Challenges of Transformational Leadership for CDC Director in Pandemic

This assignment analyzes the application of transformational leadership within the context of a CDC director's role in preventing pandemics. The essay identifies transformational leadership as the most effective style for inspiring innovation and motivating change within the CDC. It highlights key challenges the director faces, including inspiring followers, implementing change, and ensuring the long-term effectiveness of new strategies. The assignment further explores challenges such as isolation, reliance on employee feedback, communication skills, and the need for broad knowledge. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of overcoming these challenges to effectively prevent epidemics, fostering a sense of leadership among all employees, and ultimately transforming them into leaders.

Running head: ASSIGNMENT 1
Assignment
Student’s name
Institutional affiliation

ASSIGNMENT 2
Assignment
The leadership role chosen was the director of the CDC. As a leader to establish an
immediate response to prevent a pandemic, the best leadership style is transformational
leadership. This style is handy, especially during the prevention of an influenza outbreak in the
USA. In this leadership, the leader encourages the members of their team to be innovative and
motivated to make changes that will help change the CDC’s approaches to epidemics,
pandemics, and outbreaks. The end goal of this style is to transform the followers into leaders.
In ensuring that the facility is ready for the next pandemic, the Director of the CDC faces
a few challenges. The major challenge is inspiring followers. The transformational leader should
be able to give their employees hope and motivate them to work towards finding a solution. The
leader has to prove to the employees that their concerted efforts can make a difference in the
prevention of a pandemic
Another challenge that the leader may face is implementing the change. It is one thing to
inspire the employees with an excellent vision for a strategy that will help prevent a pandemic.
However, it is another to make the vision happen. Some individuals are resistant to change, and
new strategies and this is very natural. On the other hand, another group of employees may be
willing to implement new ideas and make a change to prevent an outbreak. The transformational
leader should be able to overcome the resistance and bring both groups together in order to
implement the new change (Silvia & McGuire, 2010).
After implementing the change, the transformational leader faces the challenge of
ensuring that the strategies that have been implemented continue to be effective. Old habits die
hard. After a pandemic, the employees may revert back to their previous strategy of preventing
outbreaks. A transformational leader faces the challenge of continuously reminding their
followers to implement the change to help improve the facility and the world at large.

ASSIGNMENT 3
Being a leader, he or she may spend a lot of time in isolation. A transformational leader
cannot express an issue that they may have with upper management, as it will destroy the
perception of the employees, which will affect their performance. The time the isolation leads to
conflict avoidance and the result in a delayed response in decision-making (Osterholm, 2005).
Transformational leadership heavily relies on the opinion of the employees in order to
know their strengths and weakness and their source of motivation. The problem arises when
employees fail to give honest feedback. This may be because of fear or alternatively, the
employee may want to impress the transformational leader (Melvyn, Hamstra, Yperen, Wisse &
Sassenberg, 2011).
Developing communication skills is also a challenge to a transformational leader. The
leader is a link between the employees and the management. Therefore, the leader must find an
effective channel of communication between themselves and the employee. They should also be
able to find an effective channel to give feedback to the management about the development of a
new strategy for preventing a pandemic (Lindebaum & Cartwright, 2010).
Another challenge that they may face is having a wide range of knowledge. A while ago,
most company leaders worked in silos; they were experts in their field and did not get involved
too much in the other departments. Today, a transformational leader should be able to extend
their responsibilities beyond the department. In order to inspire an employee, the leader must
first understand the department the employee is and their role. This means that the leader should
be very knowledgeable (Danforth, Doying, Merceron & Kennedy, 2010).
As a result of working with several departments, the transformational leader may become
overwhelmed. Every day the leader is filled with information from the various departments about
a change they can implement in preventing an outbreak. This information is usually very useful

ASSIGNMENT 4
in the decision-making process. However, it is presented in bulk. Most transformational leaders
face the challenge of breaking down the information to obtain the most valuable information and
transforming it into a strategy that will improve the company (Nahavandi, 2014).
In conclusion, a transformational leader faces many challenges. However, a good leader
is able to overcome the challenge and help prevent an epidemic from occurring.
Transformational leadership gives all the employees a sense of leadership, and eventually, the
employees are transformed into leaders

ASSIGNMENT 5
References
Danforth, E. J., Doying, A., Merceron, G., & Kennedy, L. (2010). Applying social science and
public health methods to community-based pandemic planning. Journal of Business
Continuity & Emergency Planning, 4(4), 375–390.
Lindebaum, D., & Cartwright, S., (2010). A critical examination of the relationship between
emotional intelligence and transformational leadership. Journal of Management Studies,
47(7), 1317–1342.
Melvyn, R. W., Hamstra, N. W., Yperen, V., Wisse, B., & Sassenberg K. (2011).
Transformational-transactional leadership styles and followers’ regulatory focus: Fit
reduces followers’ turnover intentions — Journal of Personnel Psychology, 10(4), 182–
186.
Nahavandi, A., (2014). The art and science of leadership (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson.
Osterholm, M.T., (2005). Preparing for the next pandemic. The New England Journal of
Medicine, 352(18), 1839–1842.
Silvia, C., & McGuire, M., (2010). Leading public sector networks: An empirical examination of
integrative leadership behaviors. The Leadership Quarterly, 21(2), 264–277.