What is transformational leadership
Transformation leadership is one of leadership style which is more effective for any organization, same as democratic leadership. But when compared to democratic leadership, transformational leadership is more effective for any organization. Transformation leadership is the leadership style which motivates, encourage, inspire and support the employees to make innovations, do creative things etc.
The transformational leader is the people who lead their employees by example. As like usually leader, they don’t sit and give orders to the employees. They work with teams/groups to achieve organizational goals. Also, a transformational leader inspires and motivate employees by giving them the authority to make creative decisions regarding the organization. Where there is a transformational leader, the employees tend to loyal to the organization.
Transformational leaders act as a role model for the followers, and they are confident, committed and ready to sacrifice anything for the sake of organization.
Characteristics of transformational leadership
- Creates an ethical environment with clear standards, dignity and values.
- Encourage and motivate followers
- Always have higher expectations regarding the organization
- Encourage followers to be creative and expect creativity
- Creates a supportive culture within the organization
- Giving authority for the employees to make decisions
- Monitor and mentor employees when making decisions
- Maintain an open communication system
- Create teams and expect highly effective team works
- Engage with the task and act as a role model
- Sets clear and focused goals
Benefits of transformational leadership
Compared to other leadership styles, transformational leadership have more benefits to the organization. Yes, it has its own downsides. But an effective leader can reduce the impact of those downsides. Here are the advantages of transformational leadership.
Lower the turnover cost
This is the best and main advantage of transformational leadership. Transformational leaders tend to encourage the employees in the organization. When there are transformational leaders, there will be more satisfied employees. Those leaders have the ability to retain satisfied employees which leads to lower the turnover cost.
Reducing turnover cost means, the organization doesn’t need to bear additional cost for hiring, training, induction etc.
Motivating employees
As I said before, the transformational leader does not sit and give orders. They work with the employees to achieve organizational goals. Leaders continuously encourage and support employees and give them the chance to make decisions. Because of that, employees try to contribute more to the organization, and they start thinking that they are valuable for the organizations.
So no employees try to avoid works. They continuously give their full effort to make the organization a successful one.
Open communication system
Every information of the organization, including vision, mission, goals, and objectives, are well communicated. And the employees are well aware of those. It helps to minimize delays and other interruptions. Also, the employees are having a clear idea about where they are going and how their decisions are being used.
Create an ethical environment
Honesty and ethics are so much important for the transformational leader. They support those and promote those. Transformational leaders set clear standards, ethics, rules to guide the employees, and they expect employees to follow them. They always try to do the right things in the right way, which leads to creating an ethical environment.
Flexible
Transformational leaders are not traditional. They adjust their works according to the situation. Fixed works, schedules, activities are not in their dictionary. They are highly responsive to the change, and they mentor their employees to change according to the situation. So where there is transformational leadership, organization get more flexible.
Boost morale
There may be times that the organization face struggle and decrease the performance, which leads to reduce the morale of employees. Transformational leadership is used as a cure for those kinds of situations. Because they have the ability to boost the morale of employees fast and recover fast.
They act as a role model, and this leadership style can gain more trust and more contribution from the employees.
Treat employees individually
Transformational leaders treat their followers individually and look after them individually. This helps to make the working environment more friendly and more close. Leaders always try to support, motivate employees personally to get the best from them.
The downside of transformational leadership
Yes, there are more benefits of transformational leadership. But it also has downsides too. Here are those.
Negative leaders-Negative impact
As I said before, transformational leaders can boost employee morale. But what will happen if a leader uses that advantage for a wrong thing? It will give adverse effects. We can take Adolf Hitler as an example. He changed the minds of followers and tried to achieve something negative.
Put pressure on employees.
This type is leader share the authority to make decisions. But they continuously monitor the decisions taken by the followers. When they receive something hard that need complex solutions, they become overwhelmed and stress.
It’s just opposite of autocratic leadership. Autocratic leaders make decisions alone so that employees do not have stress. When it comes to transformational leadership, they give a chance to employees to make decisions which make them stressful.
Employee burnout
This type of leaders clearly set out standards, goals, activities etc. and they strict to those. They have a higher expectation about the organizations and people in it. So it leads to employee burnout. Also, they set a tight deadline for activities which leads to employee burnout.
Need continuous communication
To make transformational leadership effective, continuous communication is compulsory. Leaders need to communicate teams/groups continuously to get feedbacks and send information. So an open and continuous communication system is compulsory. If not employees will lose their interest by thinking that the leaders do not monitor them.
Need continuous feedbacks
It is same as continuous communication. To get the best out of employees, leaders need to give them feedbacks continuously. For that, leaders should maintain excellent human skills and communication skills. Otherwise, the employees will discourage, and it will lead to a reduction in performance.
Lose individual focus
I have mentioned individual focus as an advantage. But it can also be converted into a disadvantage when the leaders lose their focus on individuals. There may be some leaders only focus on the employees who perform well. In that case, the other employees will be demotivated, and they will reduce their performance. To get the best from transformational leadership, leaders should treat every employee fairly and equally.
Become successful with transformational leadership
Be the right role model.
Always try to do the right thing in the right way. Do not promote unethical things because your followers see you as their role model. So be the right role model that can make your organization successful.
Be passionate
A leader must be a motivated and passioned person before making his/her followers motivated. Just try to find the best way to express your passion even you don’t have it.
Become an expert in communication
Communication is the main thing that can decide the success of transformational leadership. Always try to improve your communication skills and human skills to control your employees without losing their interest and loyalty.
Focus on every individual
You can schedule how you communicate with each individual and give them feedback. Rather than communicating at one time, you can allocate your time to each individual separately. It also gives you the chance to focus more on that particular individual.
Final words
Transformational leadership is one of the best leadership styles that can be seen in the current context. It can be used for the good as well for the bad. Unlike autocratic leadership, this type can perform well and boost the success of the organization if it used in the right way.
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