Leadership is the art of motivating and inspiring people to work towards common goals. In any setting, it means directing the followers or subordinates to a strategy that meets the objectives. Leadership captures the fundamentals of an ability to prepare and inspire others for a challenge ahead. The foundations of effective leadership have ideas communicated to make others act as the leader wants. A leader inspires others and directs them to the way they operate. They make themselves a role model for others and make the best use of resources at their disposal.
TRAITS OF A LEADER
Leadership is all about performance, perspectives, and charisma. People follow a leader because of the faith they have in their beliefs. Nobody becomes a leader unless they have solid confidence in their ideas. Once they set their ideals, they communicate, listen, and position themselves as an example. They never give up on their passion and inspire others to do the same.
Great leaders need to make hard choices and sometimes sacrifice themselves to enhance others’ lives. They feel responsible for their followers and make choices to make them a productive part of society. They garner the respect and support of their followers by returning high opinion to them. They have a solid understanding that earning respect is a crucial part of the process. Empathy allows a leader to tap into the individual emotions and connect to understand their situations.
Besides emotional support, leaders also consider their team as the best resource. They know the strengths and weaknesses of every member and delegate responsibility accordingly. They try to articulate a clear vision and push the team to deliver their best.
TYPES OF LEADERSHIP
Most common types of leadership include:
- Transformational Leadership
- Democratic Leadership
- Autocratic Leadership
- Transactional Leadership
- Strategic Leadership
- Authoritative Leadership
- Bureaucratic Leadership
- Laissez-Faire Leadership
Considering the most emerging among all, you might ask what is Transformational Leadership and what does it infer. It is the style in which leaders encourage and inspire followers to innovate. They apply changes for the betterment and future development of society. A transformational leader never micromanages the followers. Instead, he motivates people to make decisions regarding their roles. Transformational leadership is a management style that gives room for creativity and finding new solutions to problems. Followers also prepare themselves as future leaders and successors through training and mentorship.
QUALITIES OF TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
- GUIDANCE THROUGH MOTIVATION AND INSPIRATION
Although every leadership style is about motivating followers, transformational leadership takes it a level further. Transformational leaders create a vision and then guide or motivate the intended change accordingly. The followers of this leadership style copy many of their leader’s actions as excellent role models. Another motivational aspect of these leaders is that they activate the followers’ self-efficacy, inspiring them to go beyond expectations. Finally, they cultivate a culture where the leadership style thrives and brings much-needed changes in society.
- INDIVIDUAL CONSIDERATION
Individual consideration is the factor that allows a leader to cater to every member’s unique needs. They act as a mentor, guide, and coach to a follower to bring their abilities forward.
- IDEALIZED INFLUENCE
Transformational leaders engage in high ethical behavior to become a role model for others to follow. Followers identify the influence and copy the actions and behavior of their leaders. The practitioners of this leadership style often show a high regard for moral values and ethical conduct. Followers put their trust in them and deeply respect their decisions as they provide followers with a sense of mission and vision.
- INTELLECTUAL STIMULATION
With mentoring and coaching ability, transformational leaders mentally stimulate their followers. They take on challenges and risks based on ideas given by followers to promote creativity and innovation. They encourage followers to think outside of the box and become an autonomous entity.
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP INFLUENCING SOCIETY
- Transformational leadership not only influences the culture, structure, and strategy of an organization. It also brings profound changes and innovations for the development and upbringing of society. These leaders manifest themselves as agents of change who manipulate various factors to improve the community’s knowledge cycle. The three factors that create an impact on society through transformational leadership are learning trust and collaboration.
- Transformational leaders use their characteristics of idealized influencing to facilitate collaboration and develop healthy relationships. A transformational leader contributes to the cultural aspect of society by considering individual and collective needs simultaneously. Transformational leaders identify their followers’ individual needs and use that as a foundation to develop a learning culture. They share that culture with society to generate new ideas and solutions to problems.
- In terms of the trust, the information and change they share with the society garner respect among the community members. They trust their leader to make various decisions that contribute to the development of society. Their trust pushes a leader to keep innovating and take on challenges faced by the community. In turn, it supports a leader in innovation and changing aspects.
- They also make an impact by identifying the core values embedded in society. They make an impact by defining and clarifying the values by updating the vision. Transformational leaders step forward after recognizing a situation and develop strategies to recommend a solution. While formulating the plan, transformational leaders familiarize themselves with society. They compare their vision with the values and make conclusions. They determine whether their position allows them to gather support from a community based on their values. If they have permission, they design a change strategy and implement it accordingly. These leaders work as coaches and mentors to the society members who mirror their actions. Their charisma allows them to rally the followers towards a cause on short notice. The best aspect of their leadership style is that they do not wait for a change to happen; they create that change.
FINAL WORD
Transformational leadership is a style of inspiring change and innovations to build a better society. These leaders establish themselves as agents of change to make the organization more productive. Their strategies and creativity allow the organization to keep on par with the world and adapt for their survival. Often people mistake transformational leadership with transactional style, which is about force and punishment. A transformational leader never resorts to punishments to influence their vision or force them to follow. Their charisma is the factor that entices society to follow and support them.
