Hello and welcome, curious readers and our fellow psychology enthusiasts! Hoping you’ve had a good week so far.
‘Leader’ is a term we come across all so often, but do we really know who a leader is, and how important their job is?
A leader may simply be understood as an individual who is in charge. It is their role to drive and guide their teams towards the achievement of a collective goal. More than the leader, it is their manner of running the team that influences outcomes and the health of the team. There are various leadership styles that leaders can adopt:
Democratic
Autocratic
Laissez-Faire
Transformational
Transactional
Servant
Charismatic
This blog will undertake a comprehensive understanding of the Transformational Leadership Style.
What is Transformational Leadership?
Transformational leadership represents an approach that focuses on positive team development and aims to make them intrinsically motivated while pursuing the goals. Scholars presume transformational leadership is most suited to today’s teams and organizations owing to their complex nature wherein the goal is not limited to achieving results, it further extends to employees wanting to be better performers and grow as individuals. This opportunity drives them to be better contributors to overall team performance.
The essence of transformational leadership lies in the belief that the responsibility to lead does not just lie in the hands of top-level management, leadership can happen at any level and by any individual. It is deemed as a top-level leader’s responsibility to train and develop other leaders from among their subordinates. A transformational leader is thus assigned the responsibility of creating a convergence between the goals of the employees and the organization. Employees under transformational leaders are autonomous, loyal, proficient with challenging work, and satisfied with their jobs.
Dimensions of Transformational Leadership
Bass & Avolio in 1994 proposed four independent yet related factors that help describe transformational leadership.
1. A transformational leader is an idealized influence, i.e., a leader worthy of being a role model who behaves ethically.
2. A transformational leader provides inspirational motivation, i.e., inspires and motivates the team to achieve personal and organizational goals by purposefully connecting them.
3. A transformational leader shows individualized consideration, i.e., a leader who isn’t just focused on the outcomes, but also values the most important resource held by the organization- the human factors or employees. They are considered at every step of the process and their needs, values, and choices are factored into decision-making.
4. A transformational leader provides intellectual stimulation, i.e., they create and offer an environment that makes way for employees to be creative and innovative.
Each aspect contributes significantly to the psychological well-being of employees.
Transformational Leadership is Resilience in Action
A sense of autonomy, loyalty, facing challenges, and feeling satisfied with one’s job demands an ability to withstand and heal from changes and adverse conditions. Such resilience within an organization and its employees is created through the ‘inspirational motivation’ (listed above) that transformational leaders provide. This leadership style has been found to have a positive and statistically significant effect on the perceived resilience within an organization.
The way transformational leaders operate has been equated with the requirements of resilience building. Just as resilience warrants adaptation, transformational leadership warrants leader directiveness and participation in adapting one’s behavior to the demands of the situation. As MacIntyre and colleagues in their study on military personnel in 2013 suggested, “Indeed, highly adaptive leaders are crucial in building and maintaining resilience in subordinates.”
A recent example universally applicable would be the COVID-19 pandemic that wreaked havoc on all fronts of human life. Businesses struggled and suffered, demanding agility and change in order to survive. There was only one answer to all the questions about survival- transformation. Every organization, irrespective of its field, required overnight adaptation and learning of remote working techniques, and the creation of new and suited policies, practices, and rules.
Deliberation and research have helped scholars realize that such resilience-demanding situations require the adoption of a transformational leadership style where the goals are clear and shared, there is strength in beliefs and there is a close-knit team of motivated and empowered employees, all of which will enable the organization to overcome any unforeseen hardships.
Cultivating Transformational Leadership tendencies
Develop clear visions and communicate them effectively.
Lead by example
Inspire and motivate.
Build an inclusive culture.
Invest in human resource (employee) development.
Embrace change.
Promote a culture of continuous learning.
Focus on listening and constructive feedback.
Promote ethical standards.
Evaluate leadership practices.
Would you want to work with/become a Transformational Leader?
Yes, I would
No, I prefer another leadership style
If exploring the potential of transformational leadership has inspired you to foster the same within your teams, we at Resilient Workforce are dedicated to helping you achieve your goals. Please get in touch via email if you would like to discuss how we can help you transform your leadership styles.
Get in touch with us:
Instagram- @resilientworkforce
Bibliography
Bass, B. M., & Riggio, R. E. (2006). Transformational leadership. Psychology press.
Bass, B. M. (1999). Two decades of research and development in transformational leadership. European journal of work and organizational psychology, 8(1), 9-32.
Valero, J. N., Jung, K., & Andrew, S. A. (2015). Does transformational leadership build resilient public and nonprofit organizations?. Disaster Prevention and Management, 24(1), 4-20.
Djourova, N. P., Rodríguez Molina, I., Tordera Santamatilde, N., & Abate, G. (2020). Self-efficacy and resilience: mediating mechanisms in the relationship between the transformational leadership dimensions and well-being. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 27(3), 256-270.
MacIntyre, A., Charbonneau, D., & O'Keefe, D. (2013). The role of transformational and ethical leadership in building and maintaining resilience.
Madi Odeh, R. B., Obeidat, B. Y., Jaradat, M. O., Masa'deh, R. E., & Alshurideh, M. T. (2023). The transformational leadership role in achieving organizational resilience through adaptive cultures: the case of Dubai service sector. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 72(2), 440-468.
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