When performing in a job, employment duty is usually imagined in terms of an exchange of value. An individual is hired by a company, fills a role and receives a set of tasks to perform in that role. In performing the tasks, he or she creates value, which is received by the company or the manager (in smalled or medium sized entities that person is often also the owner). To end the exchange, a monetary compensation or remuneration for this value created flows in the opposite direction. The essence of this principle is a transfer or exchange of value. This is known as a transaction and this type of relationship between leader and follower is called transactional leadership.
In transactional model, leadership is something that “a leader does to a follower”. Today we are in an era of understanding leadership as a relationship: leadership is what exists between a leader and the followers. Leadership motivates us to act and directs us towards a common goal. In 1978, the historian James Burns formulated a new model of leadership, which he presented as a polar opposite of aforementioned transactional model. It is a model that alters this traditional perception. It is called transformational leadership.
Explanation of the model
A relationship between leader and follower must be such that it transforms both to a higher level of action, namely to a higher level of motivation and morality. Higher levels of motivation occur when followers no longer satisfy basic needs through work (see motivation post for more), but instead shift their attention to satisfying higher-level needs and thus pursuing prestige and self-fulfilment. At work, they are no longer task-performers, but vision-followers. It is a leader’s job to shape the vision, share it among the members of the organisation and then sustain it in the long term. Higher morality is manifested in the desire to achieve the common good. Followers become (equal) partners, the leader wants to achieve a higher self-concept in them and, as a servant leader, help them to grow. The end result of this form of leadership is followers who are actively involved in the organisation and demonstrate a high level of loyalty.
A “transformation” quality that gave this model its name takes many forms. Roles, positions, tasks, distribution of power, etc. within this model are altered. In the very best implementation of this model, members of the organisation internalise a shared vision. This means that they take it as their own, or, simply, that they themselves want what the vision represents. This allows us in an organisation to let go of control and let trust enter (“soft control” is exercised through sharing of the vision), to rely on our own thinking and ideas (important for the development of self-esteem and self-confidence), to have a possibility of personal expression and self-fulfilment (as personal ideas are in line with the needs of the organisation), and so on.
Conclusion
I hear about one thing time and time again. About leaders who are desperate and angry about their workplace situation for others around them not contributing and not being actively engaged. Then, those same leaders don’t share information, keep the power for making decisions all for themselves, and so on. They are desperate for that result of active participation, but are at the same time making sure that it will never happen.
If we want other to participate, and to do it actively, we need to actually involve them! We need to share information and share ideas. We need to have the skill to align our efforts not with control, but rather with communication – and that is a big big shift.
If we delegate power (to make decisions), we enable others to express themselves and to follow self-actualisation (that is, we awaken high-level needs and high-level motivation). If we share information, we enable us all to be on the same page and enable our efforts to be good, to be accurate, in line with our common trajectory (and at the end not to be discarded by the boss). If you want active participation, then allow it! Be a transformative leader and you will allow your colleagues to be equally engaged partners.
Paradim 