Transformative and Ethical Leadership: Building Trust and Influencing Behavior

LEADERSHIP
In recent research that was spearheaded by Maritz Research, it was discovered that the trust
which senior leaders in various leadership positions are enjoying from their employees is going down,
with approximately seven percent of the employees buying into the belief that top officials with
leadership roles and management roles make decisions based on their words. On the same note, 25% of
people are believed to trust their leaders to arrive at the right choices in any times of uncertainty.
Concerning this research and findings, the modern business world is continuously evolving, and leaders
are finding it hard to keep the trust of their junior employees because the majority of these leaders are
applying traditional leadership techniques that might not necessarily use to the present world of business
and management. This is because the modern world of business is more competitive now and more
complex than ever before in the history of the industry.
Transformative leadership, according to the author, Cam Caldwell, is a high level of regarded
leadership which takes into consideration employees’ respect as well as that of the society. The essence of
this article is to assist leaders in incorporating transformative leadership techniques in meeting their
organizational goals as well as getting their employees to trust them. This model of leadership, although
complex and challenging as stated by the author, it is deemed effective because it has included six
techniques of highly regarded leadership views. It is also viewed as how an organization and its leaders
are morally obliged to honor their societal duties and as well as of the stakeholders that are involved,
including employees as the author states.
Through extensive research, as the author says, as a leader, integrity commitment has been
identified as the critical element that any leader should look forward to possessing. This will help them in
their credibility establishment within their organization and earning the trust they need from their
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employees and those who look up to them. In that essence, to ensure that leaders are of high leadership
standards with a commitment to integrity, a transformative leadership approach is suggested by the
author, Caldwell, which in the case will project leaders who are ready to convert employees to action as
well as followers into leaders. This transformative leadership perspective will also aid in turning leaders
into vessels of the change that is needed in their various organizations of operation as the author puts it.
The most effective leaders of this era, as the author says, are the ones who dig deep to come up with a
lasting solution which will make people rethink more about their assumptions instead of trying to go back
to the old solutions that were used to solve the same problem, in trying to solve the current issue. On the
contrary, fellow authors to Caldwell, Caroll, and Bucholtz state that leaders are in a position which
requires them to make decisions that are value-based, normative and also outcome based which are
inclusive of both societal values and also organizational obligations and also aligned with their firms'
strategies. The author goes on to state that as much as leaders are obliged to honoring their duties, they
should also be ready to treat and handle other people who are also stakeholders of their organization as
highly valued partners, as well as going ahead to helping customers do their duties. This way, a leader can
create a pleasant working environment and thereby earning respect and trust of those they serve.
As stated earlier above, transformative leaders are the ones who instill change by ensuring that
new ways of solving problems are devised rather than using old methods to address current issues. So, the
author suggests how a transformative leader should ensure that they achieve employee trust and customer
satisfaction through self or rather a personal transformation and a different mindset that can adapt to
various scenarios of how they view the world from different angles. The structure of this transformative
leadership that the authors are proposing has been able to identify and exploit gaps in administration
through six perspectives of leadership (Banks 2016).
These six perspectives of transformative leadership that the author is talking about are; current
leadership, servant leadership, principle-centered leadership, level 5 leadership, charismatic leadership,
and also transformational leadership. The author focused on the ethical part of each perspective in
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ensuring that each view as to be used by leaders is aligned to stakeholders benefiting and also fast
responses to the required changes in the leadership role.
In explaining each of the perspectives, the author begins with transformative leadership whereby
he states that in this form of leadership strategy, leaders are required to respond to various duties accrued
to them both at a personal level and as well as organizational level. The moral foundation that makes up
this type of leaders as the writer puts it is divided into four key components, which are; inspirational
motivation, idealized influence, individualized consideration, and intellectual consideration. As the writer
goes on about the elements, they assist in pushing an individual to raise their standards and as well as
organizational standards, which makes them improve in their skills all around. Under transformational
leadership, the ethical foundation that incorporates a leader and the application of this perspective
includes multiple integration arrays of commitment to the community, organization, and also the people
working in that organization.
In a charismatic leadership perspective, a leader can create a secure connection between them and
their followers. Charismatic leaders are viewed as imposing a high level or somewhat standard of
leadership, according to the author, which in result makes their followers look up to them in admiration
and hence giving them their full support and trust. (Northouse 2018) Charismatic leaders are described as
being able to project good future plans for their followers. It is this future projection that makes the bond
between these leaders and their follower's trust.
On the contrary, level 5 type of transformative leadership is the one that will include an
individual's humility and their desire to achieve goals in the organization that was unable to be previously
delivered by former leaders. As compared to other leaders, as the author puts it, level 5 leaders are
aggressive enough in coming up with their success, and they are also fond of giving credit of
organizational success to other people. Hewlett Packard laptops founder David Packard has been
described as an example of a level 5 leader by the author. It is in this context that the author has suggested
for the level 5 type of leadership to be integrated into all forms of leadership because of its commitment
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