Transformational Leadership Development: Idealized Influence

Today I would like to touch on one of the anchor points of a critical aspect of your development as a leader: Transformational Leadership (TL).

My main motivations for writing this section are two core beliefs:

1. It is my belief that the traits that make successful leaders can be developed by focusing on the individual, while adhering to four core tenants of TL, and
2. Leaders must lead, not manage (you lead people and manage programs)!

TL is often praised as the key to the total development of your followers; however we are not always shown “how” to lead in our developmental PME courses, and in my experience, much of the leadership development is left up to chance by letting individuals who have certain personality traits lead lines of effort—whether they are ready or not. But how do you, or your troops, develop these traits? Throughout this series I will explore the topic of TL and how you can apply it to your situation.

The first aspect of TL I would like to examine is Idealized Influence.Idealized Influence is your ability to act in ways that make you the role model— make your troops want to be like you! You are the consummate professional. You are charismatic, on-time, prepared, calm, positive, and stay true to your ethical and moral standards in the actions you take. You are honest, reliable and actively build trust with your followers. In other words you set the example; you walk the walk—but most importantly you have a vision.

You may not have all of these skills in your leadership toolbox now, but since we have identified what traits you need to practice you can start to include them in you daily interactions with your co-workers. For example, if one of your followers is having problems with a specific task you could take action by:

1. Showing them how to do the task,
2. Explain its importance to the overall objectives of the organization, and
3. Highlight how important becoming proficient at this task is, and how they will be able to build a better tomorrow for their organization.

No matter how big your area of influence is, by practicingIdealized Influence, you can make an impact with your actions and foster a positive developmental environment for you troops and yourself.

In my next entry I will explore Inspirational Motivation, and how you can use it to broaden your influence and lead your teams.