In my last posting, I posed the question, often repeated: can a person be trained to be a good leader
or is a good leader a genetic wonder; that is, is he or she born with the
character or personality traits necessary for good leadership? By a good leader, I am writing about one that
can be classified as a transformative leader.
I have described, in previous postings, what transformative change is
and, of course, a transformative leader is one who leads a group of people in
transformative change. I want, in this
posting, to add a bit of substance to that category of leadership.
In doing so, I will be using the ideas of Bernard M. Bass.[1] He identifies four general goals or
conditions (dimensions) for what he calls transformational leadership. They are: idealized influence, inspirational motivation,
individualized consideration, and intellectual stimulation. Each of these is instrumental in creating an
encounter between leader and followers in which both leader and followers raise
the other in a somewhat social spiral of higher levels of motivation and
morality. Let me add a quick word of explanation
for each of these conditions.
Idealized influence takes place when the leader is able to demonstrate
what his/her aims are by his/her own behavior.
It is behavior that “walks the talk,” sort of speak. This tends to solicit from followers a high
degree of admiration. The second
condition, inspirational motivation, is simply the ability of the leader to
inspire and motivate. I would say this
is the attribute of good leadership that some might consider inbred – some have
it, some don’t – but whatever it is, noted leaders such as Gandhi, the
Roosevelts, Churchill, all had it. You
might have had such a leader in your experiences, finding yourself being
inspired by such a person in your workplace or church or some other group
setting. I remember, as a very young
person, being moved in this way by John F. Kennedy. Together with idealized influence,
inspirational motivation is what is generally considered charisma. The third condition is individualized
consideration. This is the ability of
the leader to convincingly express concern for the needs and wants of followers. The more such a concern can be expressed at
the individual level, the better. The
fourth condition is intellectual stimulation: the ability of the leader to motivate
followers in a particular way. That is,
he/she persuades followers to study and independently create or invent ways to
tackle whatever the concern of the group is.
This, in turn, leads to higher levels of proficiencies on the part of
the followers. With these four
conditions, the leader will be able to lead his/her group to implement change,
institute new patterns of behavior, and/or view and feel differently about what
the group has been doing.[2]
In terms of actual actions, these leaders undertake behaviors
that logically fall from such sought after conditions. Generally, they express expectations to
followers that communicate a belief in the followers’ abilities; that they can
perform productively given the goals of the group. The notion is: if the leader believes that followers can do
their best, they, in turn, will be motivated to exceed their current level of
performance. The followers are empowered
by such leadership to become loyal, high achievers. This general state is actualized by a leader
who insists and expects followers to be self-directed, self-motivated; regularly
reminds and promotes moral standards that logically fall from the mission at
hand; emphasizes those concerns that have high priority; encourages moral
maturity on the part of followers; works to establish an ethical environment
by, among other actions, sharing readily his/her relevant values; counts on
followers to cooperate with one another; exerts leadership in consistent ways
that, among other things, reflects his/her personality; counts on reason to
persuade; makes every reasonable effort to provide needed instruction;
regularly reminds followers of the ideals the collaborative effort is
attempting to realize; and even seeks choices for followers to pursue as
opposed to cutting off options. I’m sure
there are other general behavior patterns to assist a leader becoming
transformative, but here is a working list with which one can begin.
My next posting will look at the type of person who exhibits
these transformative qualities. I will
add, before ending this posting, that whether transformative leaders are born
or made, I think all of us can work on adopting some of these behaviors in our
everyday interaction with others. If
nothing else, such attempts would bring us closer to becoming more federalist.
[1]
[1] For overview of Bass’ ideas see http://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/59330_Chapter_7.pdf .
[2] To read an academic approach to viewing these factors,
see Bono, J. E. and Judge, T. A.
(2004). Personality and
transformational and transactional leadership:
A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89 (5),
901-910. Access: http://m.timothy-judge.com/Judge%20and%20Bono%20personality-TF--JAP%20published.pdf .
