Transformational leadership is a type of guidance where individuals feel inspired to follow in a leader’s footsteps, the leader injects enthusiasm and energy in order to get tasks completed while showing vision and passion to achieve boundless things. A good leader helps to develop others sense of ethics, potential for leadership, and career development through their own actions and beliefs. It is mentioned in the text that Gandhi is a good example of transformational leadership because he, “elevated the hopes and demands of millions of his people, and, in the process, was changed himself” (Northouse, p. 162, 2015). It is said that behavior tends to rub off on others and that employees spend one third of their time in work settings and are exposed to the influence of leaders. Sometimes leaders have the appearance of being transformational when, in fact, they are not; rather, such individuals are merely successful con artists and/or are adept in image management.
The most successful leader I have ever had the pleasure to spend time with was who lets say is named “Mr. G” who is a billionaire business man that dabbled in all different kinds of “jobs”, but you would never know that just speaking to him. He is one of the sincerest, intelligent and friendliest individuals that I have ever met. Spending time around this man, made you think differently about things, as it is said that followers pay greater attention to and emulate the moral attitudes, emotions, values, and behavior of authentic transformational leaders. The main way that I personally experienced this was being around such a successful and intelligent person so much that actually rubbed off on me, I learned how to think about things the same way that they did before I made decisions. One of the most significant social influence instruments leaders can contribute to their followers is to lead by example, and this is exactly what I had the pleasure of experiencing. After meeting this man and spending time around him for about two years I had personally changed many philosophies I had in my life and wanted to strive for bigger and better things, rather than just getting by (as I had been doing).
I knew that Mr. G was a genuine leader when I met one, mostly by observing his day to day behavior and the way that he treated others – who didn’t have anything to offer him. I was able to recognize that he was a genuinely transformation leader and not a skillful manipulator or a pseudotransformational leader. A pseudotransformational leader is some one who is focused on only their welfares and the aftermath for themselves rather than the interests of their followers. A good example of this type pf leadership was Jim Jones, who was the famous cult leader of the People’s Temple where he brainwashed hundreds of people and ultimately led more than 900 followers in a mass suicide via cyanide-laced punch known as the Jonestown Massacre. Jim Jones was able to get a large following through the promise of utopia if they followed him, but in all reality all he was doing was gaining the power of these individuals lives and taking away any kind of freedom they had; he prayed on the weak.
I consider myself lucky to have had the opportunity to work for Mr. G and experience what it is like to be around a transformational leader first hand. I did seem to find myself a little intimidated and overwhelmed when I first began to work with the family because, he would ask me questions or my opinions on certain things and I didn’t want to sound unintelligent. I quickly learned that this was not the case and that I could ask and talk with him about many highly intelligent topics such as politics, wealth/capital and things as simple as life. Although I don’t know if I personally will reach his level of success I sure am going to try!
References
Northouse, P. G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2016). LER 464. Lesson 07: Transformational Theory.