Transformational Leadership: Giving Goosebumps and Drinking Your Own Kool Aid

Memorable leaders make us sit up straighter when we’re listening to them, they make us laugh, make us cry, make our pulse skip a beat or two, and give us goosebumps.

Transformational (or inspirational) leadership is probably what most of us imagine when we think of leadership, but in reality, leaders are usually transactional (leading through rules, rewards, and punishment alone). Why is the former more desirable than the latter? Ask yourself what the difference is between Martin Luther King Jr. and your current supervisor. Ask yourself whom you would rather follow: someone who fills you with passion and determination or someone who simply tells you what to do?

So how do you go from compliance to respect? From guide to guru? Researchers say that you need to practice the following:

    - Get very good at the skills necessary in your leadership positions (know how to fill out those damn forms better than anyone).
    - Become a role model (practice what you preach at all times, no matter how tired you feel or how inconvenient it may be).   
    - Have a vision and get others to see it - people don’t want to just do stuff, we want to change stuff and make stuff too.
    - Take positive risks and get creative - do things in a new and unexplored way and encourage your team to do the same.
    - Demonstrate your passion (if you find yourself jumping up and down or trembling while you speak about your group’s vision, you’re on the right track).
    - Notice people - show your team members how much they matter and that you see their strengths.
    - Challenge members intellectually (give assignments and ask questions that make their brains feel tingly).

Inspiring a group also takes a boatload of confidence and enthusiasm (a former employer of mine calls it “the sparkle in the eye” - he actually hires people based on that sparkle). And I think the prerequisite to inspiring others is inspiring yourself first. My friend Kevin calls it “drinking your own Kool Aid” (i.e. being a true believe of your own claims, goals, organization, cult, whatever). It’s only when you can get yourself out of bed in the morning because of your passion, when you find your vision creeping into most of your conversations, and when you can't think of a better way to spend your time than working toward your goals, then you can start pouring the Kool Aid into other cups. Bottoms up!

 

Comments

[Larry L.]

Great post. Do you have references for that research? I'd love to read what you did.

[Tania]

Hi Larry,
I just noticed your comment - very sorry about the delay!
The theory to which I referred in this post is James MacGregor Burns' (1978) leadership theory. It's terrible of me not to have referenced him. Thanks for asking!