Transformational Leadership – 3

I would like to Continue my earlier thoughts about transformational leadership and particularly my wariness towards the “charismatic” element that Bernard M Bass identified as necessary (“Transactional to Transformational Leadership”, in Organizational Dynamics).

One way in which a leader can transform others is by example.  This is popularly called being a “role model”.  It works because one way we learn is by copying others.   Understanding of the behaviour copied is not required, simply copy someone who is good at what they do (in line with Bandura‘s theory of modelling).  The idea is that understanding will develop later as you experience how the behaviour copied works, and get further help from the expert (sometimes called cognitive apprenticeship).  Learning physical activities where description of the activity in words is impossible requires this sort of learning, but it applies to other tacit knowledge.  The way a child learns from its parents is the most common example.

For a leader this puts a premium on what you actually do, rather than what you espouse.  You will modify the behaviour of those around you by acting differently yourself, not by changing what the mission statement says.  It also means that if you have senior team members whose behaviour is unhelpful, they have to either make a personal change or go, as their behaviour reflects upon you and how serious you are about enacting a set of values.

One up side to this is that if you want a happy and effective organisation, make yourself happy and effective first – permission to enjoy!