Transformational And Transactional Leadership : Transformational Leadership

As I take a moment to reflect on my time here, I have learned that I have traits of a Transformational Leader but that I also have room for improvement. I have highlighted areas in where I felt I needed the most improvement to become the Transformational Leader that I aspire to be. For the next three to five years, I plan to implement these changes to improve the way that I utilize the Elements of Adaptability, The Who, Stakes and Situation, Impact on Work Center Climate, and Ethical Behavior concepts. Understanding and effectively implementing these changes will make me a better leader for my subordinates, peers, and supervisors.

In the simulation, Managing across America the class explored the effects of power and influence on a company 's growth and development. This paper will discuss the opportunities and challenges for the Good Sport Company.

This paper summarizes the article written by Cam Caldwell, Rolf D. Dixon, Larry A. Floyd, Joe Chaudoin, Johnathan Post, and Gaynor Cheokas regarding the need for a new type of leadership in today’s social work environment, defined as Transformative leadership. The article itself varies in the definition, however in a broad sense Transformative leadership is maintaining good moral standing and sound business ethics among employees and individuals inside and outside the workplace. However, in order to reach this theoretical level of business related moral and ethical leadership known as

Transformational Leadership Theory was introduced in 1978 by political sociologist James Mac Gregor Burns and expanded by industrial psychologist Dr. Bernard Bass. In this theory, Burns differentiated two styles of leadership: transformational leadership and transactional leadership. In transformational leadership, it is a process where both the leaders and the followers elevate motivation and morality. The transformational leaders pay attention to the needs and motives of followers and help them achieve their fullest potential. They influence their followers’ behaviors by appealing to the ideas and values and enhance the followers’ commitment to their vision. transformational leaders exhibit behaviors which include idealized influence wherein the leader serves as the role model for followers; inspirational motivation – leader inspires and motivates followers representing the leader’s charisma; individualized consideration- leader displays concerns for the needs and feelings of others which brings out the bringing out the follower’s best efforts and; and intellectual stimulation – the leader challenges followers to be creative and innovative. In transactional leadership, leader focuses on reward and punishment to achieve compliance from followers.

Devine and Winter (2012, p. 25) state, “there is nothing magical about leadership, and there is nothing magical about teaching it or learning it.” They go on to define leadership as the ability to influence those who work for you to want to accomplish and strive to reach organizational goals and objectives. Those who influence others must understand the theories of motivation so that these theories can be applied, communicated and taught in order to motivate followers (Devine and Winter, 2012). Different from supervision, leadership implores the desires of those around you to want to succeed in meeting a goal through you the leader’s motivational abilities.

As the study of leadership has expanded over the past decades, a general shift in the paradigm of leadership style has begun to occur. The male dominated workforce has started to give way to a far more diversified workplace, with increasing numbers of women and minorities in leadership positions. This shift, resultantly, is causing a move away from the traditional leadership styles, with more focus given to contemporary leadership theories. For example, in a recent TED Talk Roselinde Torres discussed the shortcomings of leadership styles that were effective twenty years ago, but are now proving to be lacking (Horvath, 2014). In her speech, Torres suggests that a transition away from traditional leadership styles could increase the performance and diversity of organizations. The divisive effects of this transition is significantly apparent in the American fire service, as the profession continues to move from a homogeneous workforce into a culture striving for diversity. As more women continue to rise into leadership roles within the fire service, the influence and impact of transactional versus transformational leadership contributes to the effectiveness of minority leaders. This paper will reflect on how this influence relates to the effectiveness of female leaders within the fire service.

Transformational leaders and transactional leaders differ from one another in the manner that they encourage and motivate those who follow them. Transactional leaders are defined as those who focus on monetary and tangible rewards as motivational tools for the daily operations (Marquis & Huston, 2015). Transactional leadership is associated with a clear organizational structure in which managers and subordinates understand their roles and know from whom to receive reward and feedback (Cherry, 2015). This type of leadership style focuses on motivation for the here and now to accomplish daily tasks at hand. This leadership does not focus on forward thinking or growth towards the future (Gellis, 2001).

After studying and learning from the different theories of Leadership, I found Transformational Leadership the best theory to identify with. Before going further with this theory, I want to state the most accurate Leadership definition for me. Leadership is a development of social influence and an exchange of values, behaviors, and power delegation between leaders and followers, where leaders maximizes efforts of the followers to achieve a collective goal (Kruse, 2013). Moreover, Scholars has divided leadership into different areas, such as Trait Approach, Skill Approach, Situational Approach, Transformational-Transactional, to name a few (COLLINSON & TOURISH, 2015). In this paper, I will talk about my concept of leadership before learning about the different leadership theories, what Transformational Leadership Theory is, how it helps raising the productivity in the group, the different dimensions of this theory, the differences with transactional leadership, the relation between charisma and transformational leadership, why I chose transformational leadership, and the different challenges and obstacles of this theory.

I feel that are important traits needed in a leader especially with those whose leading style tends to be more democratic and focused on the relational aspect in leadership.

Sullivan (2010) indicates that leaders empower, encourage, and support others in a shared effort to achieve goals or create change. Hence, as a early childhood educator our role has a great impact in achieving such goals. Indeed, a leader has desirable traits that inspires and motivates other to work towards a vision or goal. For the purpose of this paper, I will discuss my leadership style and explain how the style motivates and influences my environment and the importance to reflect on practice.

Transformational leadership. Burns (1978) is recognized as one of the earliest theorist on transformational leadership, who introduced transformational leadership over 30 years ago. Transformational leaders are perceived as leaders who uplift their employee morale, subsequently uplifting the entire organizational. Transformational leaders are known by their capacity to inspire followers to forgo self-interests in achieving superior results for the organization (Clawson, 2006). Avolio and Yammarino (2002) shared Bass’s explanation of transformational leadership as leaders who act as agents of change that stimulate, and transform followers’ attitudes, beliefs, and motivate from lower to higher level of arousal.

Transformational Leadership Theory as a Guide. My leadership philosophy closely mirrors the transformational approach to leadership. Like the transformational theory suggests, I believe that true leadership inspires the team to rise above its individual components in order to reach a shared goal (Huber, 2014). Some of the individual components are areas that I have personal strength in such as: desire to learn and ability to get the job done (Rath & Conchie, 2008). Additionally, some of the components are the ability to influence and connect with others; strengths that I do not possess (Rath & Conchie, 2008). Recognition of my own personal strengths and weaknesses led me to a democratic philosophy of leadership because I realized that one

Transactional and transformational leadership differ. Ingram (2016) states “Different managers employ distinctly different management styles, ranging from relatively hands-off, facilitative styles to autocratic, micromanaging styles. Managers can also employ different motivational strategies and techniques to boost employee performance or accomplish internal change. Transformational and transactional leadership are polar opposites when it comes to the underlying theories of management and motivation. Understanding the difference between transformational and transactional leadership is crucial for anyone pursuing a career in management.” (Ingram, 2016). When I was a manager, I had to make sure my store operated properly and maintain sales. Sometimes I would hold contest for my workers to motivate them, Ingram (2016) states “Transactional leadership styles are more concerned with maintaining the normal flow of operations. Transactional leadership can be described as "keeping the ship afloat." Transactional leaders

According to Theodore Roosevelt, “the best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it”.

Being able to lead a group or someone is a very powerful action. Being a leader in general is very powerful. Leadership is an art that is painted, sculpted, and displayed in all sorts of ways. There are many different styles of leadership that correspond with different tasks. From transformational leadership to laissez-faire leadership, there are various styles throughout the continuum. A transformational leader is one of the best, more successful leadership style. When going down the continuum, the leadership styles only become less effective. Everyone also falls in distinctive categories when it comes to leading others. The leadership style that is displayed depends on the person leading and those who are being led along with the task.