Foundations of Educational Leadership
Introduction
The aim of this paper is to analyze the concept of ‘transformational leadership.’ To achieve this purpose, the book “7 Principles of transformational leadership: Create a mindset of passion, innovation and growth” by Hugh Blane (2017) is used. In the labor world, the most valuable asset of successful organizations, teams, and individuals is mindset. Organizational success goes beyond corporate strategy, sales compensation plan, and market-entry strategies. The concept of transformational leadership helps overcome the challenging aspects that overwhelm leaders. Throughout 7 principles of transformational leadership, Blane (2017) demonstrates approaches that leaders employ to promote human development and steer leadership transformation. Besides, Blane (2017) emphasizes that leaders execute strategic priorities, retain the best talent, cascade excellence, command followership, and exhibit a professional life with unbridled passion and purpose. These measures boost performance, revenue growth, and relationship growth.
Seven (7) Principles of Transformational Leadership
Through chapter one to chapter seven, the seven principles of transformational leadership, i.e., purpose, promise, projects, persuasion, praising, perseverance, and preparation, are explored. In reference to Blane (2017), the following propositions structure the arguments for this paper:
- Living personal and professional lives with unbridled passion and purpose is key to transformational leadership.
- Promises are a tool for influencing people’s behavior in transformational leadership.
- Acting smaller, mastering your mindset, cultivating ruthless focus, creating white space, and hiring a coach are prerequisites of a transformational leadership project.
- Transformational leadership demands persuasion of others by building strong relationships, valuing others, and providing solutions to problems.
- Eliminating a leader’s negative mindset is an essential aspect of the praising principle.
- Asking for advice rather than feedback assists transformational leaders in persevering.
- In transformational leadership, failure to prepare adversely affects results and performance.
Living personal and professional lives with unbridled passion and purpose is key to transformational leadership.
Transformational leaders live their personal and professional lives with unrestricted passion and purpose. Creating a culture that empowers employee performance, talent, and skills growth help clearly define the organization’s purpose. Leaders who set clear purpose find leadership and relationship building with the subordinates easier. Successful leaders have hopes, dreams, and aspirations for their personal and professional life (Blane, 2017). Leaders nurture this to create a team spirit where revenue growth, employee performance, and relationship growth are modeled. Setting a clear purpose empowers satisfaction. Clarity in terms of competencies, expectations, value, results, and accountability results in dramatic performance. Besides, clarity and focus cascade new strategies, insights, and behaviors that unprecedentedly transform organizations and individuals. This indicates that the leaders’ level of enthusiasm and engagement skyrockets when they clearly define the purpose of a project.
In transformational leadership, purpose propels greatness. Successful transformational leadership demands that leaders be able to align the organization’s overall purpose to their talent, i.e., employees. To achieve this objective, retaining the best and brightest talent is fundamental. Transformational leaders propel greatness by adopting the three dimensions of purpose, i.e., talent, love, and value (Blane, 2017). The presence of love promotes employee learning, growth, and performance improvement. Retaining the best and brightest talent propels relationship building and improved productivity. Creating value in leadership upholds employees and customers’ welfare, helping propel initiative and customers satisfaction. For transformational leaders to achieve the defined purpose, being distinct is vital. Also, defining an organization’s purpose is aligned to its brand. Brands create loyalty and value. This aligns with Blane’s (2017) argument that leaders’ brands act as a catalyst for transformational leadership and growth. Thus, a good transformational leader develops his/her individual brand through purpose.
Promises are a tool for influencing people’s behavior in transformational leadership
The term promise (Blane, 2017) is an abiding commitment, assuring to complete or not to compete doing something. Purposeful and objective promises are about trust and credibility and strongly impact performance. In transformational leadership, promises include delivering work on budget, meeting deadlines, following through on a colleague’s commitment, and acting in manners that promote organizational purpose. In transformational leadership, promises serve as a tool to influence behavior. According to Blane (2017), promises influence the behavior of people in one of two ways; a kept promise builds respect, trust, and credibility, and a broken promise does vice versa. Broken promises adversely affect the relational aspects of transformational leadership. While working in a team, the failure to keep a promise by a team member affects other people’s behavior, effort, and dedication negatively. For promises to positively influence other people’s behavior, transformational leaders ensure that the promises align with the organizational purpose, clarify expectations and results, and have a clear communication process.
Transformational leaders make promises to themselves, employees, customers, senior leaders, and their families. All of these five elements play a major role in transformational leadership as they cultivate a spirit of teamwork, creativity and innovation, and initiative. Leadership success demands that transformational leaders fulfill their promises to deliver upon the defined purpose (Blane, 2017). This thrives when respect and trust are in place. However, promising to deliver on priorities that lack purpose is a channel for lower performance. Setting correct priorities is a substantial perspective of transformational leadership development associated with significant benefits. Leaders who declare their promises and align them to the purpose principle find it easy to accomplish transformational work and create a mindset of innovation, passion, and growth. A defined and compelling purpose results in clarity, control, consistency, commitment, credibility, confidence, community, openness, collaboration, and courage. All the benefits surround the promises principle and are fundamental to influencing people’s behavior in transformational leadership.
Acting smaller, mastering your mindset, cultivating ruthless focus, creating white space, and hiring a coach are prerequisites of a transformational leadership project
Projects are considered a leadership development exercise (Blane, 2017). Projects are a vehicle for creating high-meaningful, value, fun, and change in transformational leadership. A transformational leadership project employs five strategies, i.e., acting smaller, mastering mindset, cultivating focus, creating excellence, and hiring a coach. Thinking small in relation to what a leader seeks to achieve or is capable of is the surest strategy to achieving the bigger purpose of a transformational project (Blane, 2017). For example, doing smaller daily actions helps achieve the purpose of an organization’s transformational project. The success of a transformational leadership project requires a leader to hold tightly to the small aspects needed to cascade success throughout the next quarter. Under the strategy of mastering mindsets, transformational leaders carefully select the thoughts they welcome to permeate their thinking and decisions. Mastering your mindset is a practical and pragmatic approach for transforming a leadership project.
Cultivating a ruthless focus is another prerequisite of a transformational leadership project. Compelling leadership projects are easy to focus on. Transformational leaders have the duty to cultivate a relentless focus when people start setting priorities that contradict the leadership project’s priorities. Besides, creating a white space allows leaders and employees to unwind, refresh, disconnect, and unplug from busy schedules set to achieve the purpose of the transformational leadership project (Blane, 2017). This is a form of work-life balance that boosts performance and results. Hiring a coach is the last prerequisite for transformational leadership projects. Effective leadership requires leaders to have followers. Mentors and coaches are catalysts for improved project performance. These five (5) strategies, when properly incorporated into a leadership project, ensure and boost project success. The bottom line is that flourishing transformational leadership projects require flourishing employees, customers, and leaders.
Transformational leadership demands persuasion of others by building strong relationships, valuing others, and providing solutions to problems
As explained by (Blane 2017), persuasion is the art of causing someone to do something through reason and cause someone to believe something after a sustained effort. The ability to persuade people to act or think in a certain direction defines a transformational leader. In order to persuade people to behave in approaches that propel the leadership’s purpose, priorities, promises, and projects, the starting point is first understanding and modeling their thoughts, beliefs, and feelings to conform to the organization’s initiatives, goals, and purpose. The transformational leadership persuasion process (Blane, 2017) comprises three parts: building strong relationships based on respect and trust, comprehending the priorities and objectives of other people, and offering solutions that assist people meet their set priorities. Leaders who incorporate the three steps enjoy the persuasion vital to leading project transformation in compelling and powerful ways. These steps are the building blocks for persuasion success.
Trust and respect are foundational in successful persuasion. Losing trust and respect towards a leader, colleague, or teammate means they have little-or-no persuasive power over you. In transformational leadership, trust involves staying loyal and being credible. Respect involves exhibiting high and positive regard for the skills and talents of other people. Transformational leaders nurture respect and trust, making it possible to persuade people, employees, and teams (Blane, 2017). Also, employees persuade leaders of their performance to get privileges like promotion. For example, teams that accomplish results within the promised timeline persuade transformational leaders to reward them. The ability to persuade depends on the level of respect and trust a person has in the other. Individual employees and teams who exhibit these traits persuade the senior executives to invest in programs that cultivate transformational leadership. Leaders and the workforce need to raise persuasion power through trust and respect; this infuses accountability into situations.
Eliminating a leader’s negative mindset is an essential aspect of the praising principle
A negative mindset hinders praising (Blane, 2017). Transformational leaders nurture employee confidence which amounts to a tremendous competitive business advantage. Portraying a negative mindset on employees’ abilities by leaders prevents effective praising. Transformational leaders recognize that personnel’s uncertainties and fears are typical – and that their basic role is converting employees’ fears into profitable praise actions. Negative mindset by leaders prevents effective praising, hindering transformational leadership success. Studies by Blane (2017) assert that the biggest inhibitor to effective praising and performance of employees is their mindset. In today’s business world, the suitable approach to transformational results is cultivating a positive mindset by planting positive thought patterns that allow leaders to flourish by avoiding thoughts that hold them back. Besides, negative mindsets bring about limiting and unwanted traits of transformational leadership. Eliminating the negative mindset that holds leaders back is critical in the praising principle.
There are three primary mindset inhibitors that make leaders not value praising themselves and the workforce (Blane, 2017). These three negative mindsets include holding on to the past, being your own worst critic, and exhibiting fear. Unfortunately, most leaders and employees allow the past to hold them back instead of using it as a force to propel them to achieve their personal and professional goals. Being your own critic is not a strategy for improving performance but rather contributes to decreased performance and decreased satisfaction. Leaders eliminate this by transforming their negative mindsets into positive ideas and insights that raise performance and satisfaction (Blane, 2017). Living in fear also inhibits the value of praising. Whether emotional fear or financial fear, living in fear is associated with a debilitating impact on professional and personal growth in the long term. Using fear as a catalyst for action is the perfect strategy for eliminating a leader’s negative mindset. This is linked to creating powerful solutions to organizational problems, transforming an organization positively.
Asking for advice rather than feedback assists transformational leaders persevere
Articulating a big idea, dream, aspiration, or hope makes a leader passionate about perseverance. Leaders who have talented employees able to persevere find it easy to overcome adversity and vice versa (Blane, 2017). Neglecting to recruit the best mindset and skillset makes it difficult for leaders to overcome adversity in the business. The role of a transformational leader is to appreciate that talent, although vital, subtle in comparison to perseverance. Every leader desires to recruit smart, talented, and gifted workforce able to realize the organization’s strategic initiative. However, leaders deserved the deepest reserves of determination to accomplish transformational results. This is the major reason why asking for advice rather than feedback is a fundamental attribute defining a persevering leader (Blane, 2017). Asking for advice and not feedback is the second step to building an imperious outer shell to detractors. The first step is seeking respect and not friendship, while the third step is courting your purpose.
Asking for advice is considered a strategy for cascading excellence throughout the organization. Transformational leaders nurture innovation, growth, and positive mindsets by seeking advice from experts. However, this initiative is only possible when leaders avoid the four barriers to doing the best work or perseverance, i.e., inertia, ignorance, inexperience, and indifference. All seven principles of transformational leadership overcome these four hindering factors to allow transformational leaders to create a culture for change, positive results and improved performance. Under the perseverance principle (Blane, 2017), execution trumps strategy. The reason behind this is rooted in the incorrect and outdated perceptions that leaders have about strategy. The right perception is that strategy sessions act as a staging zone for accelerated business growth and performance. The reality is that achieving an organizational strategy requires a persevering leader who is defined by an unrelenting and ruthless attribute.
In transformational leadership, failure to prepare adversely affects results and performance
Preparing to achieve success requires a new reference frame about obstacles and barriers, a reference frame that welcomes obstacles and barriers. This is associated with three benefits: testing one’s mettle, confirming what one knows and what he/she has to learn, and being a role model to others (Blane, 2017). Acting as a role model of growth, innovation, and positive mindset shows preparedness to perform and achieve positive results. A successful transformational leader is always prepared to encounter and learn new insights from obstacles and barriers. Appreciating barriers and obstacles makes a leader sharp, knowledgeable, and inspired to achieve (Blane, 2017). The ability to prepare changes how a leader engages with employees and changes the trend of employees’ performance and results positively.
Transformational leaders who work through the purpose principle with commitment and earnestness thrive via the clarity and focus employed in taking obstacles and barriers and converting them into opportunities for business growth. A transformational leader exhibits both the emotional and intellectual aspects of leadership, which are vital to overcoming big challenges (Blane, 2017). Not preparing remains the death knell for an organization’s desired results and the plans required to become transformational. Being prepared to step into the desired results requires transformational leaders to set a clear vision, choose priorities, believe in themselves, and act on what fosters performance. This is because failing to prepare amounts to failure. Waking up, growing up, and showing up are the measures that transformational leaders take to prepare for success.
Conclusion
This assignment has explored the concept of ‘transformational leadership’ in the context of Blane’s (2017) book, 7 Principles of transformational leadership: Create a mindset of passion, innovation and growth. A good transformational leader develops his/her individual brand through purpose, all geared to setting a clear direction through which transformational initiatives are based. In transformational leadership, having a defined and compelling purpose results in clarity, control, consistency, commitment, credibility, confidence, community, candor, collaboration, and courage. The overall purpose guides the decision on which project to undertake. Mentors and coaches are catalysts for improved project performance. The bottom line is that flourishing transformational leadership projects require flourishing employees, customers, and leaders. Without effective persuasion, the project’s purpose is not easy to attain. Therefore, leaders and the workforce should raise their persuasion power through trust and respect to infuse accountability into situations. With a negative mindset, praising employees fails to thrive. Leaders should exemplify growth, innovation, and positive mindsets to help move organizations in a positive direction. Nevertheless, the reality is that achieving an organizational strategy requires a persevering leader who is defined by an unrelenting and ruthless attribute. Waking up, growing up, and showing up are the measures that transformational leaders are required to take to prepare for success.
References
Blane, H. (2017). 7 Principles of transformational leadership: Create a mindset of passion, innovation and growth. Wayne, NJ: Career Press.