MODULE 3

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of this module, the learners are expected to:
1. Describe transformational leadership
2. Identify the characteristics of a leader
3. Express commitment to teamwork

OVERVIEW

This module discusses transformational leadership in which the leader inspires the
followers to perform well and develop their own leadership potential.

HUMAN BEHAVIOR

According to businessdictionary.com, human behavior is the capacity of mental,

physical, emotional, and social activities experienced during the five stages of a human
being's life—prenatal, infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. It includes the
behaviors as dictated by culture, society, values, morals, ethics, and genetics.

Encyclopedia Britannica (2012) states that human beings have a typical life course that
consists of successive phases of growth, each of which is characterized by a distinct set
of physical, physiological, and behavioral features. These phases are prenatal life,
infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood (including old age). Human
development or developmental psychology, is a field of study that attempts to describe
and explain the changes in human cognitive, emotional, and behavioral capabilities and
functioning over the entire life.

MOTIVATION

Motivation encompasses the internal and external factors that stimulate desire and
energy in people to be continually interested in and committed to a job, role, or subject,
and to exert persistent effort in attaining a goal. It results from the interaction among
conscious and unconscious factors such as the (a) intensity of desire or need, (b)
incentive or reward value of the goal, and (c) expectations of the individual and of his or
her significant others.

According to John Swindells (2012), motivation means the drive and ambition d to
achieve our goals. We all need that extra push at some stage of our life, whether it be at
work, in school, or home; or maybe to give up a bad habit or shed a few pounds. We
need motivation to get a job done and achieve a goal. Self-motivation can work for
some people. For example, if you are trying to lose some weight, just imagine how you
will look and feel when you can fit again in your smaller-sized clothes. An old
photograph of a similar you could help motivate you to keep going.
If you work in sales, it is important to stay motivated to achieve your targets in order to
earn cash bonuses or even promotion in addition to commission.

It is also easy to become de-motivated. For example, you may be way off your sales
targets and you realize there is no chance of reaching them, so you just give up.
Negative people can de-motivate you as well.

GOOD LEADERSHIP

Leadership pertains to the qualities exemplified by a leader. It also refers to acts of

leading or the "process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and
support of others in the accomplishment of a common task." It is often said that some
people are good leaders, while others are not. But what is really the basis for judging
one’s capacity to be a good leader? From a follower's perspective, good leadership can
be attributed to qualities that make people follow a leader. It would be great to have all
these qualities, but not all leaders do.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD LEADER

Here are ten essential characteristics of a good leader. Do you think you possess them?

1. Vision. Good leaders know where they want to go and they can motivate people to
believe in their vision for their country, community, and family. Good leaders view things
as what they could be and not simply as what they are.

2. Wit. Good leaders can make sound judgments and decisions even during crucial
situations.

3. Passion. Good leaders are very passionate and intensely obsessed in whatever they
are focused on, be it business, sport, or hobby.

4. Compassion. Good leaders show compassion for their supporters and followers.
They possess exemplary coaching and development skills. While these leaders have
goals to accomplish, they can still consistently care for their constituents. They are not
selfish individuals who think only about their own wants and needs. They have a heart
for others.

5. Charisma. Good leaders are captivating, charming individuals who tend draw people
toward them. It could be because of the way they talk or carry themselves. They excel
in building relationships and eliciting performance from their grouprs.

6. Communication Skills. Good leaders are usually great orators and persuaders, They
can express their ideas clearly and convincingly.
7. Persistence. Good leaders are determined to attain their goals in spite of obstacles
and problems. They believe that the benefits of attaining their goals outweigh the risks
and hardships.

8. Integrity. Good leaders mean what they say. They walk the talk, practice what they
preach, and keep they promises. They are reliable.

9. Daring. Good leaders are bold, willing to take risks, and resolved to chase their
dreams amid the reality of fear and uncertainty. Winston Churchill states that courage is
the virtue on which all others virtues rest.

10. Discipline. Good leaders observe self-control and order. Where most people would
be easily distracted or dejected, good leaders manage to stay focused and steady
regardless of the situation.

John C. Maxwell (1999) says that a leader should help people recognize, develop, and
refine the personal characteristics needed to be a truly effective leader, the kind of
people will want to follow. These are some of the traits of that leader.

1. Character is the quality of a person's behavior as revealed in habits, thoughts and

expressions, attitudes and interests, actions, and personal philosophies in life. Be a
piece of the rock. There are always two paths to choose from: character and
compromise. Choose character.

2. Charisma is a special spiritual gift bestowed temporarily by the Holy Spirit on a group
or an individual for the general good. It is an extraordinary power in a person, group, or
cause, which takes hold of popular imagination and wins popular support.

3. Commitment engages one to do something as a continuing obligation. It is a state of

intellectual and emotional adherence to some political, social, and religious theory of
action.

4. Communication is a two-way process of reaching mutual understanding in which

participants do not only exchange (encode-decode) information but create and share
meaning. The meaning of communication is in the response and not in what is said or
how it is said.

5. Competence indicates a sufficiency of knowledge and skills that enable someone to

act in a wide variety of situations. It is the capacity of a person to understand a situation
and to respond to it accordingly and reasonably. A core competency is fundamental
knowledge, ability, or expertise in a specific area.

6. Courage is the quality of the mind that enables a person to face difficulty and danger
without fear. It begins with an inward battle. It is making things right, not just smoothing
one's over. It inspires commitment from followers. Life expands in proportion to your
courage.
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Bernard Bass (1990) explains that transformational leadership is a form of leadership

that occurs when leaders broaden and elevate the interests of their members, when
they generate awareness and acceptance of the purposes and mission of the group,
and when they stir their members to look beyond their own self-interest for the good of
the group.

Transformational leaders have a clear collective vision, and most importantly they
manage to communicate it effectively to all members. By acting as role models, they
inspire members to put the good of the whole group above self-interest. They also
stimulate members to be more innovative, and they themselves take personal risks and
are not afraid to use unconventional (but ethical) methods to achieve the collective
vision.

This form of leadership goes beyond traditional forms of transactional leadership that
emphasizes corrective action and mutual exchanges and rewards only when
performance expectations are met. Transactional leadership relies mainly on centralized
control. Managers direct most activities by telling each person what to do, when to do
and how to do it. Transformational leaders, on the other hand, trust their subordinates
and give them enough space to breathe and grow.

TRANSACTIONAL AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Transactional leadership is based on power that makes use of rewards and coercion to
deliver benefits to members (patronage), or to force or instill fear as illustrated by
colonization, vote buying, and similar methods.

Transformational leadership or real leadership starts from the recognition of what the
members need and the steps toward achieving these, relating rewards to effort.

The leader acts as a role model. He or she lives out values, demonstrates personal
qualities, is approachable and accessible, and accepts pressure to perform. The leader
treats people as individuals and involves many in decision making, seeks to empower
and give maximum freedom, and is concerned to develop members collectively and
individually.

BEHAVIORS OF A TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADER

1. Is articulate in compelling vision of the future

2. Uses stories and symbols to communicate his or her vision and message

3. Specifies the importance of having a strong sense of purpose and a collective

mission
4. Talks optimistically and enthusiastically and expresses confidence that goals will be
achieved

6. Engenders the trust and respect of his or her followers by doing the right thing rather
than simply doing things right

7. Instills pride in members

8. Talks most about important values and beliefs

9. Considers the moral and ethical consequences of decisions

10. Seeks different perspectives when solving problems

11. Encourages members to challenge old assumptions and to think about problems in
new ways

12. Spends time teaching and coaching

13. Considers each individual member's different needs, abilities, and aspirations

14. Is compassionate, appreciative, and responsive to each member and recognizes

and celebrates each member's achievements

FOUR COMPONENTS OF TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP

1. Charisma. The leader's charisma or idealized influence is envisioning and confident

and he or she sets high standards to be followed.

2. Inspirational Motivation. The leader's inspirational motivation provides followers

with challenges and meaning for engaging in shared goals and undertakings

3. Intellectual Stimulation The leader's intellectual stimulation moves followers to

question assumptions and generate more creative solutions to problems.

4. Individualized Consideration. The leader treats each follower as an individual and

provides coaching, mentoring, and growth opportunities.

The qualities of transformational leadership can be found at different levels: community,

national, and even global communities; and in various sectors of the society. The
leaders are able to translate their vision and commitment into institutional practice.
Transformational leadership is nonhierarchical and participatory in structure process.

It is characterized by high moral and ethical standards in each of the aforementioned

components.
The transformation of values, processes, and institutions would appear as follows:

A. Transformation of values
✓ from power as dominion to power as liberation
✓ from war and conflict to peace
✓ from efficiency consideration to equality and equity (balance between genders)
✓ from growth to sustainability
✓ from "winner-take-all norm" to sharing and caring

B. Transformation of processes
✓ from hierarchical to participatory
✓ from corrupt to clean
✓ from secretive to transparent
✓ from burdensome to empowering

C. Transformation of institutions
✓ from bureaucratic to egalitarian, responsive, and accountable

Moving from transactional leadership to transformational leadership requires a shift in

leadership functions.

1. People are taking more responsibility for own decisions. This situation requires the
leaders to provide conditions for creativity and develop fewer levels of leadership-flatter
structures.

2. Leaders concentrate on strategy to help people respond to the changing world.

In this context, transformational leadership is critical for an organization. The primary

leader needs to come from the members. Leadership cannot be left to the executives.
The organization must grow their own leaders.

Transformational leadership has three types of functions: task functions, team

functions, and individual functions. There has to be balance among the three functions.

1. Transformational leadership and task functions

✓ Defining the tasks— involves others
✓ Making the plan— involves others
✓ Allocating the tasks—involves others rather than the leader giving out tasks
✓ Controlling the tasks—uses peer pressure and self-control rather than being
disciplinary
✓ Checking the performance—more self-management transformational approach
✓ Adjusting the plan—with group review
2. Transformational leadership and team functions
✓ Setting the standards—involves the group
✓ Enforcing discipline
✓ Promoting team spirit
✓ Encouraging and motivating
✓ Developing sub-leaders
✓ Communicating with the group—has to be open and honest
✓ Training—lifelong learning process everyone needs to undergo

3. Transformational leadership and individual functions

✓ Attending to personal problems
✓ Praising individuals, enhancing confidence
✓ Giving status pride
✓ Using abilities of the people within the organization—training as a continuing process
✓ Involving individual in decision-malting processes

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Develop a pool of leaders

✓ find people with basic leadership qualities
✓ widen the "catchment area"
✓ assure a democratic process

Provide knowledge and skills

✓ build leaders' personal capacities
✓ recognize this as a lifelong process

Support active leaders

✓ actively support leaders continuously and not to place them in the position and leave
them there.

There has to be awareness of the framework through which transformational leadership

must operate, emphasizing that an active and informed membership is critical for
effective leadership.

A leader has wholehearted faith and belief in the rightness of a cause. A leader shows
his or her full support to an organization indirectly tells the members to do same.

1. A leader should be energetic, sympathetic, friendly, and understanding to ensure the

enthusiastic cooperation of followers.

2. He or she should have confidence in knowing and doing his or her job to gain the
confidence of followers.
3. He or she should be an example to followers.

SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE

Adapted from Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey (2007).

1. Be Proactive. Proactive means being able to take responsibility for your life. You
have the freedom to choose your behavior and response to stimuli. Use your creativity
and have some initiative. You are the one in charge.

2. Begin with the end in mind. Know where you want to go. When making plans and
decisions, see to it that the time and effort that will be spent conforms to what you want
to achieve. Envision your goal and make it happen.

3. Put first things first. Practice self-management. Know your priorities.

4. Think win-win. Look at life as a cooperative arena, not a competitive one. Enter
agreement or make solution that are mutually beneficial and satisfying to both parties.

5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood. A saying goes, "The best way to
understand is to listen. “The practice of empathy governs this habit. It is about putting
yourself on the shoes of the other person. By listening to his or her explanation, only
then can you evaluate, probe, give advice, and interpret the person's feelings.

6. Synergize. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. More tasks can be done if
all things within reach are maximized and utilized. Synergize is the habit creative
cooperation. Better results can be produced as a group than individuals.

7. Sharpen the saw. What you have learned a couple of years back will have become
outdated. Many things evolve and develop so fast that you need to update through
various food-for-the brain resources. A sense of humor is vital to relieve tension and
boredom as well as to defuse hostility. Effective leaders know how to use humor to
energize his or her followers. Humor is a form of power that provides some control over
the work environment even as it fosters camaraderie.

TEAMWORK

Teamwork is the process of working collaboratively with a group of people in order

achieve a goal. It is often a crucial part of a business as it is often necessary for
colleagues to work well together and try their best in any circumstance. Teamwork
means that people will try to cooperate by using their individual skills and providing
constructive feedback, despite any personal conflict between individuals. Teamwork
brings people together for a common purpose or goal and subordinates the needs of
individuals to the needs of the group. Many management gurus define team as a group
of individuals passionately committed to their end goal. When groups have common
goals, teamwork is vital to success. Teachers expect teamwork among students,
employers expect employees to function effectively as a team, and most organizations
convene teams to handle problems or projects. Therefore, it is important to learn
teamwork even if you prefer to work independently.

What does teamwork look like in action? Basically group members focus on the goal.
They put aside individual differences and petty grievances to get the job done. They
show passion for the project and each contributes to its success.

TIME MANAGEMENT

Adapted from the writing of Paulla Estes edited by Niki Foster (May 28, 2012)

Time management is the art of arranging, organizing, scheduling, and budgeting one’s
time for the purpose of generating more effective work and productivity. There is an
abundance of books, classes, workshops, day-planners, and seminars on time
management, which teach individuals and corporations how to be more organized and
productive. Time management has become crucial in recent years, thanks to the 24/7,
busy world in which we live.

Time management is important for everyone. While time management books and
seminars often place their focus on business leaders and corporations, time
management necessary for students, teachers, factory workers, professionals, and
homemakers. Time management is perhaps most essential for the person who runs a
business of his her own or not. Managing work and home responsibilities under the
same roof takes a special type of time management.

An important aspect of time management is planning ahead. Sometimes successful

management involves putting in more time at the outset in order to reorganize one's life.
Though many time management books and teachings differ in their suggestions, most
agree that the first step in efficient time management is to organize the workspace.
Even if one's schedule is well ordered but the office and filing system are a disaster,
time will be wasted trying to work efficiently in a disorderly place.

After cleaning, purging, and reorganizing the home or office, the next step in time
management is to look at all the activities one participates in during a week. Every last
detail should be written down, including the time it takes to shower, dress, commute,
attend meetings, make phone calls, clean the house, cook dinner, pick up the children
from school, take them to after-school activities, and eat meals. Also include time for
entertainment or exercise, such as driving to the gym, going for a walk, watching
television, or surfing the Internet.

Often, when individuals write down every last activity, they find that there is very little
time left for sleeping. The end result is that many activities must be pared down,
eliminated, consolidated, or delegated. Prioritizing activities on a scale of one to three-
one being the most important and three being the least - can help with this task.
Lastly good time management involves keeping a schedule of the tasks and activities
that have been deemed important. Keeping a calendar or daily planner is helpful to stay
on task, but self-discipline is also required. The most efficient to-do list in the world will
not help someone who does not look at or follow his or her own daily planner.

Of course the other side of the argument is to remember to live. Get on top of your time
management, get organized, and stay on task, but live your life. Schedule some time off
every day and at least one day off each week. Be organized, but do not be a slave to
time management.

DECISION MAKING

Decision making is a process that involves selecting the most logical choice from
among two or more options. For example: deciding whether to move to a new
apartment, to live with in-laws, or stay in the same apartment. Making a decision is
instrumental in survival and prosperity of human beings. The right choice is what sets
an average individual from the rest. Although the ability of making the correct decision
within a short span of time is a highly valued trait, we cannot simply follow a set of
patterns when deciding on a course of action at all points of time. There are different
types of decision making that we all resort to depending on the situation at hand.

Consider the following in decision making:

1. Identification of alternative solutions
2. Evaluation of possible options to determine which one meets objectives
3. Selection of the best option after in-depth evaluation

INVOLVEMENT IN DECISION MAKING

Every group has to make a decision at one time or another and all the members have to
make a commitment to choose the best option available. The following are the different
types of involvement in making decisions:

1. Consensus or agreement involves compromising various possibilities after all

opinions have been heard. Disagreements and minority viewpoints are discussed fully.
Everyone feels free to express themselves. This method helps build understanding,
unity, cooperation, and commitment.

2. Majority voting is considered the most effective way to make a decision. However,
one may lose the interest or loyalty of the minority who voted against the decision,
especially if they feel their side was not heard.

3. The minority is not consciously organized, but a few powerful personalities dominate
the group, often unconsciously. These people later wonder why the others are
apathetic.
4. The silent consensus of some groups leads to unanimous decisions. This type of
involvement in decision making is rarely used on important issues. Unanimous
agreement is sometimes assumed when some members do not want to disagree and
have chosen to stay silent.

5. The clique is a small group who plans beforehand to get their way in decision making.
Because they are better organized than those who disagree, they are often successful
on an immediate issue, but they bring a spirit of rivalry, rather than cooperation, to the
group.

6. The handclasp happens when one person makes a suggestion and another
commends it. Without further discussion, the matter is decided. Resentment, however,
surfaces later on.

7. The one-person decision is quickly made, but later when the decider needs free or
voluntary support from others to implement the decision, he or she might find trouble
getting it.

8. The plop occurs when a group makes a decision by not making a decision at all.
Someone makes a suggestion, but it is dropped like a stone and no one pays any
attention to it.

DIFFICULTIES IN DECISION MAKING

1. Fear of consequences brings division and disagreement.

2. Conflicting loyalties of one person as member of different groups frequently leads to

divided loyalties about decisions.

3. Interpersonal conflicts and personal differences evoke various feelings among

members, which interfere with sound decision making.

4. Hidden agenda or secret motive can hinder decision making for reasons a member
does not share with the group.

5. Blundering methods include using rigid procedures that there is little chance for a free
expression of differences, substituting personal opinions for adequate information, and
disregarding proper consultation or consensus.

6. Inadequate leadership restricts the expression of opinions and discussion on issues.

Leaders fail to provide assistance in selecting appropriate methods for decision making
or are insensitive to the factors that cause difficulty in the group.

7. Clash of interest occurs when different groups or individuals within an organization

have opposing interests.
CONCLUSION

Transformational leadership is an organizational system framework that influences

people to come together around a common vision. One of the marks of a good leader is
the ability to listen, learn, and lead his or her followers toward the attainment of goals.
He or she is adept in teamwork, time management, and decision making.