ACCA SBL Syllabus A. Leadership - Transformational Theory - Notes ^{5 / 10}

The transactional leader:

• Recognises what it is that we want to get from work and tries to ensure that we get it if our performance merits it

• Exchanges rewards and promises for our effort

• Is responsive to our immediate self interests if they can be met by getting the work done.

The Transformational leader

• Raises our level of awareness about the significance and value of designated outcomes, and ways of reaching them

• Gets us to transcend our own self-interest for the sake of the team, organisation or larger polity

• Alters our need level (after Maslow) and expands our range of wants and needs

Transformational Leaders are visionary leaders who seek to appeal to their followers better nature and move them toward higher and more universal needs and purposes. In other words, the leader is seen as a change agent

It is impossible to say how effective transformational leadership is with any degree of certainty.

We will return to some questions around charisma later – but first we need to briefly examine the nature of authority in organisations (and the relationship to leadership).

Authority

Frequently we confuse leadership with authority.

Authority is often seen as the possession of powers based on formal role. In organisations we obey managers because we see their exercise of power as legitimate. It may also be that we fear the consequences of not following their orders or ‘requests’.

We may also follow them because they show leadership. As we have seen, the latter is generally something more informal

In this way, leaders don’t simply influence; they have to show that crises or unexpected events and experiences do not faze them.

Leaders may have formal authority, but they rely in large part on informal authority. This flows from their personal qualities and actions. They may be trusted, respected for their expertise, or followed because of their ability to persuade.

The leader also relies on ‘followers’ for feedback and contributions. Without these they will not have the information and resources to do their job. Leaders and followers are interdependent.

People who do not have formal positions of power can also enjoy informal authority. In a football team, for example, the manager may not be the most influential person. It could be an established player who can read the game and energise that colleagues turn to. 

Charisma
Before moving on it is important to look at the question of charisma.

Charisma is, literally, a gift of grace or of God

Such leaders gain influence because they are seen as having special talents or gifts that can help people escape the pain they are in

When thinking about charisma we often look to the qualities of particular individuals - their skills, personality and presence. But this is only one side of things.

To make our lives easier we may want to put the burden of finding and making solutions on someone else. In this way we help to make the role for ‘charismatic leaders’ to step into.

They in turn will seek to convince us of their special gifts and of their solution to the crisis or problem.

When these things come together something very powerful can happen. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the problem is dealt with - but we can come to believe it is. Regarding such leaders with awe, perhaps being inspired in different ways by them, we can begin to feel safer and directed. This can be a great resource.

Someone like Martin Luther King used the belief that people had in him to take forward civil rights in the United States. He was able to contain a lot of the stress his supporters felt and give hope of renewal. He articulated a vision of what was possible and worked with people to develop strategies.

Steve Jobs used his charisma with Apple to take it from a small failing tech company to the biggest company in the world

But there are also considerable dangers.

By placing people on a pedestal the distance between ‘us’ and ‘them’ widens. They seem so much more able or in control.

Rather than facing up to situations, and making our own solutions, we remain followers (and are often encouraged to do so).

Just as we turned to charismatic leaders, we can turn against them. Especially when, or if, he has not made things better. It might be that some scandal or incident reveals the leader in what we see as a bad light. Whatever, we can end up blaming, and even destroying, the leader.