Transformational Leadership

Among the many leadership styles like transactional and laissez-faire, transformational or charismatic leadership is one of the best that a leader can employ. Transformational leadership does not happen without integrating the leader, followers, and the situation. For a leadership style to be considered transformational or charismatic, the leader and followers must exhibit some qualities.

The leader must be visionary. They must recognize problems and develop strategies to counter them. Secondly, transformational leaders exhibit rhetorical skills that persuade and inspire followers to embrace the vision set. Also, image trusting and the building is a critical element for transformational leaders (Northouse, 2015). They ought to develop trust in their followers by leading by example, being morally convicted, and having a high self-confidence level that followers can emulate.

Followers, too, have to show some qualities that will complete a transformational leader. They have to identify themselves with the leader and the organization’s vision such that their self-concepts and that of the leader are similar (Soane et al., 2015). Also, transformational leadership is about the leader being at the front line and followers following. Therefore, followers have to suspend their thinking and follow their leader. While this style requires excellent output from followers, they must have feelings of empowerment for achieving higher goals.

Leaders and followers are not enough to define transformational leadership; the situation also matters. There must be a crisis that prompts followers to look up to their leader for help. Also, the situation must allow followers to work together interdependently.

In summary, leadership qualifies to be transformational when the leader is visionary, rhetorical, and builds trust. Followers have to identify with the leader and the vision, suspend their thinking to follow the leader, and feel empowered. The situation must prove a crisis that the leader should help followers handle and establish an interdependent environment for working as a team.

References

Northouse, P. (2015). Leadership (7th Ed.). Sage Publications.

Soane, E., Butler, C., & Stanton, E. (2015). Followers’ personality, transformational leadership, and performance. Sport, Business And Management: An International Journal, 5(1), 65-78. https://doi.org/10.1108/sbm-09-2011-0074