1. Transformational Leadership
Michael Lator, Eva Steepe, Jessa Baumdraher, Elise Marshall, Kait Philp, Lauren Canary, Michael Scholz, Parker Aerts

2. What is it?
Process that changes and transforms people. Includes showing care for followers, assessing their motives, satisfying their needs, and treating them well. Pushes followers to accomplish more than the normal expectations.
Used to describe a wide range of leadership types: specific, one-on-one level or broad attempts to influence entire organizations or cultures
Focus is on inspiring others to help create change.
Eva

3. Origins
First introduced by political historian James MacGregor Burns in 1978, who described it as the process of how “leaders and followers help each other to advance to a higher level of morale and motivation”
Transformational vs. Transactional Leadership
Change v. No Change (rewards)
Robert House published theory of charismatic leadership in 1976: charismatic leaders act in unique ways that have specific effects on followers
Expanded by Bernard M. Bass in 1985
Focused on followers needs more
Michael Lator

4. Four Components
Idealized Influence (Charisma) - emotional component; leader acts as strong role model; high standards of moral and ethical conduct
Example: Nelson Mandela
Inspirational Motivation - leader communicates high expectations, inspires them through motivation to become committed to shared vision of organization
Example: sales manager giving pep talks
Intellectual Stimulation - the leader challenges his followers to push themselves and to achieve higher than the norm; creativity and innovation
Example: plant manager challenging employees to find solutions to problems
Individualized Consideration - the leader shows genuine concern for the needs and feelings of his followers by providing personal attention to each follower; this builds trust and allows for better teamwork
Example: manager treats employees in unique and caring way; one-on-one meetings to see how employees are doing
Parker

5. Strengths Focused on making the future better
Leaders are authentic to their commitment to a mission, not their personal gain
Utilizes a growth mindset to inspire their followers to evoke change
Recognizes development and efforts, in addition to their performance
Embraces originality and creativity
Leaders are transparent and vulnerable, to encourage an open dialogue with their followers
Allows measured risks, which fosters a community of innovation
Kait

6. Weaknesses Unintended negative influence
Steering people into making poor decisions with possibly catastrophic implications
Employees become fatigued from going outside of their job descriptions and are less effective in their roles in the organization
Assumption that followers completely agree with the leader
Prioritizing individuals based on interest and willingness rather than actual skill and effectiveness
Michael Scholz

7. Leader- Follower Relations
Similarly to LMX theory, Transformational leadership relationships are related positively to friendliness and reasoning.
The leader connects the follower’s identity to the identity of the organization to motivate them.
They are positive role models for their followers and strive to inspire them through their own actions.
They challenge followers to take ownership of their work and they understand the follower’s strengths and weaknesses which allows the leaders to assign tasks to their followers that are best suited to the individual.
Jessa

8. Applications
Organizations: recruitment, selection and promotion, training and development
Improving team development and decision-making groups
Important for us to be able to utilize this strategy in a number of ways:
As a future parent
As a coach
As a president of an organization
As a member of a group project
Lauren

9. Case
Study
Lauren & Elise & Parker

10. References
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Transformational leadership. (2019, February 05). Retrieved from
Impact of Transformational leadership on followers’ influence strategies (2019, March 01). Retrieved from