I found this five stage model some time ago however cannot find the original reference. If you read this article and know where the model comes from I would greatly appreciate a comment on this post. It is not my intention to go into a long drawn-out thesis on this topic rather to add a quick guide to the steps required to implement an empowerment program and some discussion of the pitfalls.

The Model

motivation
motivation, support
motivation, support, authority
motivation, support, authority, responsibility
motivation, support, authority, responsibility, competence

Motivation

I have said in many articles and blog posts that it is impossible for one person to motivate another as all people are motivated and depending on what is required by their leader they will constantly move either towards or away from a proposed courses of action. Motivation comes from within and is related to tension created by the need to satisfy a craving for an imagined future state or outcome that is seen as desirable to the motivated individual. What most refer to as motivating others is more correctly “inspiring others”. So what does this mean for empowerment programs? If the staff you want to empower can see no personal benefit in being empowered no empowerment can occur. I once saw a hotel chain try to implement an empowerment program in a resort located on a small island in Asia and it failed as the staff were not motivated to be empowered. Their cultural heritage  was one of “the chief tells me what and how to do things and I just follow the orders and all responsibility for the outcome is the boss’s”.

The first step in any empowerment process therefore needs to be to ask the workforce if they want to have more authority and responsibility regarding their work. This inquiry must be closely linked to what the likely effect will be on both the organization’s goals, mission and vision and on the perception of the staff as to the increased chances of success or failure of that individual in his or her role. At this point in the process it would perhaps be a good time to consider a range of motivational theories and if working across cultures of course Geert Hofstede’s cultural influence model. (see previous posts and orglearn site) Theories and models can’t give definitive answers as each individual is different however they can give a framework to start to explore the possible motivation issues that may arise.

Support

Assuming the motivation issue has been correctly addressed the next question becomes how much support does the empowering individual need to give. I think the best way to look at this issue is to use the Blanchard and Herschey Situational Leadership model where the leaders style changes with the relevant competences of the follower. For example if you are empowering someone to say, make decisions on an entire process, they are likely to have varying degrees of competence (skills and knowledge when applied to a particular problem) regarding various parts of the process. Obviously if the individual being empowered understands the technical aspects of the process little or no support in that area will be needed. If however an individual has little experience in say, the computer skills, associated paperwork, human relationship area or management requirements then you have a two pronged problem. If you give to this individual ‘too much’ technical support you will cause frustration and obviously too little support in the other relevant areas will also cause difficulty and the empowerment program to fail.

Authority

The process of handing authority over is where many attempts to empower have most difficulty. Even with simple delegation most managers are willing to share responsibility however they are reluctant to hand over their ‘legitimate’ authority. With authority comes power and all that goes with it. Regardless of what many will say those that are in a position to empower others are usually very protective of their own power base. When delegating authority we must work to each person’s strengths and avoid conflicts of interest. I will talk about the “strengths” issue further in competence. Regarding the conflicts of interest, suffice to say anyone who puts as an example a sales manager, who is paid commission, in charge of product costing is heading for disaster. I personally saw this “conflict of interests” situation destroy a small company that had operated successfully for eight years that was then destroyed in six months. Not only was the costing sloppy and inaccurate the sales manager didn’t care too much about the profit on each sale as it was easier for him to sell if he could cut the price. Short term thinking perhaps on the sales managers part however when the situation became difficult he just moved on to the next company. A similar conflict situation it appears has arisen in the worldwide banking and investment industry over more recent times.

There is also the question of how much authority to grant. A good basis to make this decision is that you should ensure that  enough authority is given to allow relevant persons to:

Get the work done in a timely and efficient manner
Allow the authorized employees to take initiative if improvements in effectiveness can be achieved and
To keep things operating at least in a normal manner particularly in your absence from the work unit

Responsibility

Remembering that empowerment is not to be confused with regular delegation it is important that those being empowered understand and accept that if they agree to being empowered they also accept responsibility for outcomes. This again is where I believe many empowerment programs fail. Staff will often seek authority however many are unwilling to take on the consequences of their decisions. Empowerment seems to me often to be seen by staff as the right to do things as they see fit, however if it all goes belly up then the stance is, it must be the company’s fault or the bosses fault or someone else’s fault. Typical responses to personal failures can be; the guidelines weren’t correct or another department didn’t do it right or a colleague let them down. If staff are to be empowered they have to understand that they have to make sure that the guidelines suit the tasks they are assigned, that they have to manage inter-department co-operation /operations and that they must through effective teamwork and communication enlist the support of their co-workers.

Competence

I have written a lot about competence over the years and have lead a competence modeling team for a major organization. If you would like to read some of the articles you will find them in past blogs and on the main website.

The technical issues of competence modeling and competence development aside, this final step in the empowerment process is often overlooked. To my way of thinking a mismatch between competence levels and level of empowerment to be granted is a road to disaster. Before you can empower anyone you must closely look at the desired outcomes for the empowerment program you are implementing, analyze the skills and knowledge required and then asses the level of those skills and knowledge in the individuals you are to place your trust in. Detailed instruction and training must then be undertaken to overcome any shortfalls in competence levels before any empowerment can be implemented. The definition I use for competence is “knowledge and skill applied to a particular problem”. It is always a mistake to assume that a person is fully competent. For example if you wanted to empower staff to approve payment terms/loans for your customers you may find that a staff member has a great understanding for wholesalers however little competence in approving terms for small retailers. You would therefore need to give different levels of authority for each market segment. It would also be wise to set up a cross checking system with perhaps another staff member also having to sign off on the retail accounts.

Conclusion: The benefits of empowering staff are well documented and highly desirable. The implementation of empowerment programs however is often fraught with pain and frustration so hopefully the few words above will at least give some readers a skeleton to work with.

Some pertinent quotes from article one:

“We are really focusing on leadership attributes and finding the people with these qualities [talent] and then training them [in the technical aspects of our operation] as required. We look for people who connect well with others and are able to build relationships and effectively communicate.”

“People who are involved in their communities often have the opportunity to demonstrate leadership skills.”

‘We need people who have strong interpersonal skills and who work well in a team environment, because we want people who can build trusting relationships which are critical to gain customer loyalty, [hence] strong interpersonal skills are an absolute must.’

The article goes on to state a 2005 study for Leadership IQ found that it’s not a lack of technical skills, rather poor interpersonal skills that are the primary reason some new hires fail in all industries. It found that about one-quarter fail because they can’t accept feedback, about one-quarter fail because they’re unable to manage and understand emotions and about one in five fail because they lack the necessary motivation to excel.

The edited quotes above come from Maureen Galway, vice-president of human resources at ATB Financial. The article is: Financial sector focused on leadership skills by Shannon Sutherland, The Calgary Herald and it can be found : http://bit.ly/feJGSi

Another article from Australia states:  “The Australian finance and accounting skills shortage isn’t going away and actually appears to be worsening” and they aren’t talking about technical skills.

Quote… “As well as overseeing and delegating work, managers have a significant effect on job satisfaction and employee morale. Robert Half’s survey of 345 Australian finance, accounting and human resources professionals found that 52 per cent of employees would leave if they had a conflict with their manager, and 42 per cent would leave if they thought another company had a better management structure.

The survey survey found that “many employees feel their managers’ skills are not up to scratch, with 40 per cent describing the management skills of the person they report to as average or below” and that “a perception gap between how managers rate their own skills and how their employees rate them, with most employees disagreeing with the results of their manager’s self-evaluation”. It goes on  to discuss various attributes mangers think they display and how that employees disagree with the mangers self perception:

38 per cent of managers say they consistently lead by example, only 20 per cent of employees agree.

41 per cent of managers believe they consistently show interest in staff’s problems, only 23 per cent of employees agree

33 per cent of managers believe they set realistic goals, only 17 per cent of employees agree

22 per cent of managers think they inspire their team, however 82 per cent of employees think otherwise

‘To become a better leader, managers should think of the traits they want to see in their employees and demonstrate such traits themselves’. “Managers should also work to build strong, personal relationships with their staff”. Successful managers need to engage in “open communication [as it is an] “imperative to boost staff morale” and can I suggest to know what is really going on in their area of responsibility.

“Good managers are those who involve employees in the goal-setting process and discuss whether the goals are realistic and achievable.”

‘Good managers are those that encourage their employees to provide ideas and offer input. Managers should also take the time to learn what employees’ interests and skills are, and how they can best be used in the company. They should also take the time to recognise an employee’s contribution to the team.

‘Strong and effective management skills are therefore key to employee satisfaction and retention, as well as the continued success of an organisation.’

Quotes from Andrew Brushfield is director of Robert Half International at http://bit.ly/fTfWPK

Article three is titled – On Leadership, Teams, Success & Happiness

The telling quote for me in this article is: “I want somebody who can inspire you to produce great products but not know your trade better than you do.  I’m looking for somebody who can sell, but not better than our head of sales.  I’m looking for somebody who is good at planning but doesn’t try to do the work of the VP Finance. I want somebody that sets a stretch plan we can achieve, gets consensus amongst the team to shoot for certain goals and the path to achieve success.  I want somebody that can deal with partners, interest future investors and keep everybody calm in moments of set-backs.  If they’re from the industry – that’s a nice to have. But I want to be sure they’re not stuck with legacy thinking.”

Read more: http://read.bi/e6jxjh

The final article is: Edge Of Now, Leadership In The New Paradigm (see ref. below)

Here are some starting principles that leaders need to adopt now:

1. ‘Deeper recognition leaders in thought, word and deed of the changed nature of authority in all its forms’

2. “More humility and caution” when dealing with their constituents or for that matter staff

3. “More focus on the real and underlying engines of prosperity and social harmony and on the conditions” that exist in the current reality

4. “Wholesale revision of views about the processes of economic (read business) and social development (read corporate culture)”

5. ‘Less faith in [inflexible, slow to adapt] big is good culture and more understanding of the need for smaller more flexible and innovative’ organizations and structures

6. “Above all, stronger moral leadership” is being sought by all levels of business and society. The authors conclusion is that: Leaders in the new paradigm will be expected to illuminate, to see a little further beyond the edge of now, to have confidence in their own assessments and to be bold enough to respect the virtues, qualities, truths and values which it is their duty to maintain.

Can I add that they need to develop a more spherical view of reality rather than just sticking to their own narrow ‘truths’ based on past traditions is a must.

Reference & Read more at: http://read.bi/i31bmP

Although the topic of leadership is long and complicated I believe these four articles give some sound insights into what is required for modern business leadership. In fact these principles and stated personal or individual characteristics are just as valid for national or international leadership. For young people looking to establish themselves in a management leadership role much can be cleaned from reading these articles in there entirety.

No chance to lead where you currently work, here’s a resume example that may come in handy if you a looking to move on.

Great… or if you prefer AWESOME!

One article (“smartmanager.com”) I read suggested that “Empowering people is closely aligned with facilitative leadership.” Essentially facilitative leadership is all about helping your staff reach their potential and therefore improve operations. The article continued “If you look at leadership skills along a continuum from persuasion, through collaboration to facilitation, most managers would be required to engage a variety of approaches at different times”. If you take the “Situational Leadership” (Hershey Blanchard) approach of course you would only pass on authority to an individual in the task area in which they are fully competent.

An essential ingredient for any empowerment is an effective training process which tests for competence. As well as the technical skill training you will need to ensure staff have access to the information they require to make confident decisions plus a clear understanding of their boundaries. In addition you must develop a culture of accepting mistakes or errors of judgement as being a legitimate part of the learning process. Obviously one of the boundaries needs to be that the same mistake twice is not acceptable.

Empowerment can be a gradual process. As an example as a lease manager when I worked for a finance company some years ago empowerment for my staff could mean that staff member “A” was able do lease quotes and a second staff member “B” would then check them. The real empowerment came when member A was granted the right to check the quotes and give the quote to the customer. As a checker you had both responsibility for the accuracy and the authority to act. Similarly, when granting loans was the issue, the first step was to give the staff member the right to decline loans to see what the lending competence was. Lending approval limits where then given (real authority) after reviewing the loans that the staff member had declined.

Empowerment of course is not for everyone. Some years ago I had the opportunity to watch as a large international/US hotel company tried to introduce an empowerment program worldwide. I was living on an island in Malaysia at the time and the staff to be empowered where “locals”, mostly from the island itself. These people were bought up in a culture of “do what you’re told” with a strong religious tradition that reinforced compliance to strict rules that to my mind limited the development of their emotional intelligence. The program was a complete disaster for this particular hotel. The empowerment of staff will only occur and be effective if the staff are willing to take authority. Don’t get me wrong they all craved status (manager on their business card) however they definitely did not want either authority or responsibility for outcomes. Emotional intelligence as well as technical skill should be assessed before any though of empowerment can be undertaken.

Finally many see delegation as empowerment and it is not. Sure delegating is part of the overall process however there is much more to real empowerment.

For the employer: (as “about dot com”) puts it, “Empowerment is the process of enabling or [and] authorizing an individual to think, behave, take action, and control work and decisionmaking in autonomous ways”. For the employee: “It is the state of feeling self-empowered to take control of one’s own destiny”.

Here are a few issues you will need to address if you a setting up an empowerment program:

Assign tasks that will allow your subordinates to grow.

Explain why task being assigned to them and highlight “what’s in it for them.”?

Give very clear and detailed directions (the what, where, why, how and when of the tasks) and allow and encourage questions.?

Introduce the empowerment process in stages and allow reasonable time for the process.

Demonstrate that you trust those you are empowering or those process will be nothing more than a waste of time and energy.

Solicit suggestions from your employees as to better ways of completing the project.

Follow up on progress, act as coach however don’t constantly look over their shoulder and always be accessible when those being empowered need help.

Pay a great deal of attention to ensuring employees feel (and are) rewarded and recognized for empowered behavior.

Feeling less than empowered and that its time to move on? Use the resume template and perhaps empower yourself.

The legendary Army Ants gain their fearful reputation and devastating power because they are driven by an obsessional purpose combined with an extremely high level of determination and use what is known as their collective intelligence. The amazing thing is that this all happens with no one individual taking control. Instead they all act as individuals and control (or lead) themselves. “Collective intelligence is a shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals. Collective intelligence appears in a wide variety of forms of consensus decision making in bacteria, animals, humans, and computer networks” (ref: Wikipedia). In other words Army Ants really do practice management from the bottom up where each individual is empowered to act.

If we as managers and leaders are to implement effective empowerment and invert the corporate pyramid to put the customer at the top, as current business realities demand, (as does proper thinking), we must ensure that staff develop the right attributes. If those at the customer interface don’t have (or develop) their own sense of being powerful, are unwilling to be obsessed with the customers needs and wants, (as against stroking the boss), are not effectively inspired to use their own positive levels of motivation and don’t feel free to inform enthusiastically what the customers are saying, (good or bad), no collective intelligence will occur.

We often talk about staff empowerment in modern business however ants have achieved this state naturally. If simple ants use it so effectively, why can’t the intelligent top of the food chain… us… do it so well? Because we humans are totally driven by our need for self-satisfaction or gratification… we are basically selfish! So what can we as leaders do to at least move a little further along the evolutionary path (remember ants have been around 100 million years) and thus achieve at least some of the team sophistication levels of ants? Here are a few suggestions… never discipline in public, encourage the free flow of ideas, destroy inter-staff rivalry, reward teams rather than individuals, encourage those who encourage others, revere those who act in the common good, beware of creating states of ‘group think’ and never implement a ‘staff member of the month’ program or a competitive sales incentive scheme and always…

VIEW MISTAKES AS LEARNING, NOT AS A REASON (OR EXCUSE) TO WHACK SOME FOOL!

Ants management and moving (scurrying on) update the resume resume time?

This skill is particularly handy for influencing where a common purpose, vision or another’s enthusiasm is missing, poor commitment levels are evident, “ho hum” attitudes exist or desired behaviors (required for success in a task) are not being demonstrated.

So how can we use this skill to influence others and what are the behaviors we need to adopt to use it effectively?

Firstly we must show appropriate enthusiasm

Share your own enthusiasm through your voice, intonation and body language when selling the benefits of the desired course of action for the individual you are trying to involve. If you just stand up and factually state what you want things to look like or outcomes you are seeking in a formal boring tone you satisfactory or inspiring picture will be created.

Paint a verbal picture of the future using descriptive language

Much as you would develop a corporate or private ‘vision’ you need to paint a picture of how where you and the other person will be or what things would look like and how much better they would be, especially for the individual involved if he/she (or they) comply, or better still commit, to what you are proposing.

Be brief or “broad brush” about your vision and don’t get bogged down in the details

Exactly how things will be done or the details can come once commitment has been obtained. Others are more likely to be enthusiastic about a ‘broad brush’ or ‘big picture’ ideas about a more satisfying future. I have seen this proven many times when conducting company vision sessions, great enthusiasm until the detailed WORK has to be done. So details should only be approached when “buy-in” is truly achieved.

Include the person you are trying to influence in the picture

Find out what benefits or situations are of interest to the other person by asking questions and carefully listening to the answers. Find out how you can align your desired future state with their aspirations and desires. Focus specifically on how they could contribute or become involved. Ask questions such as, what interests or excites them about the future and how they can see it contributes to their future.

If you would like to read other blog articles by Ric and you came direct to this page you can go to main blog by clicking on the white “orglearn.org” in the header panel above!

While you’re here if you can’t align your vision of the future with your current employer take a look at the free blank resume form and perhaps to paint a new future for yourself by following the link!

I recently read a great quote that I feel is appropriate here:

“The empires of the future are empires of the mind.” – Winston Churchill

Finally according to Marty Latz of the Negotiator Magazine: “Our tendency to be unduly influenced by such visual, emotional and flashy language (essentially verbal pictures) and to be less influenced by dull, statistical evidence, is called vividness bias.” So want to be influential and have people buy into you propositions? Perhaps this summary will help:

Enthusiastically communicating using descriptive language to paint a verbal picture of a desired future and placing the other person in the picture will help you to influence others to your vision.

Expert power is based on the specialized knowledge or skills that an individual has which can be contributed or withheld. Generally, individuals are positive about being lead, or at least influenced, by those whom they regard as ‘an expert’. This form of power is “comparative” and the holder of this type of power is always under threat from other “experts”. Expert power is often based around a very narrow bank of knowledge, skills or competence and can be short lived as time passes and technology or techniques evolve. It is a reality that someone will always come along who knows more than you do in a particular area.

Connection or as I was taught it “referent” power:

Referent power comes about as a result of an individuals ability to control or use access to influential people through formal networks or associations. Additionally as people/employees increasingly extend their circle of influence or information sources through involvement in informal networks their power can increase. Networks and hierarchies that operate independently of more formal organizational structures can often compete with, or even be more influential than the official company structure.

Personal power or personal attractiveness

This type of power results from an individual’s own personal qualities or ‘charisma’.  People will often undertake a particular action or behave in particulars ways because they admire and like the individual holding the power. Some believe that this type o power is built up through “being reliable, trustworthy, honest and likeable”. This view is obviously limited in its explanation as charisma and what it is is not something that automatically comes with behavior alone. The personal attractiveness part of this equation can also obviously be lost as we age or as our ability to attract others through ‘positive’ personality may be diminished. Suffice to say if you want to develop this type of power in yourself you will need to do the best you can with how you look, present yourself, personal confidence levels, how well you communicate and your natural personal traits.

So what is power about and what are the benefits and pitfalls

According to Richard Petty, professor of psychology at Ohio State University and co-author of a study on power:  “Powerful people have confidence in what they are thinking. Whether their thoughts are positive or negative toward an idea, that position is going to be hard to change,” This of course can be both a benefit and a shortcoming and you, if you hold power, can risk missing opportunities to grow and develop through the arrogance of total self-belief.

Abraham Lincoln said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” So if you seek power, beware of the almost inevitable personal consequences to your thought processes and even your very existence.

Amy Tan “You see what power is – holding someone else’s fear in your hand and showing it to them!” Reality succinctly put perhaps!

I was once told that: ‘for power to exist you must have control over something that is limited in supply and that considered valuable by those over whom you want hold power’. This as we have seen above can be technical skills, information or even a willingness to have an ongoing relationship.

So if you are seeking power be advised you must develop all five areas otherwise your time in control will be but a fleeting moment and the process of losing power can be a terminal event.

This form of power comes from an individual’s designated role and the role’s relative status within the organization. Commonly this power entails the right to organize people and resources. As this form power is conferred by the organization if the position or role is lost so is the power. At its worst this can manifest itself as negative power as the holder has the capacity to stop, delay or disrupt the actions of others. This negative power usually used by those that feel they have no other source of control and is an often expression of anger, frustration, low morale or poor self esteem. A similar form of formal power is sometimes known a sanction power or reward – coercion power. This covers an individual’s capability to use incentives or issue threats to control people’s behavior. Rewards are offered to those who comply and punishment or deprivation threatened for non-compliance. This power can be demonstrated as naked aggression or more indirectly as pressure exerted through the threat of or actual removal of status, privileges or even financial rewards.

Expert power

Expert power is based on the specialized knowledge or skills that an individual has which can be contributed or withheld. Generally, individuals are positive about being lead, or at least influenced, by those whom they regard as ‘an expert’. This form of power is “comparative” and the holder of this type of power is always under threat from other “experts”. Expert power is often based around a very narrow bank of knowledge, skills or competence and can be short lived as time passes and technology or techniques evolve. It is a reality that someone will always come along who knows more than you do in a particular area.

page 2

‘Jan. 26 2010 PRNewswire/ — According to a recent national survey by Lee Hecht Harrison, the majority of workers in the U.S. find their bosses likeable, but feel the management within their companies have room for improvement.’

Well that’s a “no brainer” of course and I guess it will always be the case however their next statement gives a little more insight.

“When asked to rank which qualities their boss best exhibited, likability took the top spot among U.S. workers, followed by leadership, honesty, fairness, patience and loyalty. Although leadership ranked second, just less than half of workers polled (49%) thought their managers exhibited strong leadership skills – a sobering data point reinforcing the need for renewed focus on leadership development.”

I have seen in many countries the problem of bosses wanting to be liked. To be honest if you are an individual that needs to be liked can I suggest you don’t take on a leadership role. You don’t want to be hated either however you must be respected if you are wanting to be an effective leader.

There are many aspects of to gaining respect however here is a short checklist.

Openness: let people know what you want from them and how you feel about their efforts

Competence: if you can’t demonstrate that you are a competent person you will never gain committed followers

Consistency: a measured and stable attitude to work and followers is essential if you are to reduce unwarranted levels tension and promote excellence

According to the website Bizcovering [and I agree] you also need to ‘Show courage in facing difficult issues even admitting own mistakes, maintain your vision consistently and involve everyone positively’. They go on to say a “most importantly. you need some mechanism for sustaining hope when things otherwise look sour.”

Another key survey finding uncovered: “Motivation & Mentorship Lagging: Only 24% of employees polled felt that their manager displayed motivational skills [I think they mean inspirational skill as I have explained in another blog post] and the same number noted that their supervisor failed to mentor and explain the choices made from an organizational perspective.”

**Link for direct page viewers return to main blog if you would like to read other blog posts on career and leadership success!

If you are looking to work for a more effective leader and need a change of jobs/employers take a look at the free blank resume form!

Finally can I suggest that again the central problem is poor communication skills. I have written many posts on the need to communicate well as a manger, the difficulties most of us have and some of the solutions available. Can I also strongly suggest that if you are a manger and not currently reading (or have never read) a book on leadership and/or leadership communication, best visit your local bookstore as soon as possible.

Creative

Hackman and Johnson (1991) state that creativity is “challenging the status quo by seeking out new ideas…” Managers typically concern themselves with status quo maintenance, but leaders move beyond status quo to face and deal with the future. Transformation requires innovation and fresh perspectives to enduring questions. Many managers I deal with think that they will never become leaders because they don’t see themselves as being creative. Remember creative thinking can be taught and creative thinkers can hired and good leaders can effectively use the creativity of those around them… if the have the wisdom to listen.

Interactive

Hackman and Johnson (1991) also suggest that an interactive leader provides better direction than a non-interactive leader. In order to meet the needs of the follower, the leader must take a posture of open participation with follower. They also contend ‘that interaction is central to putting leadership into motion’. Many other theories (and practical experiences) of leadership emphasize the need for (effective) communication in order to attain success. Remember though communication is not interaction its merely the conduit between individuals. The important issues are found in dictionary definitions… “acting in close relation with each other” or “affecting each others behaviour”.

ARE WE CREATING TOMORROW OR BANKING ON THE PAST?

Empowering

Empowerment is fourth aspect that Hackman and Johnson (1991) suggest is important. Empowerment is the ability to “translate intention into reality and sustain it [for the followers]” (Bennis & Nanus, 1985). B & N further explain that ‘empowerment is the reciprocal of power and that empowerment puts duality into motion’. In other words, power translates into empowerment and empowerment, in turn, creates more power. Without leaders promoting responsibility and displacing power, followers cannot fully achieve their potential. This as we know is a big challenge in some Asian cultures. The key is if you want to have a modern successful organization, you as a leader must address this issue.

Visionary

Perhaps the most elemental characteristic of the transformational leader, “more than anything else, transformational leaders communicate a vision to their followers” (Hackman & Johnson, 1991). Zorn (1991) notes that vision helps to rally action toward achievement of the goal. Leaders must not only speak the vision, they must also enact the vision for individuals and the organization. Vision sets the direction and it is impossible to get where you want to be without direction. Can you or you staff quote your company’s vision, (or your own for that matter). So much has been said about vision and its central role in business and success, any more here would be superfluous.

A VISION WITH POWER CAN CHANGE MEDIOCRITY INTO EXCELLENCE

Passionate

‘Transformational leaders are passionate in their commitment to task and people alike’ (H & J, 1991). Bennis and Nanus (1985) again elaborate, “like explorer and artists, [leaders] seem to focus their attention on a limited field – their task – to forget personal problems, to loose their sense of time, to feel competent and in control”. To transform leaders must have a strong commitment to their vision. Passion is essential for this strong commitment, without passion there is no real direction and vision is short-lived.

Ethical

One final notable characteristic is that of high ethical standards. Any discussion of transformational leadership must include ethics. Burns (1978) comments, “Leaders must effectively ‘connect with’ followers from a level of morality only one stage higher than that of the followers, but moral leaders who act at much higher levels relate to followers at all levels…” Blanchard and Peale (1989) suggest that a manager with strong ethical standards is armed with the ability to do the right thing all of the time. They further conclude that ethics must not only be the result, but ethics must be involved in the process of decision making. An effective leader must be committed to ethical responses to any situation.

ETHICAL BANKERS, ACCOUNTANTS, LAWYERS, CORPORATE EXECUTIVES AND POLITICIANS… NOW THERE’S AN IDEA!

Refs: Hackman, M. & Johnson, C. (1991) Leadership. Waveland Press.
Zorn T E (1991). Construct system development, transformational leadership and leadership messages. Sthn Communication Jrnl, 56 (3), 178-193. Journal of Leadership Studies in 1995

Ric (orglearn) **Link for direct page viewers return to main career success blog to check out other posts!

While you’re here take a look at the free blank resume form!

SUMMARY

Transformational leadership assumes that people will energetically follow an individual who has the ability to inspire them and who can use others natural motivation to strive towards a shared vision. A person to be a true motivational leader must in addition to having worthwhile vision show a willingness to excel and the competence do great things in a creative new way. Transformational leadership to be successful assumes that agreed tasks can be accomplished by injecting commitment and enthusiasm among the followers.

Transformational leadership adjectives: articulate, uplifting, passionate, caring, trustworthy, integrity listening, committed, serving, influencing, encouraging, charismatic, creative, innovative, empowering and confident.

Transformational leaders set an example and become a role model for their followers. Transformational leaders see their followers as individuals and treat them as such.

In light of recent events transformational leadership’s capacity to reshape social and physical relationships is more needed than ever. Perhaps it is time to destroy old way of living and make way for new one. Finally transformational leadership encourages people to surpass their current levels of achievement and embrace a dynamic and innovative way to approach our future at a personal, organizational and political level. The world currently seems to be crying out for true leadership, transformational leadership, at all levels of society.

One more time:

INSPIRING AND ETHICAL BANKERS, ACCOUNTANTS, LAWYERS, CORPORATE EXECUTIVES, BUSINESS LEADERS AND POLITICIANS… NOW THERE REALLY IS A TRANSFORMATIONAL IDEA!