The term ‘transformational leadership’ was introduced by James MacGregor Burns in his 1978 book, “Leadership.” He set a high aspirational bar by defining it as a process where “…leaders and their followers raise one another to higher levels of morality and motivation.”
In “Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectations,” Bernard M. Bass in 1985 used slightly different words describing it as “…a model of integrity and fairness,” and described the essentials as: setting clear goals; having high expectations; providing encouragement; offering support and recognition; stirring people’s emotions; encouraging people to look beyond their self-interests; and inspiring people to reach for the improbable.
In these first couplings of the words ‘transformation’ and ‘leadership’ were the building blocks of the foundation for a new kind of leadership witnessed during the first tsunami wave of the digital revolution. The importance of these factors has continued to rise and intensify. Today’s workers expect greater clarity, humanity, empathy, collaboration, and commitment beyond the required.
Many workers are committed to their personal wholeness, mind, body, and spirit, and expectations have risen for living it fully, not just “at home.” In checking out a potential employer, the importance of “wellness and well-being” may be near or at the top of the list.
A sense of cultural well-being can only be present and visible when leaders and their team members are working together to create harmonious internal operating principles and practices that are, in today’s terms, mindful, authentic, and integrity-based.
Leaders who want to attract and retain top performers must be willing and able to create relationships that continuously involve growth and opportunity in and for individual holism and the wellness and well-being of the organization as a whole.
In discussing this with Steve Chandler, co-author of The Leader and The Coach: The Art of Humanity in Leadership, he commented, “Coaches, too, have to step up to this challenge with deeper listening and greater understanding of today’s environment and the challenges in leaders’ lives, not just their organizations. The old coaching models that focused on goal achievement and time management alone must allow for deeper work that includes the whole life of the individual leader being coached. Effective leadership coaching today must include continuously exploring not just what their leader/client is doing, but even more importantly, who they are being in the process. This leads to more conscious leadership, and more success for the leader and for the coach.”
Whether you are the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or a local hardware store, an executive director of a non-profit, the president of a school board, a Girl Scout volunteer leader, a high school sports coach, a pastor, or a parent, or coaching one, you must deeply consider, introduce, and manifest clarity about what new commitments to greater humanity you are willing to make and keep as a person and as a leader.
Transformative leadership (and transformational coaching as a way of getting there), is table stakes for organizations intent on making themselves indispensable in the lives of their employees and other stakeholders.
If that isn’t a goal, sooner-or-later your best talent will find a place where the experience of, “This is where I belong…” can be felt.
~Will Keiper, co-author with Steve Chandler of The Leader and The Coach: The Art of Humanity in Leadership
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