Let’s talk about Leadership styles…

There are lots of different styles of leadership.

Have you heard of

• Transformational leadership?

• Transactional leadership?

In 1978, James Macgregor Burns introduced the concept of transformational leadership.  He described transformational leadership as a process where “leaders and followers help each other to advance to a higher level of morale and motivation.”

The transformational approach creates significant change in people and organisations.  It redesigns perceptions and values and changes expectations and aspirations of employees.  It is based on the leader's personality traits and ability to make a change through articulating an energising vision and challenging goals.

Transforming leaders are idealised - they are a moral exemplar of working for the benefit of the team, organisation and/or community. 

So what about transactional leadership?

Transformational and transactional leadership were mutually exclusive styles. Transformational leaders can try to change organisational culture. Transactional leadership involves exchange of labour for rewards.

The transactional leader is given power to perform certain tasks and reward or punish for the team's performance.  It gives the opportunity to the manager to lead the group and the group agrees to follow his/her lead to accomplish a predetermined goal. Power is given to the leader to evaluate, correct, and train subordinates when productivity is not up to the desired level and reward effectiveness when expected outcome is reached.

The extent to which a leader is transformational is measured by their influence on others. Followers feel trust, admiration, loyalty, and respect for the leader. Leaders provide followers with an inspiring mission and individual consideration.

What style of leadership is best?

The leadership style advocated in literature, and arguably of most benefit, is based on the ‘transformational’ model (Kouzes and Posner, 1997).  Leaders using this style inspire others to exercise their own leadership abilities through use of a people-orientated philosophy.  It is also linked to effective change management.

The Transformational Leadership model aims to encourage leaders to take opportunities and challenge existing ways of thinking.  It recommends leaders use symbolic actions to inspire others to share their vision and encourages them to actively contribute to the challenges of organisational change.  In conjunction with the people-orientated focus, this makes the transformational leadership model ideally suited to the 21st century.

Tips for transformational leadership:

1. Develop a challenging and attractive vision, together with the team

2. Tie the vision to a strategy for its achievement

3. Develop the vision, specify it, and translate it to actions

4. Express confidence, decisiveness and optimism about the vision and its implementation

5. Realise the vision through small, planned steps and small successes in the path for its full implementation

Think about the transformational leadership approach.  Does it appeal to you in your leadership role? Where do you think you are doing well in relation to your leadership? What are your areas of improvement?

Need help with your leadership style? Contact me, maybe I can help!