we are going to look at transformational
leadership
theory we'll take a look at five key
characteristics of transformational
leaders
and we'll see if you can relate to them
so let's get into it
i'm alex lyon and we will soon have
almost 200 videos on
communication and leadership on this
channel today
i'm going to rely mostly on two key
books
johnson and hackman's book on leadership
a communication perspective
and nordhaus's book on leadership i
highly recommend both for your personal
library
and i will put all of the references and
links in the description below
this video there's been lots of interest
lately
in the transformational leadership
approach but it has its origins
in the late 1970s james mcgregor burns
wrote a book on leadership where he
contrasted transformational leaders with
transactional leadership he used
maslow's
hierarchy of needs to explain these two
approaches
transactional leadership is where a
leader is mainly concerned with
helping followers meet their lower level
needs on the bottom
three tiers of maslow's pyramid by
satisfying followers psychological
safety and belonging needs
it's a transaction in exchange for
followers hard work
transactional leaders help followers
secure these rewards
transformational leaders take that to
the next level and attempt to engage the
entire
person to satisfy followers lower level
needs that i mentioned
and also their higher level needs on
massless hierarchy
esteem and self-actualization according
to burns transformational leaders
enhance
followers level of motivation commitment
and
ownership ultimately the thinking goes
this
transforms followers into leaders
themselves
johnson and hackman describe the five
key characteristics of transformational
leaders
let's see if you can relate to any of
these personally first transformational
leaders are creative
they're always looking for new ideas and
ways to do things
they challenge business as usual
creative people come from all walks of
life
what they have in common is that they
are hard-working
non-conformist in their thinking and
they're comfortable with
ambiguity and complexity a great example
of this
is dave kelly he's the founder of ido
the most successful product design firm
in the world
kelly and ideo were known for developing
incredibly innovative products
and services for clients so question for
you
do you see yourself as a creative person
the good news is
dave kelly has been teaching
professionals creativity skills for
decades and he's convinced that anybody
can be more creative with
practice second transformational leaders
are interactive
they communicate a lot with followers
they are engaged
and through this communication they
become more aware of their followers
needs and motivations
as johnson and hackman say only when the
leader is involved with followers
can he or she find ways to do things
better
a great current day example is barack
obama i've never met him but they say
that he's very interactive
socially engaged and a strong
communicator
he connects with everyday people and
world leaders equally well
question for you would you describe
yourself as interactive
do you have strong people skills well
communication skills
are learnable and we can all improve
with guidance and
practice third transformational leaders
are visionary
some say this is their most important
characteristic they can explain in
concise and clear language where they
want to
take the organization they're able to
explain the goal
with a sense of purpose in ways that
energize people
and creates a standard of excellence
that inspires
followers and i can think of no better
person to illustrate this than
martin luther king jr he articulated in
compelling language
a vision for the future that was worth
fighting for
his famous i have at dream speeches
perhaps one of the most
vision-based communication examples
there is so question for you
are you able to articulate a goal and
purpose
clearly and in a compelling way well
like the other characteristics mentioned
you can get better with practice now
remember
before king gave his famous speech he
was preaching
and speaking multiple times a week in
church
and in the community for decades he
sharpened his message with
lots and lots of practice and practice
is something that anybody can do
fourth transformational leaders are
empowering as i said earlier
burns based his thinking about
transformation leaders
on the higher levels of maslow's
hierarchy the top level
is self-actualization transformation
leaders in essence
have to empower their leaders to become
all they can be
by delegating important jobs and then
supporting and trusting followers to
rise to the occasion
this also allows organizations to grow
more quickly
i think phil knight the founder of nike
is a great example of an empowering
leader
in his book shoe dog he described the
early years at nike when he was hiring
employees he quickly recognized that if
he wanted nike to grow
he had to empower his employees to build
the business
and sell more shoes without his
day-to-day direct involvement in every
decision
so question for you are you able to
delegate
encourage and trust others to take
action
if we want to engage our followers on
those highest levels and help them grow
into leaders themselves then empowerment
is the best way to get there
fifth transformational leaders are
passionate they are true believers in
their cause they
demonstrate extraordinary commitment
even in the face of repeated
failure their passion enthusiasm
and motivation are contagious mother
teresa is a great example
her organization and mission was to
minister
to the sick and dying the people on the
streets that society had forgotten
she worked until she was 87 years old
and was hospitalized several times as
she got older
there were many stories about mother
teresa leaving the hospital early
she would say to doctors i have to go i
still have important work to do
her passion and commitment electrified
the people around her
so question for you how would you rate
your level of passion
if we can find something we truly care
about that's usually when we will see
our level
of passion go up so how would you rate
yourself on each of these key five
characteristics
as mentioned i highly recommend johnson
and hackman's book
on leadership there's a link below to
that
and i recently recorded a related video
on the top five traits that leaders
tend to have once that is posted i will
put a link to that video in the
description below this one as well
until next time thanks god bless and i
will see you soon