Transformational Leadership Style

Transformational leadership is a style of leadership that inspires positive changes to its followers. This study examines the leaders who have the capability and the capacity to influence their followers and change situations by use of an appealing and challenging vision. Learn about the characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses of transformational leadership style.

Running head: TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP STYLE 1
Transformational Leadership Style
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Introduction
Transformational leadership is a style of leadership that inspires positive changes to its
followers. Transformational leaders generally are enthusiastic, energetic and passionate. These
leaders are involved and concerned about the process as well as being focused on ensuring that
every group member succeeds. Through their vision and personality strength, transformational
leaders inspire their followers to change their perceptions, motivations, and expectations so as to
work towards a common goal (Oreg & Berson, 2011). Also, transformational leadership is based
on its impact on its followers as the leader garners respect, admiration, and trust from their
followers. Transformational leadership uplifts its followers’ morale, performance, and
motivation by using a variety of mechanisms. It includes connecting the sense of self and identity
of the followers to the collective identity and the mission of the organization; being the
followers’ role model and inspiring them and by also challenging the followers into taking
greater ownership of their work, understanding their strengths and flaws so that the leaders can
align their followers with the tasks which optimize their performance and productivity.
Major characteristics
First, an individualized consideration which is the degree which each follower’s needs
are handled by the leaders by being their followers’ mentors and listening to their needs and
concerns. The transformational leader gives support and empathy, keep open communication and
also places challenges to their followers (Picollo & Colquitt, 2016). This encompasses the need
for respecting and celebrating the individual contribution made by the followers to the team
hence giving them the aspirations and the will for self-development and also having intrinsic
motivation towards their tasks. The second characteristic is intellectual stimulation which is the

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degree to which the transformational leader solicits the ideas of the followers, challenges their
assumptions and takes risks. A leader using this style encourages and stimulates creativity from
their followers and also develops and nurtures individuals who think differently and
independently (Hay, 2016). These leaders take learning as a value where they see unexpected
situations as learning opportunities. Their followers think deeply, ask questions about things and
also try to figure out ways of executing their tasks in an efficient manner.
The third characteristic is inspirational motivation which is the degree in which
transformational leaders articulate a vision that inspires and appeals to their followers.
Inspirational motivation enables transformational leaders to communicate about the goals of the
future with optimism, provide the task at hand meaning and challenges their followers with
standards that are high. Their followers, if motivated to act, develop a strong sense of purpose as
meaning and purpose the energy that is needed to drive them forward (Nielson et.al, 2012). The
visionary aspect of transformational leadership is generally supported by the communication
skills making the vision precise, engaging, powerful and understandable making the followers to
be more willing to invest a lot of effort in the tasks assigned to them through optimism and
encouragement about the future and also believing in their abilities.
The fourth characteristic is that it shares collective organizational consciousness where
the leaders understand the consciousness of the organization collectively. This makes them
attuned to their followers’ feelings which give them an idea of the actions to take so as to elicit
their followers’ desired actions. They are also able to come up with ideas that spur organizational
growth creating a shared vision that all the followers feel to be a part of (Jones & Rudd, 2017).
Lastly, self-management is where the transformational leaders prove that they can manage
themselves well hence, doesn’t need others directions. They are highly motivated, internally,

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enabling them to direct their organization in the right path. Also, these leaders have values that
are aligned with their organization’s values.
Evaluation of transformational leadership
Transformational leaders articulate new visions constantly so as to motivate the
organization by exhibiting high confidence and passion in their beliefs and also giving more
importance to values and ethics while setting organization’s standards that are accountable.
These leaders are charismatic and are able to exceptionally influence their followers which
compels them the vision with their leaders and take actions that exceed their specified
responsibilities. Transformational leadership is advantageous in the following ways; first is its
vision which is an important leadership trait (Mandell & Pherwani, 2013). Transformational
leadership stands out from the other styles of leadership due to their ability to assess the
organization’s current situation quickly which allows a vision for improvement or growth to be
formulated. Their vision is well communicated to the other organization leaders and the
employees so as to make sure that everyone is on board with their vision. This strength enables
the leaders to deal with the organization’s challenges in certain situations as they can clearly see
the bigger picture.
The second strength is its ability to motivate and inspire that aligns with its vision.
Enthusiasm and passion are important leadership traits as they enable transformational leaders to
get their followers in the organization to optimize their performance. These leaders usually rely
on their passion to sell their vision to get their followers head into the same direction when the
organization is in challenging situations (Bass & Riggio, 2016). Thirdly, transformational
leadership creates an enthusiastic working environment enabling them to drive the organization

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with innovations and changes. As the employees are working through self-motivation,
transformational leadership guarantees a high level of output and efficiency.
Transformational leadership style also has some weaknesses; one of them is that the
leaders struggle sometimes with detail orientation. This means that transformational leaders
sometimes need support from detailed-oriented and more organized people, which also indicates
that other additional leadership team or executives who help in maintaining transactional focus
are needed to help the vision of transformational leaders to move in the right direction even
though these oversights might derail the effectiveness of the organization’s vision (Medley &
Larochelle, 2015). Another challenge with this leadership style is that the leaders may rely too
much on passion and emotions, making them overlook the reality as well as the truth. Relying
too much on enthusiasm restricts the willingness of the transformational leader to delve into the
study, research and logical reasoning which enable them to face the harsh truth about the
organization’s situation. If the transformational leader is to stabilize success and motivate change
in their organization, they must have the willingness to uncover their situations truth.
Conclusion
Transformational leadership is crucial to effective managers as leader effectiveness
determines the organization’s success level. These leaders are capable of increasing individual
performance beyond expectations thereby making massive changes among their employees and
the entire organization. Transformational leadership indulges working as a team as it is effective
as the leaders motivate their followers by providing constructive feedback. The important feature
of this leadership style is that feedback is also expected from the followers which create a two-
way communication (Garcia et.al, 2012). Also, transformational leadership is very effective in

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emergency situations and in crisis and when projects are carried out in specific fashion.
Therefore, this study examines the leaders who have the capability and the capacity to influence
their followers and change situations by use of an appealing and challenging vision. Overall, this
study has demonstrated the importance of transformational leadership when it comes to dealing
with the attitudes of the employees and their well-being, as well as the factors identified that
could influence this leadership style’s success. Also, working and organizational conditions may
inhibit the leaders from providing ineffective leadership as well as engaging in transformational
leadership behaviors (Dionne et.al, 2014). Hence, this style transforms the leaders and the
followers so as to enhance their job performance and to help the organization be more successful
and productive.

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References
Bass, B. M., & Riggio, R. E. (2016). Transformational leadership. Psychology Press.
Dionne, S. D., Yammarino, F. J., Atwater, L. E., & Spangler, W. D. (2014). Transformational
leadership and team performance. Journal of organizational change management, 17(2),
177-193.
García-Morales, V. J., Jiménez-Barrionuevo, M. M., & Gutiérrez-Gutiérrez, L. (2012).
Transformational leadership influence on organizational performance through
organizational learning and innovation. Journal of business research, 65(7), 1040-1050.
Hay, I. (2016). Transformational leadership: Characteristics and criticisms. E-journal of
Organizational Learning and Leadership, 5(2).
Jones, D., & Rudd, R. (2017). Transactional, Transformational, or Laissez-Faire Leadership: An
Assessment of College of Agriculture Academic Program Leaders'(Deans) Leadership
Styles. Journal of Agricultural Education, 49(2), 88-97.
Mandell, B., & Pherwani, S. (2013). Relationship between emotional intelligence and
transformational leadership style: A gender comparison. Journal of business and
psychology, 17(3), 387-404.
Medley, F., & Larochelle, D. R. (2015). Transformational leadership and job satisfaction.
Nursing management, 26(9), 64JJ.
Nielsen, K., Yarker, J., Brenner, S. O., Randall, R., & Borg, V. (2012). The importance of
transformational leadership style for the well‐being of employees working with older
people. Journal of advanced nursing, 63(5), 465-475.

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Oreg, S., & Berson, Y. (2011). Leadership and employees’ reactions to change: the role of
leaders’ personal attributes and transformational leadership style. Personnel psychology,
64(3), 627-659.
Piccolo, R. F., & Colquitt, J. A. (2016). Transformational leadership and job behaviors: The
mediating role of core job characteristics. Academy of Management journal, 49(2), 327-
340.