therefore, it expresses dissatisfaction with the present to the members of the organization in a strong voice and emphasizes the need for change. However, expressing dissatisfaction with the current situation alone does not make a transformational leader. In order to be a great transformational leader, you have to show an attractive future that will motivate members along with dissatisfaction with the present. To this end, they continue passionate conversations with members, including various metaphors.

Richard Branson of the Virgin Group is the CEO who stimulates members in ways beyond imagination. Branson's life has been full of challenges and unconventional free action as he strives to live out his leadership philosophy. He initially started his business by selling CDs by mail, but he constantly expanded his business into various fields such as aviation, space, finance, and communication. No matter what kind of business he did, he always showed himself challenging for a new future without following the existing methods.

Branson founded Virgin Mobile USA to enter the US wireless business, which is one of the most competitive in the world. Since then, it has provided various services targeting the teenage customer base, which no one was interested in. A representative example was a service that provided wake-up calls to high school girls every morning in the voice of Brad Pitt. Through this, he was able to secure 3 million subscribers within 3 years of entering the US market.

When the new Coke was introduced to the market, it ran an advertisement in New York where Coca-Cola symbols were smashed with cannons while riding in tanks. Branson is the CEO who sets up a space tourism company and dreams of a huge future business opportunity in space tourism that no one believes in.

Expressing his vision of the future in an innovative way, Branson is now one of the world's most admired CEOs. In a February 2008 survey of teenagers around the world, Branson passed Jesus as the second most admired role model. The first place was family, and the third place was Jesus.

3. Idealized influence — Transformational leaders model ethical behavior. Their moral conduct earns a necessary level of respect and trust. This can help leaders steer decision-making that works to improve the entire organization.

Idealization of influence is the behavior of a leader who instills pride in his subordinates and gains the trust of members of the organization by talking about future visions in a confident tone. Transformational leaders who practice the idealization of influence actively share the organization's vision with their subordinates, and at the same time continue to express their core values and beliefs. Through this, the existing core values of subordinates are actively changed into new values that fit the organization's vision.

Efforts to change the core values of members of the organization are an important feature of transformational leadership. Transformational leaders give a strong sense of purpose through the idealization of influence and also emphasize the importance of a sense of community mission. When making decisions, try to prevent the concentration of power on oneself by emphasizing consideration of moral and ethical matters. By sacrificing one's own personal interests for the benefit of the organization, it creates respect for his subordinates and makes them imitate this spirit of sacrifice.

Lee Iacocca, who was Chrysler's chairman, impressed all members of the organization by practicing self-sacrifice, which is essential for implementing the idealization of influence, like a drama. He declared that he would receive only one dollar of his salary when the National Assembly asked for a bailout to revive Chrysler, who was on the brink of bankruptcy. In other words, it is a symbol of self-sacrifice to share corporate pain. The CEO's self-sacrifice is the most powerful means of creating strength and passion for members of the organization in times of crisis. Employees can strengthen their will to fight and maintain a sense of ownership while watching the leader's self-sacrifice.

Gusner, who is in charge of IBM's rigorous restructuring, had a vision that the company's future was not just to make computers better than its competitors, but to provide the solutions customers wanted. Based on this vision, Gusner's first change was to create a customer-centered corporate culture and change employees' attitudes to service-oriented. To create a customer-centered culture, Gusner invited chief information officers (CIOs) working for IBM's 200 most important customer companies shortly after taking office. They asked IBM to relentlessly point out what it has not done to its customers so far. IBM executives, who had not even thought about receiving direct feedback from customers until then, were shocked to hear their complaints directly. Since then, a customer-centered corporate culture has rapidly established within IBM.

4. Intellectual stimulation — Transformational leaders regularly challenge assumptions, take risks and solicit team members’ input and ideas. They don’t fear failure, and instead foster an environment where it’s safe to have conversations, be creative and voice diverse perspectives. This empowers employees to ask questions, practice a greater level of autonomy and ultimately determine more effective ways to execute their tasks.

Intellectual stimulation is also a factor that sets transformational leadership apart from other types of leadership. Through intellectual stimulation, transformational leaders help their subordinates discover creative solutions to problems themselves. Encourage subordinates to review the appropriateness of the multiple assumptions they face as they pursue their work. When solving a problem, it encourages you to look at it from a variety of perspectives different from the existing method.

Xerox's current CEO, Anne Mulkay, is famous for being the leader who revived the company that was going bankrupt through constant intellectual stimulation. Xerox was the company that operated the best research institutes in computer and IT until the 1970s. However, debt surged to $17 billion in the 2000s due to CEOs who did not know the enormous potential of these technologies and did not have a vision for the future. The stock price, which once reached USD 64, also fell to USD 4, making it difficult for the company to survive.

Mulke, who took over as CEO of Xerox in 2002, entered the printer market dominated by Hewlett-Packard (HP) and developed Xerox into one of the world's best IT companies. To this end, MulK first boldly liquidated its existing copy machine business model. He strongly urged employees to think about how Xerox can provide the comprehensive IT solution they need.

Thanks to Mulcay's transformative leadership based on vision and intellectual stimulation, Xerox succeeded in complete normalization in late 2002. At the end of 2008, a consulting firm called TechRepublic named Mulke as the five leaders who had the biggest impact on global IT in 2008 along with Bill Gates.

Like Mulkay, intellectual stimulation was a matter that Gusner could never neglect. Gusner decided that in order to turn IBM, a computer manufacturer, into a consulting service provider that provides solutions that customers want, employees should change their attitudes toward computer technology first.

For decades, IBM has been making various computer products using its technology as it is protected by patents. In other words, IBM products were technically excellent, but there were certain standards throughout the industry, so they were not compatible with third-party products. However, the computer industry's increasing compatibility movement and the technological trend of open source, which has emerged since the 1980s, have eliminated IBM's protective film at once.

Abandoning IBM-specific standards meant more than a technical decision to adopt standards that the entire industry followed. This means that our company should give up its technological advantage over the past decades overnight, and the company's profit margin can also decrease in an instant. Now IBM, like other companies, is in a situation where it cannot survive unless it dramatically lowers its cost structure."

"The hardest thing was to stress to our employees, 'Now we live in a market where market principles are thoroughly applied, and we have to fundamentally change our past complacent mentality,'" Gusner said. "Honestly, I tried to give up several times," he confessed. However, Gusner gave employees constant intellectual stimulation over a long period of more than two years, leading to fundamental changes in organizational culture.

References

Billingsley, B. S. (2007) ‘Recognizing and supporting the critical roles of teachers in special education leadership’, Exceptionality, 15(3), pp. 163-176.

Kodama, M. (2019) ‘Business innovation through holistic leadership‐developing organizational adaptability’, Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 36(4), pp. 365-394.

Lam, W., Lee, C., Taylor, M. S. and Zhao, H. H. (2018) ‘Does proactive personality matter in leadership transitions? Effects of proactive personality on new leader identification and responses to new leaders and their change agendas’, Academy of Management Journal, 61(1), pp. 245-263.

Qin, X., Chen, C., Yam, K. C., Huang, M. and Ju, D. (2020) ‘The double-edged sword of leader humility: Investigating when and why leader humility promotes versus inhibits subordinate deviance’, Journal of Applied Psychology, 105(7), pp. 693.

Roueche, J. E., Baker III, G. A. and Rose, R. R. (2014) ‘Shared vision: Transformational leadership in American community colleges’, Rowman & Littlefield.

Tsui, A. S., Zhang, Y. and Chen, X. P. (2017) ‘Chinese Companies Need Strong and Open-minded Leaders’, In Leadership of Chinese Private Enterprises, pp. 295-308.