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Transformational Leader Behaviors
Qualities of a transformative leader academic paper
Qualities of a transformative leader academic paper
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Recommended: Transformational Leader Behaviors
What are the key attributes of the transformational style of leadership? Explain why you think these attributes are required of a transformational leader.
“Transformational leaders focus on followers, motivating them to high levels of performance, and in the process, help followers develop their own leadership potential” (Ronald, 2009). There are several key component of the transformational styles: Idealized Influence, Inspirational motivation and Intellectual stimulation. There are more key components but for me the ones that I mentioned are the most important. A leader who idealized influence is the one that serves as an ideal role model for followers, the one who does the right thing and influence his followers. Inspirational motivation
“..the transformational leader articulates the vision in a clear and appealing manner, explains how to attain the vision, acts confidently and optimistically, expresses confidence in the followers, emphasizes values with symbolic actions, leads by example, and empowers followers to achieve the vision (Yukl, 2002)
Transformational leadership describes a leader moving followers beyond immediate self-interests through idealized influence (charisma), inspiration motivation, intellectual stimulation, or individualized consideration. Transformational leaders are change agents. They influence the mission and objectives to make way for a brighter future for the organization. Followers are motivated to do more than is originally expected because of their feelings of trust and respect for the leader.
According to (Burns), “transformational leadership can be seen when "leaders and followers make each other to advance to a higher level of moral and motivation." the strength of the vision, transformational leaders are get followers to get their expectations, and motivations to work and achive their goals.
Transformational leadership can be defined as causing a change in individual and social system. Besides, transformational leaders usually connect follower’s aspirational with the organizational goal and persuade the followers to achieve the organizational goals to satisfy themselves (Tauber, 2012).
Throughout history, there have been great leaders: civil rights leaders, business leaders, and spiritual leaders who have inspired millions. Leaders and visionaries such as John Lennon or Martin Luther King Jr. fought for unity, love, and made an impact on people through their speeches or songs. Watching these great men touch the hearts of millions has brought out a desire for me to become a C.E.O. and an important leader in the life of others. Not only do leaders have knowledge in politics, in emotional values, and spread a certain message or “vision” to their followers or co-workers, but they have certain special characteristics which make them great leaders or heroes. So, what makes these people different from you and me? Could it be that they are better looking? Perhaps they speak in parables or give great speeches? People have often said to me that a good leader is a person who guides both physically and mentally. Going to the job shadowing program has given me an opportunity to broaden my view on how efficient and effective a good leader can be in the work place. Something that has been shown to me in my many interviews with the board of directors has been that every leader must have the capability to have integrity, listen, a vision, and must be responsible.
Transformational leadership focuses on increasing employee motivation and engagement and attempts to link employees' sense of self with organizational values. This leadership style emphasizes leading by example, so followers can identify with the leader's vision and values.
Transformational leadership is the optimal style for a leader in an organization to have due mainly to its prominent characteristics such as being influential, innovative, motivating, proactive, and having the ability to both responsibly and reasonably delegate tasks. These aspects specific to the style of transformational leadership are essential to positive organizational function, environment, and advancement because they are characteristics that all hold power and constructive properties individually. When combined they are significantly capable of producing progress, change, and a healthy organizational environment.
Transformational leadership has central principals called the four “I’s.” Idealized influence is charisma, which incites admiration (Fisher, 2005). Being accountable, passionate about organizational goals and being personally involved are examples of idealized influence (Fisher, 2005). Intellectual Stimulation involves creative and innovative problem solving with employees/team members (Fisher, 2005). Individual Consideration is a leaders ability to get to know and treat employees/team members with respect, while Inspirational Motivation is the ability to build the confidence levels of employees/team members and move them towards action (Fisher, 2005). A simple Internet search led to examples of transformational leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who I feel no one can really compare to. It was interesting to see the others who popped up as well, such as Steve Jobs, Oprah, and yes, even Katniss. Katniss is not even a real person, however, the Hunger Games book series created a strong female character that encompasses the principals of transformational leadership. Quite honestly, I think that is amazing and an inspiration for any female who reads
If you had to have a leader that took over your country and everything around you, you would want that leader to be in your liking right? No one likes a bad leader, so they have to have the right characteristics. We all know the basic things a leader needs, courage, dignity, ect. But there are always those “under the scenes” characteristics that most people do not notice from a great leader. For a leader to be the most effective they have to be a “taker”, balanced, and extremely visionary. An effective leader has certain, basic characteristics. The aim of a strong leader is certainly hard to find but when one appears, that is a leader that lasts a lifetime.
Transformational leadership is one of the most popular leadership styles. According to Kendrick (2011), “Transformational leadership involves four factors: 1. idealized influence, 2. inspirational motivation, 3. intellectual stimulation, and 4. individual consideration.” These four factors make transformational leadership have an impact on followers. The goal of transformational leadership is to cause a positive change in individuals, help motivate them, and develop a leader within each individual.
In this time of transition and uncertainty, research suggests that transformational leadership is highly effective (Straight, 2006). Leadership research has drifted from emphasis on the competence of leaders to “manage change” to the ability to “transform” organizations. Transformational leaders have attributes and behaviors needed to successfully motivate and empower employees. According to Bernard Bass (1990), transformational leadership occurs when a leader transforms, or changes, his or her followers in three important ways that together result in followers trusting the leader, performing behaviors that contribute to the achievement of organizational goals, and being motivated to perform at a high level. Transformational leaders can achieve greater performance by stimulating innovative ways of thinking and transforming follower’s beliefs and aspirations. Maxwell (Maxwell, 2007) articulates that most of the time, influence is more important than formal power or authority. I agree with him. Influence is very important in organizational and co...
To become a truly effective leader, one must encapsulate the various behaviors related to the aforementioned course learnings in his/her persona and demonstrate such behaviors daily. This course has allowed me to identify four behaviors that all leaders must portray to be effective. The first of which is that a leader must be inspirational. To do so, a leader must set the appropriate vision and direction for the organization and provide a path to achieving defined goals. Additionally, a leader must induce the proper levels of motivation so that each employee has sufficient incentive to work towards the organization’s goals. As discussed in the class, motivation can be accomplished by factors such as rewarding hard work and providing the correct opportunities to employees. While these are motivating in that employees desire to be fairly compensated and to be doing work they deem valuable, inspiration comes more from organizational culture. A leader will be inspirational by setting a tone that appreciates each employee’s contribution, no matter how small in scale it is. Further, employees are inspired when they work collaboratively in a group setting and can capitalize on individual strengths to drive organizational goals.
As a growing debate, the question at hand is whether great leaders are born with specific leadership traits, or if one can be taught certain traits over time. According to (Wikipedia.com) the approach of listing leadership qualities, often termed "trait theory of leadership", assumes certain traits or characteristics will tend to lead to effective leadership. I believe that leadership traits such as honest, competent, initiative, inspiring, hardworking, intelligent, and the ability to lead the masses, are some of the leadership traits one should possess. Within this paper, I will examine the overall concept of leadership traits, while observing the traits that were, or can be associated with successful leaders.
Leadership is defined as a process by which an individual influences others to obtain goals. There are three aspects that should be addressed when explaining leadership. One aspect is that leadership is a social influence process; leadership could not exist without a leader and one or more followers. Another leadership aspect is compliance; all of the leader’s directions must be complied with voluntarily. Compliance is what separates leadership from other influence-based formal authority. Finally, leadership results in the followers’ behavior, that is purposeful and goal-directed which must be in some organized setting (Leadership Theories and Studies, 2009).
Transformational leadership focuses on what the leader can accomplish instead of his personal characteristics and how his relationship with others. This leader “helps to bring about major, positive changes by moving group members beyond their self-interests and toward the good of the group, organization, or society (Dubrin, 2007, p. 84). The essence of this leader is to develop and transform people.