Adam Sinkus is a Culture-Driven Leadership trainer and consultant. He
teaches leaders how they can drive the culture of the business. He also
shows companies how poor culture and leadership impact productivity and
profit. He has worked with companies in many verticals over his 10-years in
leadership and training. He is soon launching the ACES Leadership Model
which blends core leadership principles with culture-driven initiatives to
help leaders motivate and build successful teams.
How Leadership Affects Change
By Abel R. Garza
In business, we find that change is inevitable. Change is the evolution of which companies continue to compete, succeed and perform at peak performance. Is all change good or do we just embrace the idea that we should transform regardless of need? In theory, flexibility and good leadership practices lean toward a successful transition. A seasoned leader may find a path forward by practicing certain skills favorable to change. Inevitably, we see leaders practice transactional and or transformational leadership when necessary. Business is a turbulent environment that requires leadership legerdemain. This co-existence of transactional and transformational characteristics is a continual process based on organization and vision.
Transactional Leadership
The concept of transactional leadership is not new (Burns, 1978). The concept was mentioned in 1981 by Bernard Bass on the principle that it coincides primarily with the manager's views (Bass, 2008). The transactional concept focuses on organizational goals and the connection to effort and reward. These responsive characteristics hone in on personal and basic human needs by appealing to the follower’s self-interests (Maslow, 2014). Rewards and punishment are contingent on performance. In exchange for the transactional leader’s performance objectives, the follower may concede that a job well done will be rewarded. This contract between leader and follower will be honored extrinsically. The transactional leader will actively or passively manage and monitor progress according to standards while taking corrective action when necessary to obviate errors. It is often assumed that this form of leadership is consistent with unmotivated employees that are walking the preverbal line only to maintain their existence in an environment of supervisors micromanaging every process. The transactional leader may focus on short term goals, standard rules, and procedures that often create a circumscribed approach that minimizes the creativity and generation of innovative ideas (P C Tripathi, 2006, p. 112). Transactional leadership can be perceived in many ways, the autocrat, stickler, goal setter or the one that shouts bonus.
The Autocrat
The military has been using many styles of leadership throughout its existence. Autocratic leadership in the military can be easily associated with the idea of: I give the orders and you follow through or I know the mission and what the organizational goals are so while I’m in charge this is how it’s going to be. In return, the follower will gain the necessary experience or the adoration of his superiors (Bieda, 1978). With most military organizations, the leader will focus on managing the performance of individuals and the performance in a structured environment (Spahr, 2016). If you consider the analogy of military in Garrison over a deployment location; one may be more inclined to function under a transactional style of leadership whereas during a wartime situation requires leaders at all levels. No one person has successfully managed people into war, they must be led (Kotter, 2001).
The Box Approach
Transactional leaders will reward followers with basic human needs. This tacit agreement between leaders and followers lends itself to the necessary goals and measurable standards of which to abide and in doing so are rewarded or punished. Understanding the needs of what followers want can help leaders reinforce subordinates for the successful completion of processes. Many CEOs that utilize the Box Approach have an understanding that value comes from communicating the goals of the organization in a clear and concise manner that will allow for controls i.e. financial, culture, or both to ensure that uniformity and predictability become standard behavior. Leaders of the Box Approach subscribe to the idea that policies and procedures are developed to reinforce desired behaviors (Farkas & Wetlaufer, 1996).
The Goal-Setter
The necessary steps to accomplish a task or move toward the vision of an organization is not always clear. A simple request to establish a budget or increase customer satisfaction may not be as straight forward as one might think. This usually raises more questions than answers. People are good at many things, but reading minds is not one of them. The goal setter is meticulously establishing short term goals that include the necessary steps to accomplish that goal from their team. Where do we get data, why do we need to coordinate, which managers will be involved, when will this happen or who will take control of each project? The goal setter will be creating goals that teams will be able to accomplish and not figure out for themselves. They will not leave it to chance and will spell out the specific details for what needs to get done, systemically. The goal setter will not be vague. Often goals will be met with omitted details, but planning is essential in creating an explicit and motivational link that will evoke the desired behavior to produce (Halvorson, 2014).
The Quid Pro Quo
What motivates? Motivation is personal and is individualized. What motivates one may not motivate another. People wake up in the morning and have a passion for something in their lives that usually gives them the fuel they need to start their day. When asked what drives you, is the answer obvious? Many would jump to the idea that money is the primary motivator and that people would have fewer problems if they just had a lot of it. Leaders will find a balance of what motivates and allow people to fulfill those extrinsic needs through by way of reward.
Transformational Leadership
The Transformational leader is a formula for change and synonymous with the charismatic leader. The nomenclature alone connotes change. This connotation has some thinking that this is the most effective form of leadership for change. Leaders who are considered transformational arouse emotion in their followers which in turn motivates followers to move passed the preverbal circumscriptions of manuals and standard operating procedures. They enlist people in their ideas and provide the framework to think outside the box, to be proactive and distinguish themselves as moving past organizational goals and beyond self-interest (Nikezic, 2010). James M. Burn was first to introduce the transformational connection between leader and follower. James Burns and Bernard Bass define transformational leadership as someone who evokes commitment toward an organizational goal with the sole intention of transforming the central mission. Transformational leadership has evolved toward the exploration of characteristics that move beyond the standard and emphasize individual consideration, intellectual stimulation, charisma, and vision, (Burns, 1978; Bass, 2008)
The Mentor
Transformational leaders are showing individual consideration when spending time with followers: teaching and coaching. The result is the promotion of self-development. When leaders begin to treat people as individuals rather than group members; it elicits des...
