Charismatic and Transformational Leadership

Question 1

I have experienced various negative managerial situations.  One of the most memorable situation happened when I was involved in the implementation of a long-term project.  One of the most consistent issues across the project was the lack of role clarity.  Being a large project, three project managers had the task of overseeing the successful completion.  All the managers had a list of responsibilities on a flipchart. However, other employees did not have a clear guide as to what their roles were or what the managers expected of them.  

This role confusion among individuals drove most of the project’s issues and morale.  The project was characterized by under communication of project information, uneven workloads across teams and people constantly in a ‘wait state’ working on unimportant tasks.  I realized that lack or role clarity or poorly defined roles could be a stressor particularly when people are working in teams. 

Over time, the loss of morale among my team members was clear.  There was poor collaboration among team members, and individuals rarely complemented other members’ efforts.  Team members became less engaged with work and productivity was at its worst. On the other hand, managers complained of the slowness through which teams achieved overall objectives.  As a team leader, I approached one manager and raised the concern.  I explained why I thought the productivity of team members was lower than expected.  As a result, the manager formulated role descriptions for every team. Team leaders ensured that individuals developed personal work plans with task objectives and expected output.  In the case of unclear scope o f work or responsibilities, individuals were encouraged to talk to team leaders or managers.

Question 2

I have been in a situation where a leader spoke passionately and so clearly that the rest of us stopped to listen more closely.  People took on the energy of excitement and agreement as all became united under the inspiring vision and ideas of the one speaking. The type of leadership displayed by the leader with the use of authentic presence, inspiration, and vision to motivate others is transformational leadership. One of the most outstanding traits of the transformational leader was his ability to enlist the engagement of others. They convene important conversations that include diverse stakeholders then use the results to address issues. This means that the leader was open and had the willingness to listen to ideas. Transformational leaders are also inspirational and have the ability to inspire people around them (DuBrin, 2015).  This involves simple recognition for a job well done, treating people as individuals and understanding what motivates and inspires people.  As a result, people rise to the occasion. 

The last thing I learned from my personal experience with the transformational leader is that they are willing to take the right risk.  The transformational leader took calculated risks that more often than not resulted in the positive outcome. Trusting his instinct, as well as people to gather the necessary intelligence formed an important part of his leadership. This is easier when adequate time has been taken to research, inform and evaluate decisions with input from others. I enjoyed working with a transformational leader.  The form of leadership style created a positive environment in the workplace.  The leader also seemed to possess integrity, communicated his goals and sets a good example.  Overall, a transformational leader expects the best from people.  I would like to emulate this style of leadership in future.

Reference

DuBrin, A. J. (2015). Leadership: Research findings, practice, and skills. Nelson Education.

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in urgent custom research papers. If you need a similar paper you can place your order from nursing school papers services.