Free Business Plan About Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is a style of leadership in which the leaders inspire those they lead positively and help every member of the group to succeed. The leaders are passionate, enthusiastic and ready in serving and leading the people under them. It is a concept that was introduced by James McGregor Burns, who was a leadership expert and presidential biographer. He stated that a transformational leadership could be seen where the leaders and the followers have made each other advance to a higher level of moral motivation. This shows that, the two parties must support each other in development. Transformational leadership can be done through and in full utilization of the strength of the vision, ambition and strong personality of the individuals involved. According to another researcher Bernard M. Bass in his theory, Bass’ Transformational Theory, he expanded the idea of Burn and stated that transformational leadership can only be defined based on the impact it has on the followers. Transformational leaders are respected, admired and trusted by their followers .
Transformational leaders will be followed and the followers will always be inspired. They are vision makers and achievers. They are concerned about the work they do and are passionate about. In developing the vision, they include the followers and listen to them. They start by developing the vision, look at what the followers want and need, finally put into action. After developing the idea, a transformational leader goes ahead and sells it to the followers. He must be committed in doing this since not every follower will buy the vision and he needs to be patient with him or her. He must be careful and not rush the adoption of the ideas and the vision.
Transformational leadership involves the leader finding a way after developing and selling the vision to the followers. Not every leader will know the way to let the followers to have thus it will be useful to explore all possible routes to lead to the destination. Finding the way is an ongoing process that a transformational leader should always be ready to follow. There will be obstacles on way and the vision may be unclear but it takes a transformational leader to accept the failures and correct them.
The transformational leaders are always visible and will never hide from the crowd. They will stand up for their vision and inspire the followers in whatever they do. They will always be ready to be corrected and show an attitude of appreciation when corrected. They will always make efforts to motivate, encourage, listen and be enthusiastic towards their followers. They will never show signs of giving up instead, they will seek to infect and re-infect their commitment to the vision to their followers. They will ensure the followers that they are going on the correct direction even though things are not working as they work to see them succeed. In balancing their attention between actions that creates progress and the mental state of the followers, they believe in their vision and keep their commitment in high levels.

Advantages

Transformational leadership helps in creating new initiatives. A transformational leader is able to come up with new projects, organize them and see them through. He is able to recognize the changing needs of the organization and of the followers and thus accepting the changes and putting respective measures. He exploits the employees’ potential and keeps motivating them in realizing the objectives and visions of the organization.
Transformational leadership brings more satisfaction to the followers. The style involves knowing what the followers want and involving them in building the visions of the organization. The followers feel part of the vision and are ready to work in realizing it. The transformational leader listens to the followers, take their needs into heart.
Transformational leadership brings creativity in the organization. The leaders encourage creativity in the organization and ensure that is successful by showing an example. They are creative and infect the creativity to their followers. The works of such followers can be seen as original and very creative. Low Transformational Leadership in an organization can be noticed by the poor outcome of the followers work and lack of originality.
Transformational leadership influences innovations and creation of new projects in an organization. The leaders are always ready to explore new areas and inspire their followers to come up with new ideas. Transformational leaders affect greatly in projects and there is always a high performance in their areas. They are able to foresee a niche in the market if it is a commercial organization or a prospective benefit in certain area and they take the risk of venturing into it.
Transformational Leadership instills discipline among the followers and the leader himself. The leaders are to follow the vision and ensure they do not bow low to the employees’ expectations. They should make hard decisions that every follower must adopt for the success of the organization.
It increases morale among the followers. The charismatic leaders create a positive energy, inspire the followers and thus the followers work enthusiastically in achieving the visions of the organization.

Disadvantages of Transformational Leadership

Misuse of Influence
The transformational leaders use their influence to take new risks in realizing their visions. They get the motivation from the followers after they have accepted the change and the visions. However taking of many risks may endanger the progress of the organization. It may be detrimental and disruptive leading to failing of the organization.

Pursuit of Intellectual Ideas with no Merits

The charismatic leaders may pursue other ideas, which have no benefit to the organization and thus misusing the recourses and the energy of the followers. Not all ideas should be put into actions. A leader must first look at the benefits of the ideas, assess it then put it into action if it is of benefit.

Overemphasize on the Followers

The transformational leader may have a drive of many expectations and end up overworking his/her followers. This may discourage the followers leading to poor outcome and falling of the organization. It is advisable that a leader should assess his/her employees and know their potential before giving them work. Doing the opposite may lead to overworking of the employees or the followers.

Time-Consuming

Effectiveness of Transformational Leadership needs time. The leaders must come up with a strategy, vision and educate the followers about them. This needs time and thus the leaders who want the outcome to be noticed immediately end up being frustrated. It needs patience and continuous commitment for the results to be noticed.

Assume Motivation for Flower.

Transformational leaders want their visions to embrace by the followers. They assume that they inspire everyone and the followers are ready to work to achieve the visions forgetting that situations change. There are situations where the followers have the experience and skills to accomplish the goals without supervisions or motivation. Thus making the approach of inspiring the followers to work as the charismatic leader wants ineffective. Success of a vision requires the transformational leader to consider all factors and involve the followers. He should not work on his own accord since the results may frustrate him.
Saint Laurent was one of Transformational Leader in Paris. He was a dress designer and he won a prize at an age of 17 in a completion run by International Wool Secretariat. He had designed a dress for cocktail. He was the first designer to design tuxedo for women and brought him fame. In 1983, he became the first living designer to receive a solo exhibition in New York.
In his work, he emphasized on taking your time in doing something than speeding up. He never rushed at what he did, but did it slowly for effective outcome. He opened his own haute couture fashion after two years of experience in the industry of fashion. In measuring his success, he never looked at the much work done but on the successful work and the impact it had to him and the employees. This shows that a transformational leader measures his success by the impact and change it has brought to the organization. If one wants to achieve a lot in limited timing they end up exhausting himself and no enthusiasm to continue working.
He broke the rules on the women dressing. In his fashion and design he showed that women could wear men’s clothes just by designing them to fit the female form. He never always followed the rules that were there; he changed them and worked on them. Though there was resistance from the people against women wearing men’s wear, his work succeeded. He exhibited character of not giving up or getting discouraged. After his work was resisted by the women being sent away from restaurants in Paris and New York, he never showed a sign of discouragement. He continued designing the tuxedo for the women and in 1983 his work was rewarded.
Saint Laurent as a transformational leader brought everything he saw and experienced in his work. This helped him to do well in the industry of fashion while his competitors closed down their businesses. In his work, he was the only one who was able to sell haute couture to the young and became very successful in Paris. He gave every opportunity a thought and never despised any of his creativity. As a leader he embraced the new experiences and put them to his work, making him to succeed. He knew himself as a leader; in 2002 he stated that he has known his fear, terrible solitude, drugs and tranquilizers. The prison of depression and hospitals and emerged from all that, dazzled but sober. Recognizing his weaknesses and strength gave him power to succeed in the business world. He became the most influential designer just by believing in himself, what he did and adventuring into new things. He risked a lot in making his visions come true. He entered into the world of fashion, re-energized it and finally conquered it. That’s what is expected of a transformational leader. A leader who energizes what he does and the people he leads and, that is what exactly Saint Laurent did.
Saint Laurent inspired many designers who up to date idolize him and his work. He had spent his life designing and perfecting his favorite pieces, the tuxedo which is in market to date. His passion in design earned him respect and admiration from other designers. Giorgio Armani once called Saint Laurent as the foremost and truest designer of the time. Dolce and Gabbana Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Marc Jacobs have used Saint Laurent’s archives in their collections. His partner Berger set up the Pierre Berger- Yves Saint Laurent Foundation to house their design and forever seal his name into fashion history alongside that of Saint Laurent. This makes him a true charismatic leader, a leader of change who every follower wants to be associated to.

Conclusion

A Transformational leader has to have the characteristic of influencing those that he leads. He must be the example and set out the vision to guide the followers. He must be an inspirational leader, a leader who is enthusiastic, passionate and ready to find away to be followed by others. He must not under look the interest of those who follow/subordinates and oppress them by wanting his vision to be adopted by everyone. Being a charismatic leader needs a lot of sacrifices and taking the interests of the subordinates at heart.

Bibliography

Anthony, L. H., 2012. Commentaries on the Global Events. The ipinion Journal, Vol VII(6), pp. 34-35.
Bernard, B. M. & Riggio, R. E., 2008. Transformational Leadership. 2nd ed. New York: Taylor and Francis e-library.
Harms, P., 2010. Emotional Intelligence and Transformational and Transactional Leadership: A Meta-Analysis. Leadership & Organizational Studies, 1 February, Volume Vol 17, p. 1.
Michael, L., 2011. Transformational Leadership. 2nd ed. New York: Grin Verlag.
Neil, K. & Media, D., 2012. Transformational Leadership Benefits and Limitations. AzCentral, 6(2nd), pp. 24-29.