TRansformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is defined as a leadership approach that causes change in individuals and social systems. In its ideal form, it creates valuable and positive change in the followers with the end goal of developing followers into leaders. Enacted in its authentic form, transformational leadership enhances the motivation, morale and performance of followers through a variety of mechanisms. These include connecting the follower’s sense of identity and self to the mission and the collective identity of the organization; being a role model for followers that inspires them; challenging followers to take greater ownership for their work, and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of followers, so the leader can align followers with tasks that optimize their performance.

Transformational Leadership Benefits and Limitations

Strong Motivation

The transformational leader gets the entire staff involved in envisioning company objectives and then motivating staff members to exceed their personal expectations to achieve those objectives. The employee's value to the company is consistently reinforced by the transformational leader who inspires staff members to go beyond what is expected of them to advance their own careers as well as help the company reach new levels of growth.

Personal Touch

One of the ways a transformational leader inspires employees is through personal coaching and contact with each staff member. The transformational manager reaches out to employees who are on board with the company vision to help them improve their skills and get excited about achieving company goals. She also attempts to convert staff members who are not interested in the company vision become energized about moving the company forward. To do this, the transformational leader uses an "open door" policy that encourages employees to seek her advice, and she schedules regular one-on-one meetings with each employee.

Lack of Detail

A transformational leader is effective at motivating and rallying a staff behind a singular company vision, but he often lacks the attention to detail required to create a strong corporate structure or follow company policies, according to the Mind Tools website. The transformational leader is concerned with the overall big picture and sometimes neglects the daily operational details.

Disguising Reality

The transformational leader operates primarily through motivation. She encourages employees to succeed by convincing them to take on more responsibility and improve themselves through training and hard work. But a transformational leader can sometimes blur the line between reality and inspiration, according to the Changing Minds website. To get the results she wants, the transformational leader will continue to encourage an employee through inspiration and praise for the employee's performance. The reality could be that the employee lacks the skills to perform the job tasks assigned to him and the transformational leader offers only words of encouragement when training is needed.