Think of your productivity, deliverables or quality of the service you provide as the wheels on a car. Your car is going nowhere without wheels. In fact, it isn’t even really a vehicle if it lacks the means to move. Likewise, without outcomes, your organization is going nowhere. Poor performance in whatever your organization does is like running on bald, half-flat re-treads. High profits and high-quality service are like brand new, fully inflated, top-of-the-range wheels. They will take you far, and keep taking you there for a long time, in style!
But, only if they are attached to something. Your fancy wheels are just a dream stacked on a showroom shelf unless they are securely bolted on to the axels and have a strong chassis to align them in the right direction. They’ll just gather dust on a half-built car if there is no bodywork. And, of course, you can’t really show them off unless you have an engine to power your car.
So let’s think about the chassis. What’s the organizational framework that enables you to pursue high outcomes? Workers with the right skills, good equipment, appropriate tools, efficiency systems – you can’t achieve much without these things. Your framework needs to be strong and all the parts need to fit together so your organization can operate smoothly. Your framework, especially your practice framework, must match your organizational goals if you are to do your work efficiently and profitably.
Even with a solid chassis though, your passengers will fall out unless you add a body. Your staff need appropriate resources to do their work well but they also need clear direction in order to work with you towards achieving your organizational goals. Do you have a vision statement? Do you have a current strategic plan? Do your policies and procedures provide clear guidelines so that everyone knows what is expected of them? Do you and your staff take opportunities for further training and professional development? These things add body to the bare necessities. A well-designed body enables you to carry your staff to your destination of high profits and quality service.
Lastly, you need an engine. You can put in a two-stroke that makes a lot of noise and will probably rattle your car to pieces. You can put in a 1.0 litre four cylinder that is economical but has no decisive power. You could install a V8 that sounds impressive, goes fast but is expensive to run. Or you could get a turbo-charged diesel that motivates and inspires you and thrives on making the vehicle as a whole reach its goals.
Transformational Leadership is like that turbo-charged diesel. The theory of Transformational Leadership was developed by James McGregor Burns in 1978. He defined Transformational Leadership as a process where leaders seek to motivate and support their followers to be and to do their best. In the process, mutual needs and goals are met so that Transformational Leadership brings out the best in the leader too. It is a leadership style which aims to maximize productivity through taking a personal interest in staff, inspiring them to do well and to want to do well, intellectually stimulating staff to encourage innovation and being a role model of integrity.
Such leadership produces a culture of trust, creativity and high morale. If you get that right, your workers will give of their best. You can’t afford to take your eyes off the road or your foot off the accelerator if you want to keep powering forward but Transformational leaders have a strong foundation from which to spot any obstacles and deal with them before they do any damage.
Much has been written about Transformational Leadership. And many organizations give lip-service to its principles but when it comes to appointing senior leaders, they neglect to include integrity, inspiration and innovation in their selection criteria.
Many organizations fall into the trap of appointing ‘two-stroke’ managers and team leaders who sound like they are doing a lot and take pride in ‘shaking people up’. Unfortunately, they don’t support, motivate or inspire staff well so they are likely to have high staff turnover and sick leave, and an unhappy, unproductive work group.
Other organizations feel obliged to promote staff who have been with the organization for a long time regardless of leadership skills. Often these managers are ‘yes-men’, ineffectual leaders who lack vision, courage and decisiveness. The result again will be an unmotivated, dysfunctional team.
Then there are those recruiters who are seduced by the game-players. Like a V8 engine, these are ambitious people who know who they need to impress and how to impress them. They are a potent influence but are usually caught up in the power game of wanting to get ahead regardless of who they trample over in the process. They wear out their staff and upset their stakeholders. Staff who stay will generally learn how to keep a low profile to avoid being bullied or dominated.
The manager does not need to be able to do everything. They do not need to be expert in every role filled by the staff. If the manager is a person of integrity, who genuinely cares for their workers’ well-being and leads with confidence, strength and compassion, they will be forgiven for not knowing how all the IT equipment works, or how to maintain the manufacturing machinery, or not remembering all the clients’ names. Like an engine connected to a drive chain, a Transformational leader will create a team they can rely on and together they will do their best to make the organization a success.
In my opinion, leadership is as much about who you are, as what you do. Vision, motivation, creativity, drive, staff support, technical competence, professional skills – all are a necessary part of the leadership function but none are sufficient. The best leaders have integrity. Integrity translates into such traits as honesty, kindness, humility and self-awareness. These are the qualities which will create an office culture which brings out the best in your workers. And happy, productive workers will maximize your productivity and profitability.
Christelle Withers-Mayne
June 2020