TRANSFORMATIVE LEADERSHIP
\ tran(t)s-ˈfȯr-mə-tiv ˈlē-dər-ˌship \
A DEFINITION:
The Transformative Leadership model is a collective approach of leadership beyond immediate self-interest in order to identify the needed change, creating a narrative to guide this process through inspiration, and executing the desired change collectively together with committed members of a group. Transformative leadership is the ability to convincingly lead by example and thereby earn trust, respect, appreciation and loyalty. The overall goal is to develop teams that are intrinsically motivated. Leaders must inspire others to transform their behavior through their willingness to learn and perform at the same time.
In traditional leadership textbooks one often finds the related term of transformational leadership. Even though both terms mean similar things, we emphasize the small but subtle semantic difference: As adjectives the difference between transformative and transformational is that transformational signifies relating to, characterized by, or concerned with transformation while transformative means being able to cause an important and lasting transformation in someone or something. The distinction, then, is that one term merely describes the process of transforming, while the other implies the goal of lasting change. And it is precisely the latter that matters to us. That is why we speak of Transformative Leadership. The change in self-interest should not only elevate the organization’s maturity and ideals. It rather should be more concerned with their achievement.
Open the FLEXICON and discover more key principles of transformation.