Measure of a Leader

Measure of a Leader

Introduction

Transformational leadership, also called the new leadership, is the leadership style that brings about a positive change in the followers by enhancing their motivation, lifting up their morale and improving their performance through a variety of mechanisms. Transformational leaders by exemplifying passion, enthusiasm and energy in their approach towards solving the problems, connect follower's self-Identity to the organization's collective identity.

The transactional leadership style uses techniques such as motivating subordinates to work by offering rewards or threatening punishments, assign tasks in writing, outlining all the conditions for a mission to not give complete and direct by exception, i.e., revealing only what the subordinate has done incorrectly. The leader, who trusts only in the transactional style, without combining it with the transformational, gets short-term commitment of subordinates. This makes people afraid to take risks and feel that their efforts might seem selfish. Therefore, it is most efficient combination of both techniques to suit the situation (Daniels, 2007). The paper discusses the four characteristics of followers described by Daniels and its comparison with the examples given in the article of “The Factory as a Learning Laboratory”.

Discussion

Transformational leaders are role models who lead by example. They inspire their followers, challenge them to take greater ownership for their work, understand their weaknesses and strengths and optimize the performance of their followers by rightly aligning them with the task that is a best fit to their knowledge and skills. To make sure their follower's success, transformational leaders focuses on helping every group member. The four characteristics of follower defined by Daniel are:

Momentum

Momentum is when followers rigidly follow the direction of a leader. This is based on the degree to which followers are inspired by their leader's directions and follow the policies and guidelines that have been imposed by ...