Has “transformational leadership” lost its impact as a rallying cry in corporate America due to overuse? Great ideas can wear out if the ignorant overuse them to appear clever. Even if the central idea has tremendous value, it loses its ability to inspire. This burnout comes from too many sycophants (or consultants!) walking around mindlessly spouting it, not understanding how it has to work to be effective.
Throw away the bath water. Stay with the baby.
A great idea like “transformational leadership” deserves to be brought back and rehabilitated whenever we see it slipping into cliché. It has real value because it accurately describes a truly useful mindset for leaders who want to build sustainable productive cultures within their area of responsibility.
Let’s put aside the meaningless repetition of the phrase as “business language” and take the time to understand the original intent behind the phrase and how to use it correctly. Let’s review the core concept:
Transformation vs. Transaction
We emphasize “transformation” in an effort to distinguish “transactional leaders” from leaders who innovate, engage, encourage, and motivate (the latter two are not the same thing) their teams to perform at higher levels of steady way. Not for a month, or a special project, but all the time.
- The verb “transact” implies performing a series of tasks. Most of the leaders that show up go that far. Transactional leaders drive performance. They focus on results and “get what they can” with limited time and resources.
- The verb “transform” captures what a leader must do to create a fully engaged, highly productive, and innovative workforce. Transformational leaders are also focused on results, but they solve the problem of limited resources by unlocking additional productivity within their team, fully engaging with them in order to harness more of each team member’s inherent capabilities, energy, and desire.
Transformational leaders view employee engagement as “Job 1.”
Transactional leaders get things done. They focus the energy that their staff is willing to give (around 60% in most companies) to achieve the goals assigned to the team. They hit the mark, as an actor would say, but they don’t win any academy awards because they don’t go further. They are trustworthy, but not inspiring.
A transformational leader must also be trustworthy and hit the mark. But such leaders create a culture that produces results en masse almost as a byproduct of their contribution, constantly moving the organization forward, regardless of specific goals dictated by management, because employees simply want and enjoy the challenge.
Going from “transact” to “transform” is the hard part of leadership, and it’s the leap that many assigned leaders (those in official leadership roles) fail to make.
This failure is not for lack of desire to be the best. Most people want to be successful and get recognition for what they accomplish. But if your organization doesn’t provide the training, tools, and permission to build a sustainable productive culture, team leaders won’t make the transition from transactional to transformational.
If you want to become a transformational leader within your organization, start by adopting a more engaging communication style that is grounded in personal responsibility and action-oriented:
Eliminate the “Blame Game”:
- Take the lead in identifying and interceding in conversations that involve blame or adopt “victim status.” Teach your team members to let go of the need to blame and instead embrace your future-focused mindset.
- Redirect the energy in the group by asking “What can we do now?” We call this “maintaining a next action focus.” It is your job to train everyone to adopt that mindset permanently.
- Publicly accept personal responsibility for any outcome, good or bad. Challenge your people to do the same and never stop leading by example.
Opening announcements:
- Stop directing, start listening and supporting. If you’re always talking, you’ll never hear about a problem or a new idea.
- Expand your definition of “need to know.” Committed employees need to know a lot about the company’s goals, its limitations, and the truth behind those energy-sapping rumors. Employees work harder if they know how their puzzle piece strategically fits.
Communicate with a “next action focus”:
- In meetings, define the desired outcomes for each discussion
- Turn every discussion you have about the job of cause of trouble what to do next
- End each meeting with a summary of mutually agreed actions
- Follow up based on these actions. You must be reliable and predictable in applying these habits to all interactions with your coworkers.
Whenever you meet with your team members (one-on-one or in meetings), focus relentlessly on just these three key communication habits or mindsets, and you’ll find that conversations between you and your team will steadily improve, usually within a few minutes. 90 days. Set a goal to make these habits standard behavior within your team, and keep that goal at the top of your to-do list forever!
Great leaders, at any level within an organization, are transformational and not just transactional. They work hard to inspire performance through engagement rather than bullwhip supervision. Leaders who embrace a transformational mindset will achieve greater success simply because the people who follow them will bring more passion to what they do.
