Leadership that Transforms & Delivers - Motivation Style

James McGregor Burns wrote about leadership, motivation and influence styles in the 1970s distinguishing transactional from transformational leaders. (Are you a transformational leader? Take this assessment and find out). Transactional leaders improve organizational efficiency, transformational leaders steer organizations onto a better course of action.

Much management theory at the time subscribed to the transactional approach of offering contingent rewards for specific behaviors or results, managing by exception (using corrective measures to keep work on track or to punish unacceptable performance) or using a laissez-faire, hands off approach, letting the chips fall where they may.

Transformational or charismatic leadership, on the other hand, seeks to increase employees' efforts by contributing to their sense of self-esteem and self-efficacy. Transformational leaders seek to tie peoples' personal values to larger (e.g. organizational or communal) initiatives thereby increasing the intrinsic value of achieving those initiatives.

They raise the level of awareness and consciousness about the importance, significance and value of particular outcomes. I can't help but think of Jack Nicholson's line to Helen Hunt in As Good As It Gets, "You make me wanna be a better man." That's the impact of a transformational leader.

These leaders direct others toward a new set of values and behaviors, a better course of action. They find (or create) a unifying purpose and commonly held goals that inspire people to transcend self-interests in pursuit of something grand and noble.

Transformational leaders engage the hearts and minds of employees by using participatory decision making to involve employees in the process of shaping the organization's vision and reaching agreement about strategies and tactics.

Their words, symbols and stories build contagious enthusiasm that energizes people. While their approach is often bold, they are able to find significance and vision-relevance in even the most mundane of activities. Transformational leaders demonstrate a 'can do' attitude and 'walk the talk'. They expect, get and reward innovative thinking and action from others and model that behavior themselves.

They rely less on hierarchy and more on interdependent work relationships. Transformational leaders express genuine interest in their staff. They invest time and energy in mentoring and guiding staff members toward the highest unfoldment of each individual's skills and abilities. Developing the people around them is important to them. They pride themselves their ability to on nurture the growth of others.

Transformational leaders subordinate their own personal goals for the benefit of their staff, organization and/or the lofty goal being pursued. Loyalty on both sides of the equation is high. Followers share their leader's values and vision, they admire the leader and see him or her as a role model. As a result, they continually strive to match the leaders high expectations of them to gain and keep their leader's respect. In doing so, they outperform even their own expectations, literally moving mountains in the process.

Leadership that Transforms & Delivers - Trust & Integrity

Transformational leaders tend to be more relationship focused than other leaders. They create a strong sense of trust among the people with whom they work. They not only talk about their vision, they enact it. They “walk the talk” by doing things that symbolize and model their vision. They are reliable and consistent in their actions. They stay on course, true to their purpose and ideals, reinforcing the idea that they can be trusted.

What is trust? Trust, according to Dr. Susan D Boon and Holmes, is “a positive expectation that another will not – through words, actions, or decisions – act opportunistically”. When you trust someone, you expect that they will not take advantage of you. This reinforces the idea that transformational leaders act and inspire others to act for the ‘greater good’ rather than merely in pursuit of their own individual gains and rewards.
Diego Gambetta says trust is an “internal judgment which may be inferred from external action”. So how do leaders evoke trust?

James Kouzes and Barry Posner offer five key dimensions that underlie the concept and experience of trust: integrity, competence, consistency, loyalty and openness.

Recently, I was on a conference call with the leadership team of the Black Professional Coaches Alliance. We spoke about integrity and what it meant to us. In its simplest form, I said that integrity is telling the truth, doing what you say you’ll do, being reliable. On a grander scale, it’s living consistent with your own internal value system, your core principles and ideals. Transformational leaders have clearly articulated and strongly felt values that guide their actions – that keep them in integrity with themselves, allowing them to be fully transparent to the people around them.

Leaders must demonstrate a level of technical and interpersonal competence, knowledge and skill. They don’t need to know everything, but they must possess enough wisdom that people respect and are willing to follow them. People must have confidence that the leader will be able to do what he or she promises and will deliver on commitments made.

Consistency relates to a leader’s reliability, predictability and good judgment. If there are regular discrepancies between a leader’s words and actions, credibility will be lost. The phrase “Do as I say, not as I do” is the antithesis of transformational leadership.

Loyalty is the willingness to protect and save face for another person. It speaks to the concern transformational leaders show for the people they lead. It reflects an elevation of the needs of others as they pursue the organizations goals. When someone has demonstrated great loyalty, it inspires others to reciprocate and take actions or risks they might otherwise have avoided.

Openness is the propensity for full disclosure, being vulnerable, with no hidden agendas. When it appears that all cards to be on the table, people feel secure and comfortable that they can reasonably predict future events. They aren’t working in a vacuum, or feeling uncertain about the environment in which they are operating.

How do you build trust? Fernando Bartolome and I offer some suggestions.
Practice openness – inform people about decisions you make and the criteria you use to make them. Disclose relevant information.

Share your feelings – let people see that you’re ‘human’. You don’t have to act out your feelings, but saying “I’m really angry or frustrated” will let people stay connected with you while you work through your issues.

Tell the truth – nothing damages trust more than being lied to.
Deliver on your promises – do what it takes to make your commitments happen when you say they will. As soon as you realize they might not happen, make a new agreement rather than hoping no one will notice.

Be fair and consistent in your treatment of others – favoritism alienates and puts people working at cross-purposes. Inconsistent behavior causes confusion and wasted energy as people try to figure out how you’ll respond this time.

Trust others yourself – Believe in people. Expect them to ‘do the right thing’. See people as capable, willing and committed. Remember the Pygmalion principle. People rise or fall according to your beliefs in them.

Leadership that Transforms & Delivers - Vision

As you may remember, recenlty I announced that a book on leadership was in the making. The title has been morphed slightly to Leadership that Transforms…and Delivers. Transformation is a wonderful thing, but results in the real world are the evidence that transformation has truly occurred. And insightful planning and flawless execution are the source of results.
I have scheduled and held several interviews with key leaders and am still looking for other leaders to include. I am especially interested in people outside of the Phoenix area that I could interview by phone. If you know leaders who have touched or inspired you deeply, please email me info@emharv.com and recommend them.

This installment is on Vision. “Vision is that dream you have for yourself and the world. It creates a gap between the way things are and the way they could be…A shared vision, especially one that is intrinsic, uplifts people's aspiration. Work becomes part of pursuing a larger purpose embodied in the organization's products or services…or embodied in the style climate and spirit of the organization “Shared visions compel courage so naturally that people don't even realize the extent of their own courage. They foster risk-taking and experimentation.” Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline

I recently lead a workshop on Leadership that Transforms & Delivers. We pondered many questions in that workshop.

• What's the legacy you want to leave?

What characteristics or qualities do you want to bring forth in your community or organization?

How can you make this world a better place?

What kind of person do you have to become to create that brand new world?


“Corporate Mystics have a gift for engaging people in big dreams. They can stand in a future that does not exist and map out the details of how to get there.”