Transformational leaders are the leaders I truly admire. In 1978, Burns introduced the idea of transformational leadership concept. Burn describes transformational leadership as leaders and followers encourage each other to a higher level of moral and motivation. Transformational leadership are able to inspire followers to change expectations, perceptions, and motivations to work towards common goals.
Although the idea of transformation leadership is inspiring but is it difficult for many leaders to apply this leadership style as every individual is different with different strengths and weaknesses. I personally believe people who are to able to adopt transformational leadership style are very much depend on individual’s characteristics and beliefs. These leaders tend to be more engaging with their followers by paying attention to the need of their followers, be encouraging to create positive environment and providing a clear vision.
Bass later suggested four different elements of transformational leadership linking Intellectual Stimulation, Individualized Consideration, and inspirational Motivation, and idealized influence. (Bass and Riggio, 2008)
There are many leaders I can think of by looking at Bass’ Model of transformational leadership.However, among all the leaders I have studied, Richard Branson inspires me the most. Reason why I look upon Richard Branson is not only because of his successful career records and excellent leadership style, he simply motivates me by seeing how he started his business to where he is now. This has made me realize I can be successful too. I have great passion in music but I come from a construction background. I used to think that it is impossible to do what I truly enjoy to be successful. By looking at Richard Branson case inspires me to have positive thinking towards my career path. I greatly admire how he started off with music industry to what he is now. We could basically see his shadow which is the Virgin band everywhere in the UK. This is what I wish to achieve in the future.
However, a leader does not necessarily needs a high qualification on studies to be successful. Let’s look at Bill Gates and Steve Jobs cases, Bill Gates who dropped out of Harvard is now the richest man in the world, the lack of degree certainly did not slow Bill Gates to grow in his business. (Malone, 2007) Similarly, Steve Jobs who has created the most inspiring technology brand now has a dropout record from Reed College in 1972. (CNN, 2013)
The feedbacks I have received from my colleagues are generally good. I do not take good as good because I believe there is always room for improvement. I have figured that knowing my true self is more important than getting feedbacks from colleagues these feedbacks may not be true. People generally do not like to create conflicts by being too honest while working together, unless that particular person is open for criticism and willing to change. Based on my past experience in leading people at my workplace and university, I have realized leading a diverse team is a challenging task as compared to leading people who share the same culture. I used to have the mind-set of getting work done is more important than teamwork. I tend to help my team members by getting their work done in a group work. After that I have realized this is not a right way to lead a team. A great leader must be able to engage with team members and to assist them when they have problem. Therefore, this has somehow changed me to stop spoon feeding my team members.
As I have mentioned earlier, transformational leadership is what I want to achieve but judging based on my experience as a senior at my workplace and group leader at university, I seem to fall under laissez-faire leadership. Laissez-faire leadership often catergorized under poor leadership style and I do not agree with it. (Johnson, 2015) Laissez-faire leadership can be effective in situation where group members are highly skilled and capable of working their own. (Cherry, 2015) For example, Warren Buffet very much stay hands-off with his managment style as he has always working with people that he knows can perform their job on their own wihout his guidance. He only interferes when bad situation occurred. At times, he allows mistakes to happen so everyone could from them. (Advice America, 2015)
Finally, although I am no where near to becoming a transformational leader, I believe there are still some qualities of leadership in me to lead a team. I strive to improve myself to learn, encounter challenges and accept change to become a better leader.
List of References
1. Advise America (2015), ‘Famous Laissez Faire Leaders’ [online] available from http://www.adviseamerica.com/famous-laissez-faire-leaders/ [1st April 2015]
2. Bass, B. M & Riggio, R. E. (2008) Tranformational Leadership. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrenace Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
3. Burns, J. M. (1978) Leadership. N.Y: Harper and Raw.
4. Cherry, K. (2015) ‘What Is Laissez-Faire Leadership?’ [online] available from http://psychology.about.com/od/leadership/f/laissez-faire-leadership.htm [1st April 2015]
5. CNN (2013), ‘Steve Jobs Fast Facts’ [online] available from http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/23/us/steve-jobs-fast-facts/ [1st April 2015]
6. Johnson, R. (2015) ‘5 different types of leadership styles’ [online] available from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/5-different-types-leadership-styles-17584.html [1st April 2015]
7. Malone, S. (2007), ‘Drop out Bill Gates returns to Harvard for Degree’ [online] available from http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSN0730259120070607?irpc=932 [accessed 1st April 2015]
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