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What is Transformational Leadership?

Transformational Leadership (TL) is a form or a level of leadership in management theory, which exists along with Charismatic, Relational or Transactional Leaderships. Transformational approach to leadership is a concept, connected with ability of a leader to inspire and to challenge the followers, to help them in developing advanced collaborative culture, or to launch various innovations, etc. This type of leadership is probably the most popular one and the most popular type of theory in modern day’s practice of organizational management around the world.

Many experts say that TL should be considered one of the highest levels of leadership. In modern theories it is mostly connected with the ability of a transformational type leader (T-type leader) do determine a special vision and make its meaning clear and totally understandable for the followers. Then, T-type leader should find the way how to achieve the purpose of such vision and encourage the followers to do so.  The main idea is that T-type leader must be ready for any transformations, physical or psychological, personal or collective, etc., to accomplish the mission of the organization or a group, and achieve success.

Being close to the highest level of leadership (Charismatic leadership), TL also means ability of leader to influence on present vision of the followers and to change perception of their personal values. But, especially, it means ability of a T-type leader to connect these personal values of the followers with their collective ones. Unlikely to Charismatic leaders, T-type leaders reach success not because of their faith only in themselves, but because they believe in and count on others.

What Are The 4 Components Of Transformational Leadership?

Leadership theory experts define 4 principal component of transformational leadership. Those include:

• Inspirational Motivation, or the ability of T-type leader inspire and motivate the followers by using their own charisma, certain internal or external factors, etc.
• Idealized Influence, or being able to serve as a model of an ideal leader, an ideal personality to be followed. This is also a key element of a T-type leader’s charisma.
• Intellectual Stimulation, or an ability of a T-type leader to challenge his or her followers and make them be creative, innovative, responsive, efficient, etc. It is very important for a T-type leader to constantly make the followers get better and improve their performance.
• Individualized Consideration, meaning an ability of a T-type leader to show a true and constant concern for their followers, their needs, abilities, success, goals, and so on. According to the transformational leadership theory, this element of one of the most important, and showing personal concern to every follower’s personality is considered one of the most effective elements for stimulating the best performance of the group or organization.

Who Are T-type Leaders?

T-type leaders can be characterized with very well-developed personal qualities, like creativity, openness, strength of mind, integrity, and many others. Principal and important abilities of such leaders are to debate and to persuade. Also, in order to make people believe in their vision, they must be good public speakers and be able to lead constructive dialogs. They should never demand from their followers something that they can not do themselves. Innovation and team creativity should be valued the most by T-type leaders are the essential elements for success.

Besides, such leaders are active, brave and daring; they must take risks and always look for new opportunities. They have to believe in own competence and ability to solve the hardest problems. Also, T-type leaders must know how to increase self-confidence of their followers and stimulate their conviction in future success. An important place in transformation leadership concept belongs to openness of such leaders to innovations and developing of human potential. They should only delegate the tasks for improving their follower’s skills and helping them experience or learn new things.

Creativity is a very important quality for some types of jobs. It is vital for all kinds of designers and video artists, writers, journalists, for those who work in advertisement industry, all levels of management, engineering and IT, as well as many other common occupations. Creativity is necessary in our daily life as well. We need it for effective problem solving and decision making, when we’re looking for effective solutions and dealing with a wide range various daily situations. Well developed creativity skills are very important, that is why many employers are asking their potential employees to pass various creativity tests in order to assess their creativity skills and estimate their chances to make successful decisions or generate creative ideas. Creative employees are usually valued in all modern companies very highly, and they always have much better chances to be promoted compared to other employees.

At the same time, it turns out that creativity actually has some negative sides, and in some people it can be even quite unhealthy. Swedish specialists at the Karolinska Institute found out that boosted creativity in modern people is very often linked to high risks of suffering from a lack of self-discipline, a lack of respect to other people and improper self-esteem, as well as being always late, inattentive and unable to focus when it is necessary. Moreover, as the study has shown, the people like dancers, artists, famous fashion designers, photographers, novelists, or writers who have unique creativity and can produce really amazing artworks usually suffer from anxiety, depression attacks, bipolar disorder, substance abuse, and even very serious conditions like schizophrenia, suicidal thoughts, panic attacks, and other mental illnesses.

According to the report about this study published this month in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, creative people are usually more problematic. It is estimated that they have twice higher risks for suicide, and very often they suffer from anorexia. The scientists say that the mentioned tendencies took place among all representatives of creative professions, who are suffering from mental and psychological disorders more often. Creative minds are usually troubled minds, the scientists warn. There is no need in avoiding taking creative specialists or people with special thinking abilities to work with, but it is necessary to be ready for possible drawbacks of working with such people. As Dr. Simon Kyaga, the study leader, says these findings can be used to help experts understand the connections and find possible ways to treat the mentioned mental and psychological disorders.

“If one takes the view that certain phenomena associated with the patient’s illness are beneficial, it opens the way for a new approach to treatment,” Dr. Kyaga said. He refers to a number of examples from our history proving that creative minds historically are troubled and not understood. Our famous writers Ernest Hemingway and Virginia Woof who are considered geniuses in their genres, suffered from chronic severe depression and ended up their lives with suicide. Another famous author Graham Greene, the creator if the novel Brighton Rock, suffered from a number of problems including bipolar disorder. The scientists underline the importance not to avoid such kind of people and give them a hand to find themselves in this life. “We know that one in four people will be diagnosed with a mental health problem this year and that these individuals will come from a range of different backgrounds, professions and walks of live. Our main concern is that they get the information and support that they need and deserve.”