Are you looking to be a transformational leader? Companies invest a lot of time and money in recruiting and developing their leaders.
You only have to look on LinkedIn to see how many companies are focused on training people to become better leaders.
The emphasis is often on developing ‘transformational’ leaders. These leaders inspire their team members to go above and beyond. These leaders prioritise the group rather than the individual needs. They show more motivation at work and maintain a stimulating work environment.
However, according to EBW Global in 2020, ‘transformational’ leaders are not effective all the time. In some cases, transformational leadership simply does not have the expected impact.
What is one of the disadvantages of transformational leadership?
Put simply, it's not effective for everybody.
The EBW report by Phillip Gilmore from George Mason University (Virginia), showed that ‘transformational’ leadership did not significantly improve creativity. Nor did it ‘help behaviours’ in already positive employees. Gilmore concluded that these employees do not appear to need what transformational leaders offer.
Gilmore suggests that ‘transformational’ leaders are much more effective with employees who are low on energy and melancholic. This is because these employees feel that the leadership style really makes a difference. If the type of leadership practice suits them, they are more likely to be achieving goals and won't lose faith in their leader as a role model.
EBW believe that historically, leadership experts have pushed the transformational leadership style for good reason. Transformational leaders such as Mohandas Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King, Jr., played crucial roles in transforming peoples' identity and aspirations.
However, what this research suggests is that in a business context, leaders need to tailor their styles rather than use a one-size-fits-all approach.
How can you lead different types of people?
Leaders need to understand and assess their team and the situational context in which they work.
Investing in different leadership styles for different team members will pay off in the long term. Catering for their working styles will get them performing at a higher level. So if we are leading an organisation which is growing rapidly, attracting ambitious, motivated individuals to join it, we need to adopt a different style. A transactional leadership style might be more appropriate here. Or you these employees might enjoy a visionary leader, who provides them with a united vision. Here are the ways to develop visionary leadership.
In contrast, if you are leading a struggling business with employees who are demotivated and feeling overwhelmed by the challenges they face, you might want to be more transformational. Or you might need to lead more emphatically. Being empathetic is one of the qualities of a good business leader and to be it, you need to understand your team and how they tick. You could use a tool, such as a DiSC Assessment which will help to improve productivity and motivation in the workplace.
Overall though, we need to understand our most authentic leadership style and how to change our style to suit the nature of the team we are working with. This will ensure we get the best out of them. A tough ask and one that many of us struggle to achieve without a significant level of help and support.
Whoever said leadership was easy?
But working out what’s going to be effective in terms of our style of leadership may pay greater dividends in improved business performance than we thought. And if it impacts on that bottom line then it’s got to be one more thing worth working on!
