BUS603: Managing People

While transactional leadership is more in alignment with manager styles of measuring supervision and process, transformational leadership theory emphasizes that people work more effectively if they believe in the mission of the organization. Transformational theory requires leaders to communicate the vision in a meaningful way that not only creates motivation but also a sense of empowerment in the follower. Typically, transformational leadership is a byproduct of a healthy relationship between the leader and the follower. The core factors of a healthy relationship follow these four elements: trust, mutual respect, support and communication.

1. Trust: In this element, the leader must learn and implement the virtues of trust. This means that not only is the follower trusting the leader, but the leader trusts the follower. As the relationship grows and each participant understands that they can be a trustor and a trustee at times, the relationship creates a bond that allows calculated risk and reward to occur.

2. Mutual Respect: This element covers the power of humbleness. When a leader and follower relationship incorporates mutual respect, the follower feels no recourse for communicating adverse news. This incentivizes learning on both sides of the relationship, and finally implements the need for discipline as a mechanism for producing leadership, either in a transformational state or shared leadership state.

3. Support: As described in the article How Team Leaders Show Support–or Not, support as an element can only be created if the follower feels that the leader is exhibiting the following four types of effective behavior: 1) Reviewing the work effectively by giving proper actionable feedback that is timely. 2) Providing support through reducing stress, socializing, articulating personal information and offsetting a follower's negative outlook. 3) Recognizing great work through public and private means. 4) Creating an environment where a leader can consult their follower on the creation of new ideas and issue resolution.

4. Communication: This core element means the leader must communicate the message or strategy that connects with the follower. As Bill Black, the CEO of Maritime life said, "a leader must communicate, communicate and then communicate some more". Communication, by definition, supplies the messaging but communication can also play a role in being transparent to help garner a healthy relationship between the leader and the follower. This communication can take many shapes both formally (via meetings/emails) or informally (via quick chats or walking meetings), and an effective leader will use both interchangeably.

With these core elements in place, I have personally watched transformational leaders change their approach to their respective followers to be more of colleagues that can provide guidance and reliability on issues that the leaders might not know.

One example comes to mind of a transformational leader. About five years ago, I worked with a transformational leader that oversaw the health information systems department for a large pharmaceutical distribution company. He noticed that the company was relying on data more and more and needed to put in place an effective tool that could grow with the company. He envisioned a switch in how the company cared for and stored and utilized their data to make important financial decisions. His vision of data interpretation is still being implemented and followed by his followers to this day, even though he has moved on to a new company and his original blueprint is five years old.