What’s the big deal about Transformational Leadership?

Transformational Leadership sounds lofty.  It seems important, too.  But what does it mean to me as a leader or aspiring leader? And how can I do adopt the core attributes into my leadership?

In this first of several articles,let’s start with an understanding of what Transformational Leadership is and how you can apply its core attributes to your leadership style, whether you are a senior, mid-level or team leader.

A quick definition: Transformational Leadership is four core attributes that make a great leader: Influence, motivation, innovation and individualization.  

Influence is the foundation of being a Transformational Leader.  Without it, the other attributes just spin, like a plate on top of a stick — cool to see, butonly going in a circle. 

Kouzes and Posner in their book, “The Leadership Challenge“define influence as: “The ability to have an impact on the behaviors, attitudes, opinions and choices of others, relying on trust and shared purpose rather than relying on coercion and control tactics”

For some leaders, power or coercion is their jam, but it only goes so far.  I realized this mid-career while leading a global service organization of a Fortune 50 company. 

I was very much on the power and control side of the equation.  I led the teams, I led the projects, I made the decisions for a several hundred distributed workforce. While it was invigorating to lead, I felt defeated and tired. I was never mean, but it was definitely my style to push others to what I thought best.  The word “manipulative” comes to mind. 

I decided I needed a change. Through a series of opportunities, I switched out my power and control style for the power of influence.At first, it started with not sharing my opinion, before seeking the opinions of my staff.  I realized the more I saidabout a topic,the less collaboration I seemed to achieve. So,I backed off and let the team chime in. 

Leaders who utilize the attribute of influence are not passive. Nor do they have to be charismatic.Influence is built on trust; trust is built on relationships.Relationships take time. I had to decide to make an investment of my time to restore and build relationships.   

Trust goes both ways. Team members need to know they are trusted. Leaders likewise need to know you can trust your team members to accomplish the work. Both happen through affirmation and recognition. What does that mean? Influential leadership is a dialogue; not a one way conversation. 

Here are four tactics you can consider to move towards being a transformational leader: