Effective Leadership: How Transformational Leaders Inspire and Motivate

As said by Jack Welch, honing people’s self confidence is the most important thing you can ever do because then they act on their own.

A transformational leader is a type of leader with characteristic traits and behavior which would positively impact the work ethic of employees, pushing them to perform better in their roles. In the year 1985, psychologist Dr. Bernard Bass published a book called, Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectations. The book was considered a major breakthrough in understanding this unique leadership style, the results they achieve and why employees go the extra mile, realize their potential and exceed expectations for such transformational leaders.

What Sets Transformational Leader Apart

Transformational leaders showcase traits like consideration, empathy, enable employees make independent decisions, inspire them intellectually, motivate and empower them to perform to their potential in both their work and personal life. A field study of employees by Louise Nemanich and Robert Keller in the year 2007, concluded that this leadership style had a positive impact on integration of employees post acquisition.

The ability of such leaders to create a supportive work environment, encourages employees to think creatively. Finding innovative solutions requires research, team work and quick decision making skills, which in turn helps employees develop strong characteristic traits in the long run.

Here are 4 reasons why transformational leaders have engaged, motivated and healthy employees:

Trust

Trust is defined as the belief one person has on another that the said action will be completed with honesty. Researches such Shamir, B., Arthur and House conducted a study called The rhetoric of charismatic leadershipand concluded that trust is an important emotion when it comes to the relationship between a leader and a follower and how the level of trust a follower has determines their performance.

Transformational leaders foster environments, workplace cultures which encourage favorable emotions and are built on a foundation of mutual trust.

Increased engagement

In today’s time and age business environment is uncertain and unpredictable. A study by Glassdoor in 2016 reported that 53% of employees were confident of finding a comparatively equal job in 6 months if they did not have a strong reason to stay back at their current job.

Transformational leaders provide goal clarity and encourage employees to voice their opinions. These opinions do not go waste, they are listened to, considered and are taken action on. Such behavior shows employees how their contributions are valued and develops the tone for an interactive workplace.

Innovative work behaviour

With this leadership style employees are encouraged to think outside the box, follow approaches like design thinking, use their intellectual knowledge to solve problems at the workplace. When employees can play the field on their own to achieve a specified goal, it cultivates engagement, innovative work behaviour, decision making skills amongst them.

A study published in the European Journal of Innovation Management found that employees under leaders who encouraged innovative solutions, continued learning, and provided them with opportunities to use their skills, were motivated to better achieve organizational goals.

Empowerment

Transformational leadership significantly impacts the psyche of an employee, as they make employees feel competent in their jobs, provide goal clarity and encourage innovation and independent decision making.

According to a study by Nurdan Ozaralli, leaders who focused on teamwork, communication, providing feedback and implementing ideas developed a sense of empowerment among employees, which leads to increased job satisfaction.

As said by Henry Ross Perot, when honest mistakes are punished, creativity is stifled. Leaders should encourage innovation, provide them with direction, listen to their ideas, show them how their contributions are valued, and push them to realise their intellectual potential. Such employees fare better not only in business but also their personal lives.