Category: Leadership Skills

How is it Transformational?

The name “transformational leadership” is sometimes meant to denote the transformation of team members from a focus on individual goals to a commitment to the goals of the organization. Another way of looking at it is the transformation that takes place in an organization as its members become more committed, motivated, and aligned with the vision and values of the organization. If one were to try and provide a bottom line objective of transformational leadership, it might be referred to as a leader’s efforts to align his or her goals, and the goals of team members, with the strategic goals of the organization. This description comes after distilling the theory of transformational leadership, into an approach to leadership (replete with specific leader behaviors), and demonstrating the connection with these behaviors and business outcomes. It has taken about 35 years to arrive at this place.

Where Does Transformational Leadership Make a Difference?

The following are some of the outcomes that have been reasonably well correlated with transformational leadership.

Innovation

There is evidence that transformational leadership behaviors (especially intellectual stimulation) can increase the overall innovative capacity of team members and, subsequently, organizations as a whole. In order for this to happen it is important that, in addition to intellectual stimulation, that leaders are go out of their way to empower team members to think creatively. It is also very helpful if team members view the organization as one that rewards innovation and initiative and that is committed to excellence.

Motivation and Perseverance

There appears to be a clear link between transformational behaviors and the level of motivation and perseverance toward goals demonstrated by team members. The best part of this connection is the corresponding link if motivation and perseverance with overall organizational performance. It is important to note that motivation can move rather quickly in the opposite direction if transformational behaviors are used with team members that are feeling overworked.

Commitment

There seems to be a firm connection between the commitment that team members have to a particular leader, group, or organization, and the demonstration of transformational behavior by organizational leaders. It is evident that one of the key variables is trust. That is, when team members trust organizational leaders, their commitment level rises accordingly.

Organizational Change

It is interesting how long it has taken for anything more than anecdotal evidence of a link between transformational behaviors and successful navigation and execution of organizational change initiatives. In the past couple of years this connection has become more firmly established. It is not surprising that the connection was hard to establish, as there are a multitude of factors – some totally unrelated to leadership — that contribute to the viability of change initiatives.

How does Transformational Leadership Make a Difference?

The next question has to deal with the relative influence of specific transformational behaviors on the above mentioned outcomes. My next entry is intended to provide some insight into these behaviors. In the mean time, feel free to share your reactions to the outcome data.

We often generalize leadership and skills to be the same traits needed all the time and everywhere by all leaders. Is leadership really that simple? Let’s look at different domains of leadership and the different skills that are needed in each.

Leading Yourself

To effectively lead yourself, useful skills are, for example:

• physical fitness
• decision making and problem solving
• critical thinking
• setting personal goals
• prioritizing
• time and stress management
• self-coaching
• emotional intelligence
• motivating yourself
• work-life balance

Here’s many resources about leading yourself.

Leading Others Individuals

To effectively lead others, you need to effectively lead yourself and have additional skills, for example:

• Coaching
• Counseling (basic)
• Feedback
• Listening
• Questioning
• Understanding body language
• Delegating
• Directing

Here’s many resources about leading others.

Leading Groups/Teams

To effectively lead groups or teams, you need skills to lead others and have additional skills, for example:

• Agenda design
• Facilitation
• Consensus building
• Group decision making and problem solving
• Meeting management

Here’s many resources about leading groups and teams.

Leading Organizations

To effectively lead organizations, you need skills to lead yourself, other individuals and teams, along with skills, for example:

• Strategic planning
• Business planning
• Organizational development and change
• At least one organizational performance model, for example, Balanced Scorecard or strategic management

Here’s many resources about leading organizations.

So when identifying necessary skills in leadership, it’s not enough to imagine a long list of wondrous traits. Leadership is much more situational than that.

What do you think?

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Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD – Authenticity Consulting, LLC – 800-971-2250
Read my weekly blogs: Boards, Consulting and OD, Nonprofits and Strategic Planning.

Many of my coaching clients struggle to maintain work-life balance. With all of their family and work demands they feel out of equilibrium.

One client shared this metaphor about balance that I trust will help you look at your work-life balance in a different way.

She views life balance as a teeter totter – one end being work and the other end being family. She strives to keep the teeter totter level, yet it rarely happens that way. Sometimes she’s more tipped towards work and sometimes she’s more tipped more towards family. In the end, however they balance each other out.

Work-life balance is a dynamic system of movement – moving away from balance and then back towards it – it is rarely a steady state.

What do you think?

For more resources, see the Library topic Personal and Professional Coaching.

Are you the type of person that will not act until you have “all your ducks in a row”?

Successful people are the ones that move forward with their ideas, goals and endeavors even when they don’t have everything figured out. They focus on what they want – and take action.

Here are 5 tips to Bust Paralysis by Analysis that help my coaching clients:

1. Forgo perfection – strive to be your “best” rather that striving to be “perfect”. No one can be perfect. Expending your time and effort on perfection gets you bogged down.

2. Adopt the winning strategy of “Go-Ready-Set” versus “Ready-Set-Go”. Create momentum by getting started and take the first step. Once you begin, you can tweak your course along the way towards a successful outcome. As in physics, a body in motion stays in motion.

3. Set a deadline – realistically allocate how much time you will spend on a project or situation. When you are intentional about how much time you will spend you will find you can usually get it finished in the projected timeframe.

4. Get an accountability buddy – enlist the support of others (and your coach) to keep on task. When you are accountable to someone else, you are less likely to get mired down.

5. Make decisions faster – by making faster, wiser decisions you can take action quickly. Practice your decision making skills with simple everyday decisions – i.e. give yourself only 1 minute to decide what to order at a restaurant.

As Nike says – “Just Do It!”

How will you bust your Paralysis by Analysis today?

For more resources, see the Library topic Personal and Professional Coaching.

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Pam Solberg-Tapper MHSA, PCC – I spark high achieving business leaders to get on fire about their lives, develop their leading edge, be extraordinary and do great things for the world. How can I help you? Contact me at CoachPam@cpinternet.com ~ Linkedin ~ 218-340-3330

Is Transformational Leadership Unique?

Transformational leadership is the winner of the prize for the most researched, studied, and debated approach to leadership that has ever existed. It also has more influence than any other leadership approach on the organizational leaders of today. Although most of these leaders aren’t even aware it exists. I believe it is the approach to leadership most responsible for championing the notion that it is important for leaders to create shared vision, develop and coach future leaders, encourage innovation in others, and act with high levels of integrity and ethics. The irony is that transformational leadership is also simply a compelling phrase used by many consultants and organizations – most of who don’t even realize that an “official” approach with that name exists. It is a sexy term that is often used to build neat little models of leadership and hopefully score some coaching clients. And who can blame them? I mean, what have we to work with? Servant? Authentic? Situational?

Bernard Bass is arguably the person whose head is most firmly wrapped around the “official” form of transformational leadership (see Transformational Leadership, 2^nd Ed, Bass and Riggio, 2006). Bass and Bruce Avolio developed the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (see www.mindgarden.com) which has guided much of the research on this approach. The MLQ is intended to identify the extent to which leader exhibits transformational leadership by surveying the followers of a specific leader.

Basic Elements of Transformational Leadership

Bass has identified four components to transformational leadership and has creatively figured out a way that all four can start with the letter “I” so that it might be called the 4I Model. In my mind these four components are in essence role modeling, motivating, developing, and encouraging creativity. Needless to say, these aren’t all that sexy, and truth be told they do not get at the complexity and richness of the 4I Model. In light of this, here is a breakdown of the 4I Model’s description of the key elements of transformational leadership.

Idealized Influence

This component states that transformational leaders act as role models and that followers will seek to emulate their behavior. In addition to being considered generally extraordinary leaders, the three attributes that ideally are demonstrated through Idealized Influence are a willingness to take risks, consistent (versus arbitrary) behavior, and high levels of integrity and ethics. I personally think that Idolized Influence would have been a more appropriate and decidedly tongue in cheek term for this component.

Inspirational Motivation

This component states that transformational leaders behave in ways that are inspirational to followers and provide meaning and a sense of challenge to their work. This is achieved in three different ways: involving followers in the development of a preferred vision for the future, communicating clear expectations, and by demonstrating a clear commitment to the shared goals and vision of the group or team.

Intellectual Stimulation

This component states that transformational leaders include followers in addressing organizational problems and stimulate and support them in being as creative and innovative as possible in identifying solutions. The leaders accomplish this by encouraging followers to challenge assumptions, reframe problems, and approach existing problems in novel ways. This is all supposed to be done in a context in which no idea is considered too stupid.

Individualized Consideration

This component states that transformational leaders give individualized attention to each follower’s professional development by acting as a coach or mentor. The key element of this component is that customized learning opportunities are designed for each follower based on that person’s unique needs and desires. These learning opportunities are often delegated action learning tasks that the leader assigns and monitors.

Conclusion

As previously stated, in my opinion, transformational leadership is the most influential approach and theory to leadership that exists today. This doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have its detractors and it doesn’t mean that it has remained a uniform approach. It has come to mean many things to different people. What does it mean to you? Do you like it? Do you think it is going too far to say that it is more influential than other approaches? Why?

Many of my clients have trouble saying “no”. They feel obligated to please others and saying “no” to the boss does not seem acceptable. The truth is that by saying “no” you are letting others know that you value your time, priorities and boundaries.

Here are a few tips to help you say “no”:

1. Be clear on your priorities. Know what is important to you and what you will spend your time on. When you are clear, it is easier to say “no” to the requests that are not in alignment with your priorities. Ask yourself – “How does this request fit with what is important to me and my goals?”

2. When you say “yes”, realize you are also saying “no”. Because time is finite, you cannot add more to your life without cutting something out. Ask yourself – “Where will the time come from to do this?”

3. Buy yourself some time. When someone makes a request, avoid saying “yes” right away. Let them know you will think it over and get back to them. That way you can evaluate your situation and make the best decision.

4. Give the requester alternatives. If it is in your best interest to say “no”, give the requester options of others who may be able to fulfill the request.

5. Try “yes” not now. Let the requester know that you are interested, yet this is not the best time for you. Give them a date to get back to when you will be able to meet their needs.

6. Talk with your boss. If too many things are being added to your responsibilities, ask which item is the priority and which item(s) would he/she recommend to defer.

7. Just say “no”. With a firm, and unapologetic tone, just say, you are not able to commit to the request. Try a simple, “No, I just can’t right now.”

How do you say “no”?

For more resources, see the Library topic Personal and Professional Coaching.

I woke before sunrise to write about leadership.

Anticipating a good 90 minutes before boy, man and dog appeared at the kitchen table, I switched on the coffee maker, snapped a quick picture of the full moon setting in the west, and flipped open my MacBook.

In less than two minutes, a sleepy almost-three-year-old called from the hallway, “Mom? I’m awake.”

Good morning, Life! How does anyone find time for Leadership?

I’m reminded of “The Carrot Story” told by Ronnie Brooks to an auditorium full of burned-out arts administrators. It was 2002 in Chicago. I was a crispy piece of nonprofit-manager-toast, ready for a change in the way I managed my life. Ronnie’s story struck a chord with me.

“The Carrot Story” (A leadership parable)

One spring, a woman received a packet of carrot seeds from her neighbor. She planted the seeds in her back yard, studying the directions as she went.

A couple of weeks later, she tramped back out to the garden to thin her carrots as directed. She knelt to work, but looking closely at the little seedlings, she just couldn’t do it.

The tiny carrots were too beautiful, too healthy-looking, too alive!

So, the woman let all the seedlings grow into fine, tall, luscious, dark green plants. She watered, and tilled, and waited with great anticipation to taste her first homegrown carrot. Then, on a hot summer day, she went out to the garden to harvest her crop.

She found only gnarled roots, tangled up in one another, thick, woody and inedible.

You need to choose, if you want to lead.

In 2002, I heard “The Carrot Story” as a wake-up call. I needed to weed the garden of my life, say “no” more often, change the way I spent my time, let go of the “shoulds,” abandon some of what defined me in the first four decades of my life, so that I could walk fully and joyfully into middle-age, and on to elder-hood.

I had to stop trying to do everything, so that I could hope to accomplish something.

There will always be choices to make.

What I’m realizing today, as midnight nears and I’m finally getting around to posting this entry, is that you can’t thin your metaphorical carrots once and expect that you’re done.

Every day is a thousand choice-points: Purpose choices, priority choices, big choices, small choices, morning choices, evening choices, difficult choices, necessary choices.

As you make choices more consciously and intentionally, your leadership capacity grows.

Guest submission from Carter McNamara of Authenticity Consulting, LLC.

There’s been an explosion of interest in the topic of leadership. Too often, we assume that leading always means leading others. Actually, that’s not the most common form of leading – and it’s not the most important.

Most Important Form of Leading – Leading Yourself

Most experts would agree that if you can’t effectively lead yourself, then you can’t effectively lead other individuals, groups or organizations. If you’re continually changing your priorities and can’t effectively address most of them, then the rest of the world will seem to be a confusing mess to you, as well. Others will soon become confused about your priorities, including for them. You’ll soon lose credibility and your ability to lead.

What Are Some Skills Needed to Lead Yourself?

There are many. We can’t address them all, but here’s a useful list from which to start. You need skills in learning, physical fitness, decision making and problem solving, critical thinking, setting personal goals, prioritizing, time and stress management, self-coaching, emotional intelligence, motivating yourself and work-life balance.

Notice those skills are needed whether you’re around other people or not!

So next time you read about the many skills needed to be a leader, don’t forget that you first need to lead yourself!

What do you think?

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Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD – Authenticity Consulting, LLC – 800-971-2250
Read my weekly blogs: Boards, Consulting and OD, Nonprofits and Strategic Planning.

Does your mind ever go around in circles or do you loose sleep trying to come up with a solution for a problem? As a coach, I find that my clients benefit by following this four question problem solving method.

1. What is the problem?

2. What are the solutions for resolution of the problem? (Include advantages and disadvantages of each solution)

3. What is the best solution with supporting rationale?

4. Once a decision is reached on the best solution, when will you act on it?

Try it out and let me know what you think!

For more resources, see the Library topic Personal and Professional Coaching.

In Cater McNamara’s blog entry from earlier this week (“Are we Really Just Looking for Leaders to Save Us from Ourselves?”) he asks how much consultants are fantasizing when they come up with all the “wondrous traits” that the leaders of today are supposed to possess. I am not sure if it is fantasy, but certainly agree that it is not based in reality. I would like to keep in mind this question (i.e. is it fantasy?) in mind as we explore the theory of transformational leadership.

Introduction to Transformational Leadership

James MacGrgeor Burns was the first to talk about transformational (and transactional) leadership theory in 1978. It is relatively evident to me that the research, training, and academic teaching on transformational leadership have outpaced that of any other theory of leadership in the past twenty-eight years. There is an interesting phenomenon in the way that transformational leadership is almost never discussed, at least not at length, without differentiating it from transactional leadership. I will lend support to this claim by doing just that.

What is Transactional Leadership?

Transactional leadership is grounded in the notion that leaders lead through social exchange. That is, they offer rewards to followers, financial and otherwise, for meeting productivity and performance standards, and withhold rewards to followers if productivity and performance are considered deficient. These transactions are established by leaders specifying with followers the rewards that are available for meeting expectations.

What is Transformational Leadership?

The theory of transformational leadership views the transactional leadership style as appropriate in certain circumstances, and even as an extension of transformational leadership, but believes leaders must also attend to the sense of self-worth of followers and the garnering of full-fledged commitment to individual, team, and organizational objectives. In conducting a quick scan of the literature the following attributes and qualities of transformational leaders emerged: charismatic, inspirational, challenging, persuasive, intellectually stimulating, considerate, supportive, respected, risk-taker, coach, mentor, consistent, ethical, enthusiastic, encouraging, and personable. It is a long laundry list of worthwhile qualities and roles. But does it cross some line, intimated by Carter, which has the theory flirting with foolishness? I say “yes”, “no”, “maybe”. In my mind it depends on whose version of transformational leadership you embrace. I like the way that Bass delineates the main components by stating that transformational leaders should:

• Inspire followers to extraordinary performance and to a shared sense of commitment to a vision for the organization
• Encourage and challenge followers to be creative and innovative in their efforts to solve organizational problems
• Focus on the development of the leadership skills of others through coaching, mentoring, and other forms of support

Conclusion

While the proponents of transformational leadership, of which there are many, may excessively romanticize the theory at times, it is my opinion that the central components of the theory are just tangible and relevant enough to make it a valid and valuable leadership model. In future blogs a more in-depth description and analysis of transformational leadership will be provided. In the meantime, what are your thoughts? Is it too much, too little, or just right?