In people management there are two clear situations: transactional leadership, where the executive has to ‘push’ his or her team to get results; and transformational leadership, in which the manager is able to inspire employees, Would you like to get this second style?
Transformational leadership
This management model comes from the Transformational leadership theory, created by Pulitzer Prize winner James MacGregor Burns. in 1978, who describes this style in his book Transforming Leadership as “a process through which the leaders and followers do to each other to advance to a higher level of morale and motivation”.”.
Intrinsic to the concept of intrinsic motivation, transformational leadership emerges as an alternative to transactional leadership. Thus, while in the latter, superiors seek to incentivising workers through rewards linked to extrinsic motivation, the transformational leader seeks to motivate employees by involving them in the company's objectives and projects, involving them in the company and in the achievement of shared goals.
Characteristics of the model
MacGregor's paradigm was further developed by Bernard M. Bass, author of Transformational Leadership, where he breaks down the four characteristics that underpin transformational leadership:
- Personalisation. This leadership model is committed to offering personalised solutions to each professional, depending on the needs, expectations and motivations of each worker.
- Creativity and innovation. The transformational leader encourages the intellectual development of employees, giving them the freedom to explore novel alternatives to problems and offering them constant challenges that contribute to continuous individual and organisational improvement.
- Exemplary conduct. To gain the respect and trust of staff, managers need to become a role model.
- Inspiration. The fourth pillar of transformational leadership is the executive's ability to transmit and spread his or her energy and enthusiasm to the team.
Advantages of this style of leadership
What is the impact of this type of leadership? When the leader succeeds in putting these four characteristics into practice, the following results are produced benefits:
- Involvement. Employees feel that their motivations are satisfied, so they are more engaged in their work.
- Training. Since this type of leader tries to squeeze the maximum talent out of each professional, this is reflected in the development and training of the workforce.
- Empowerment. Transformational leaders empower employees to realise their potential, giving them a high degree of empowerment.
- Innovation. More empowered staff with sufficient autonomy leads to more creative and innovative work.
- Corporate identity. The aim of transformational leadership is to ensure that the company's goals are also those of the employees, which reinforces the company's sense of belonging and corporate identity.
- Fidelity. This strong company-employee bond means that turnover and absenteeism rates are significantly reduced.
- Productivity. In the same vein, the job satisfaction experienced by professionals led by such leaders enables them to be more productive in their jobs.
- Profitability. As a consequence, the organisations' results will improve, increasing profitability.
Guidelines for being a transformational leader
Knowing these advantages of transformational leadership, the next question is how to implement this model in the company. In this regard, Stanley McChrystal in his talk TED Listen, learn ... then lead, reviews the keys to achieving this:
- Establish a common goal. Transformational leadership does not believe in the long-term effectiveness of orders and directives to achieve goals, but in the ability for employees to internalise those goals as their own, creating a “shared consciousness”.
- Building relationships of trust. There are a multitude of possibilities to maintain contact with employees and all of them should be used not only as communication channels, but also to build strong relationships of mutual trust.
- Practising active listening. In this sense, it is essential for the leader to listen to the workers.
- Reconciling failure. To gain the trust and respect of subordinates, managers need to be able to recognise success, but also to comfort employees in case of failure, so that they can overcome it more quickly.
- Taking care of the equipment. The transformational leader is the one who cares about the people under his or her charge from an empathetic and assertive approach, making the cumulative impact of emotions in the company as positive as possible and creating large corporate cultures.
