From "Leadership Style" to "Essential Capacity": Rethinking the role of Transformational Leadership in work organizations.

Transformational Leadership isn't just a style; it's an essential capacity for organizations and leaders and their future success. That's why I'm on a mission to empower people and organizations with the knowledge, resources, and support to grow and optimize Transformational Leadership as an essential capacity for continuously and collaboratively creating a better future for us all.

Wherever your organization is headed, you need Transformational Leadership for the journey.

We need to shift our approach to Transformational Leadership, from a "leadership style" to an "essential capacity".

Our extensive research, empirical evidence, and practical experience have led us to conclude that for organizations and their people to experience long-term success in an ever evolving, highly ambiguous "new normal", organizations and their leaders must inspire, motivate, guide, and empower themselves and others to embrace and harness change in the pursuit of their shared vision and goals as an ongoing, regular part of their work.

This approach to Transformational Leadership has evolved, and continues to develop, through comprehensive, intensive, and continuous study and practice. We have devoted years of research and writing to these issues, reviewing and poring over scientific and industry research on leadership and teamwork, along with many of the monographs, frameworks, and typologies widely adopted as blueprints for defining and operationalizing leadership in business, management, education, nursing, hospitality, and of course leadership development. We regularly consult with scholars and experts in leadership and social change, and prepare White Papers for Coaches and Leadership Development companies based on our research. And, we regularly partner with practitioners in Coaching and Leadership Development to design bespoke leadership development workshops and programs targeting rising managers, directors, and other program administrators in higher education and the pharmaceutical industry who were responsible for not only leading others, but also leading change. Change to the way people approach their work, change to the way work gets done, and change the very culture of the organization.

This is in addition to our personal first-hand experiences with leadership. Throughout my career as a college professor, I had many opportunities to experience the challenges and successes of a growing leader. I was frequently tapped for leadership development training and other opportunities to experiment and develop my leadership style. Through the process of trial and error, and with the guidance and support of exceptional role models,  mentors, and "critical friends", I learned strategies and techniques for collaborating across organizational lines,  recognizing and building on the strengths and intrinsic motivations of people and groups, and shifting my "default" from micromanaging to giving supported autonomy.   My capacity for transformational leadership grew in my roles as a natural leader and mentor, influencing collaboration and positive change through informal networks I'd developed over time.  I experienced success in formal leadership roles, too, guiding teams to success in a number of important project and program and college-wide initiatives, including a review and realignment of the institution's formal research review process, a comprehensive review and design of student learning curriculum, and the assessment of institutional effectiveness for accreditation renewal - just to name a few.

Transformational Leadership, then, is more than just a "style"; it is an essential capacity for leaders to be effective and for organizations to experience future success. Transformational Leadership is facilitated by a complex interplay of mindsets, skills, and behaviors of individuals, but only makes its impact when these are applied in the day-to-day interactions with people, and in the context of situations and workflows of the organization. From this understanding, Transformational Leadership is more than just behaviors of individuals. While individuals may embody behaviors for effective leadership and even occupy social positions and roles where leadership behaviors are expected, leadership itself is not an attribute of any one individual. Rather, leadership lives in and impacts change through the social connections and networks that bind people together.

These are pretty high aspirations for organizations and their leaders, and they are not likely to be successful under traditional, top-down management styles that rely on extrinsic motivators and deny the very people affected the opportunity to meaningfully shape the change. 

Change is a normal part of the journey. Put Transformational Leadership in the driver's seat.

Transformational Leadership involves intentionally and actively shaping perceptions about, orientations toward, and experiences with changes small-to-big.

Transformational Leadership relies on a number of frameworks, concepts, and approaches to leading change; one of these is systems thinking. Transformational Leadership requires the understanding that change is actually a normal feature of any functioning system, no matter the size or complexity. Though change can be abrupt and seemingly disruptive, Transformational Leaders tend to have the positive mindset that change can be defined, harnessed, and leveraged for the common good.

Speaking of the common good, Transformational Leaders genuinely care about the people they lead, not just results they are working to achieve, and they demonstrate through their leadership. They make a concerted effort to enable people to feel a genuine sense of belonging and connection. They actively help people recognize the unique value they bring and understand how their work essentially contributes to the success of others and their organization. Even though they have access to extrinsic motivators, they rely more heavily on the personal, intrinsic sources of motivation to drive higher performance; the kind that add deep meaning and satisfaction to people's work lives propel them to continuous learning and improvement. 

Transformational Leaders also understand that the effectiveness of any organizational change hinges greatly on the individuals involved in and affected by it. Organizational change can affect people in various ways, such as altering their roles, duties, or procedures, leading to redeployment, layoffs, or the transfer of responsibilities to other entities. It might also entail changes in work methods or necessitate training to acquire new skills and knowledge. It is understandable, then, why people may be resistant to change. Given Transformational Leaders' tendency to pay attention to the unique strengths, needs and aspirations of individuals, they play an important role in helping people embrace and harness the change in pursuit of shared vision and goals.

Renowned leadership and change coach Erika Andersen offers insight into this by describing a clear and powerful pattern in how people approach change. When change is first introduced, Andersen explains, people generally want to get clear on three things:

• Why is the change happening?

• What does this change mean to and for me?

• What will it look like when the change has been made?

 As people begin asking these questions, their initial mindsets tend to approach change as difficult, costly, and weird. People are more likely to accept and embrace a change when they shift their mindset from seeing it as difficult, costly and weird to seeing that it could be easy, beneficial, and normal. Oftentimes, the lack of support for and resistance to change stems from getting stuck in this negative mindset. 

Transformational Leadership is essential to helping people make the mindset shift in a positive and supportive way. According to Anderson’s model, leaders and their organizations can help accelerate people through their mindset shift around change by using what Anderson refers to as “Change Levers”. These levers are powerful tools for supporting people through their Change Arc more quickly and easily, helping people get clarity on what matters to them and allowing people to be more “change capable” and changes to be adopted successfully.

In these contexts, principles for Transformational Leadership would suggest that the course of action be to foster trust and secure support, address staff uncertainties, and implement effective communication and engagement initiatives. Moreover, leaders should collaboratively cultivate a culture that embraces flexibility, innovation, and continuous improvement as a way to help their people and teams thrive in an ever-changing landscape. They should engage their people and teams to uncover root causes, clear blockages from the pathway, and be open to creative solutions. These efforts are crucial for sustaining momentum and moving people forward during the change process.

Transformational Leadership involves applying a range of interpersonal and organizational competencies in everyday, contexts and situations, workflows and social interactions.

Anecdotally speaking, I hear a lot of misconceptions about Transformational Leadership and the kinds of expectations we should have for people who take on the roles of a Transformational Leader. Most of these involve where Transformational Leadership comes from, and the types and levels of behaviors and impacts that have the power to be "transformational".

For organizations to optimize the power of Transformational Leadership, it's important to realize that the competencies and capacity for Transformational Leadership can be cultivated and leveraged at all levels of the organization - from c-suite to the front line. People who take on the identity and roles of a Transformational Leader aren't "born leaders"; after all, the behaviors needed to lead others effectively are learned, they aren't inherent qualities. Transformational Leaders realize that being effective in any role requires ongoing constructive feedback, self-reflection, and intentional growth.  They are multi-faceted, and remain open to new ways of thinking and doing, and they certainly don't rely on charisma, even though they are often seen as charismatic by supervisors, peers, and followers alike.

Furthermore, in the contexts and situations of work, the behaviors and impacts of Transformational Leaders aren't necessarily broad in scope. Sure, sometimes, their leadership is to ensure the success of broad initiatives intended to bring about an evolution in an organization's brand or key operations. More often, though, Transformational Leaders take the necessary steps and make meaningful impacts by leading small-shift, big-impact changes by inspiring, encouraging, and empowering their people and teams to make their systems, processes and work cultures and experiences better.

That being said, I think one of the greatest challenges for applying Transformational Leadership is knowing how to apply these understandings to real-world contexts and real-time situations  - from c-suite to the front lines of the organization. In the academic world, we ask questions like, "what are the implications for policy and practice?" or "how is this operationalized, or empirically demonstrated?" To help those in the world of work making the connection between abstract principles and their real-life contexts and situations of the organization, we start by asking a very simple, yet provocative question: "What would a Transformational Leader do...(in this situation, in these circumstances, in response to this event, in this role, etc.)?" Practically speaking, it makes the concept of Transformational Leadership more immediate and relevant, helps to ground key principles in reality, and enables people to reflect on and identify the kinds of strategies, resources and tools to integrate and practice Transformational Leadership as a normal and essential aspect of leading effectively in the organization.

Returning to the challenge of shifting mindsets around change; What would a Transformational Leader do to help facilitate a mindset shift in people and teams, using the insights from Anderson's work discussed earlier? First of all, there's no single answer; after all, every organization and leader is unique. Even so, some of the most important "tools" in the Transformational Leadership toolkit include mindsets and frameworks for taking a systems approach to organizational challenges and a design thinking approach to effectively meeting those challenges. A great example of how these are essential for Transformational Leadership is in the context of resistance to change. From a systems thinking approach, “resistance to change” as a normal part of the change process. Rather than treating resistance as a problem or sign of dysfunction, or taking signs of resistance personally, the Transformational Leader can use strategies and techniques to gain clarity on the way others are thinking about and understanding the change and their perceptions of how it impacts them and the organization. I also helps uncover blind spots change leaders have to the challenges, roadblocks, and opportunities that lie ahead, and demonstrates to people that they are trusted with the truth and valued for their perspective and ideas.

For many leaders and organizations, the demand for Transformational Leadership to drive change outweighs their capacity.

We need to build capacity for Transformational Leadership as an essential capacity of organizations and leaders in the modern world.

My approach to Transformational Leadership as an essential capacity for leaders and organizations began taking shape during my tenure as a college professor and experience designing industry-integrated learning experiences in the Ed Tech space. I performed many different leadership, educator, and learning design roles that raised my awareness and understanding of the growing need for more effective leadership and teamwork in the workplace in an ever-changing world teeming with diversity and complexity. This not only applied to new college graduates; this was a growing need across all career stages, industries, and levels of the organization.

Most college graduates entering the workforce have not been prepared with the mindsets, skills, and habits needed to collaborate effectively as a team in the modern workplace. Students may experience working in small groups with their peers on projects or assignments, but a working group isn't the same as a team. For teams, success is defined and measured by group outcomes, and people depend on one another to achieve a common goal. Team members must put their personal interests aside for the sake of the group. Nor are college students likely to have much real-world experience developing the interpersonal and organizational behaviors needed to effectively lead in a VUCA world. These interpersonal and organizational behaviors are difficult to cultivate in the context of the college classroom, where individual marks are the prime driver of performance and educators feel pressure from many directions to use a solution-oriented, rather than growth-oriented, approach to resolving the kinds of conflict and issues that arise in the context of student group work.

For those who are more established in their professions and careers, the challenges present themselves differently. For instance, in many organizations the criteria for appointment or promotion to a leadership role are often met with evidence of success in technical roles. This is the case across academic and industry settings. The very same individual that enjoyed success as an analyst, for example, does not necessarily have good habits for helping others align on a shared vision or understand how they contribute to the success of the organization.  As a newly appointed leader, they may feel more confident and valuable by continuing to perform in their expert role and respond negatively when questioned or challenged, discouraging open communication and shutting down conversations that are necessary to generate new ideas and ways of approaching problems and opportunities. The fact is, most people need guidance, strategies, and practical resources to successfully make the transition from technical expert to people leader, just as people need support when taking on other significant roles in life. Unfortunately, erroneous assumptions and limited resources means people are often left to navigate this critical shift with little to no meaningful support -much to the dismay of their teams and reports, and their supervisors.

I'm on a mission to help grow capacity for Transformational Leadership.

The bottom line: The world is, and has always been, constantly changing. Even so, a wide range of quantitative and qualitative evidence tells us that change is more rapid and volatile, and the future more difficult to anticipate and complex to comprehend. In these and other conditions of our modern world Transformational Leadership must be "baked into" the leadership approaches and strategies, tools and techniques, and mindsets and behaviors of leaders and their organizations. It's my mission to empower people and organizations with the knowledge, resources, and support to grow and optimize Transformational Leadership as an essential capacity for continuously and collaboratively creating a better future for us all.