Few people can view work processes, strategies, products, and services in the way that transformational leaders can. They motivate their team members to think creatively, streamline antiquated procedures, and alter productivity-impeding systems by doing this.
The desire to take audacious, hazardous acts that go against the grain is a critical component of transformational leadership. It’s never too late to leverage great transformational leadership examples to increase the success of your own company, regardless of whether you’re the boss of a startup or an established businessperson.
What is transformational leadership?
Transformational leadership is a leadership style that depends on team support to achieve organizational success. A team’s confidence and morale can be increased so that it can better align itself with a larger goal or vision.
But for it to be successful, this goal needs to be set up front and center. When used effectively, transformational leadership can take a failing or unproductive team and radically turn it into an effective and vibrant collection of people.
Identifying each member’s challenges and skills is the first step in doing this. Next, the team’s leader must establish a new common objective and direct the team members toward this new vision.
In the real world, transformational leadership is employed to motivate team members to collaborate as a unified entity rather than as a collection of disparate components. Understandably, a large number of academics and subject-matter specialists contributed to the creation of such a dynamic statistic.
Related: Transformational Leadership: All you need to know
12 characteristics of transformational leadership
Sometimes being a transformational leader entails taking audacious and determined action to complete tasks. It is up to you to take something that doesn’t work and make it better than before by assuming the role of transformational leadership. Listed below are 12 characteristics of transformational leaders:
1. Imaginative
A visionary leader will provide individuals to work toward and a vision to follow when an organization needs to change. It is up to you to get everyone on the same page to move toward the future if you are a visionary leader who can see what others can’t see.
A true visionary is needed to see the transformational leadership process through because it is a protracted and demanding process. Having a vision for what a firm could become will inspire others and provide them with the motivation to take action.
2. Recognizing
It can be challenging to let everyone see what you want to achieve when you are giving everyone the push and enthusiasm to get them going forward. Because they can’t see inside your head, you must have compassion for others to avoid placing unreasonable demands on them.
People will be able to realize why you are leading the way that you do if you are forgiving and willing to explain why you do what you do. A better outcome can be achieved by allowing new ideas to affect you and your leadership as well as your ability to comprehend the requirements and preferences of the entire team.
3. Bold
To look at a company and determine how it may be completely changed requires a courageous leader. Sometimes the revolution’s leader is just the first person to stand up and see that a change must be done to improve the organization as a whole and make it significantly better than it was before.
Being courageous enough to speak up and take action can motivate others to understand the need for change and win their support. For the group you lead to truly believe in what you are trying to do, you must be brave and daring.
4. Flexible
You would be a fool to believe that once you start your mission to transform a firm, everything will be simple and handed to you on a silver platter. Your vision will fade if you aren’t flexible and equipped to handle unforeseen difficulties, and you won’t be the effective leader you are capable of being.
A flexible leader can overcome obstacles and can see the wider picture of what needs to be done. Giving your team difficult tasks to try and finish will even help them become more adaptive so that everyone will be prepared for challenges.
5. Well-prepared
Being organized may seem unimportant, but when a large-scale strategy needs to be carried out, you’ll want to have everything set up so that you can carry it out as needed. Being a well-organized leader will enable you to have a strategy that only has to be implemented for it to be successful.
When your staff members see how organized you are, they’ll want to become more organized too. Both understanding what has to be done and clearing your mind are aided by being organized.
6. Fair
Not everyone will be immediately on board, prepared to join in, and ready to take action when you have a strong vision that you want to see through. A fair leader is aware that everyone is flawed and that others’ perceptions of your goals may differ significantly from your own.
Everyone will experience equality and fairness when heavy burdens are assigned with consideration for others.
7. Curious
Curious leaders should constantly seek to increase their knowledge and comprehension so they can include a wide range of ideas in their leadership. Curiosity is the basis for growth, and it is what drives all outstanding leaders to continue learning and improving.
Because of the benefits that come from curiosity, a team managed by an inquisitive leader will typically desire to learn more and take on more responsibility. Even if you fail, you at least gained knowledge.
8. Reliable
Even with an army at your back, you still need to be realistic about what you can and cannot do. A team and organization won’t transform overnight into what your vision wants them to be, just as Rome wasn’t created in a day.
You will be better able to set reasonable expectations for both yourself and other people if you are aware of how everyone grows and how they differ from one another.
9. Encouraging
As the one who inspires and raises others to their level, transformational leadership is a style that demands a lot of energy from the primary leader. You must inspire and promote the behavior you want to see so that it spreads throughout the organization and becomes the standard.
You must encourage others to move on, even on days when you don’t feel like going, by being your best self. You cannot demand more of your employees if you start to slack off.
10. Motivating
You must possess some kind of inspiration to win people around to your cause, fitting with the idea of leading and motivating others. Your capacity to inspire others will be reflected in their willingness to act, whether it’s through a carefully thought-out plan that makes sense or a passionate speech about what could be.
Being the best version of yourself possible and setting an example for others is sometimes all that is required to inspire others. People will watch your behavior and attempt to imitate it to be like you.
11. Remarkable
It does not follow that everyone will instantly follow you and do what you say just because you are the leader. To use transformational leadership effectively and achieve results, you must be attentive to the needs and desires of others.
Regard for one another will result from being respectful of others, and this respect will endure long after your business has changed. When people feel that their leader has their best interests and welfare in mind, they are considerably more likely to follow them.
12. Driven
The readiness of others to adapt will be a reflection of your determination to effect genuine change and complete tasks. A leader who is motivated to succeed and effect genuine change will be exactly what the people need when times are difficult and will be rewarded when circumstances improve.
A leader gets up in the morning eager to start working and goes to bed anticipating the next day’s arrival so they can get more done. People will follow a leader who is driven.
Closing
Transformational leaders work hard to possess these qualities. Companies that are managed by managers from those that are led by leaders differ in the development of these traits.