Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Transformers Ultimate Power

Now days, when we hear the words Transformer, we automatically think of the entertainment franchise co-produced between the Japanese Takara Tomy and American Hasbro toy companies back from the 1980’s. The original forms of the transformers utilized varying humanoid-type figures while later versions presented robots able to transform into everyday vehicles, electronic items or weapons.  On the other hand, the word Transformer has been in the engineering and physics realm for many years, dating back to the early days of the use of electricity. A transformer is an electrical device that takes electricity of one voltage and changes it into another voltage. You'll see transformers at the top of utility poles and even changing the voltage in a toy train set.  Although it seems the terms are worlds apart, there is a common theme between the two and that is Change

So why are we suddenly talking about engineering and the entertainment industry?  That’s because as leadership development strategists, we are in the business of change.  Preparing leaders and organizations for change outside of themselves in the case of their organization, but also change within them.  In today’s’ fast paced and highly volatile economic environment, it is even more imperative that people and organizations not only adapt to change, but to also invite it.  What’s the difference? From an organization development perspective, benchmarking, strategy planning and competitive advantage are based on the premise that in order to stay competitive, our offerings need to stay innovative in the eyes of our customers.  This is not unchartered territory.  From the days of Ford Motor Companies to McDonalds and up to now, this basic principle has had to take precedence.  However, what about from the viewpoint of employee productivity and team leadership? 
There has always been the discussion that one can be a good manager without being a good leader. In fact, there was a theory discussed not too long ago called transactional leadership.   Transactional leadership would encompass the exchange of traditionally expected tasks: managing, supervising, organizing work, and monitoring performance. This would mean following procedures, a set of guidelines and tasks.  Bringing this back to our original discussion of organization development, the question I want to pose to you is:  in a transactional environment, what behavior if any is the manager going to encourage?  My answer:  Status Quo.  The truth is, a manager is only avoiding failure by managing, meaning prevention and cannot be the catalyst to change, meaning proactive.  The change we are referring to here would cover many areas including adapting to individual employees needs, motivating employees according to their motivational triggers, job design based on talents rather than just resume matching, and proactive team productivity measures, such as innovation days, and culture change in general, just to name a few.  These examples are all in a sense, babies born out of the marriage of a learning organization culture, and transformational leadership.  The initiatives and processes leading to each of them require constant cultivation and nurturing.
It was James MacGregor Burns who first used the term transformational leadership in 1978 to describe a process in which “leaders and followers help each other to advance to a higher level of morale and motivation.”
In any circumstance, if you want to have someone perform according to your liking, they have to want to perform.  Long gone are the days of the iron fist, or the “I will fire you”.  Having influence comes from trust, support, and the match between the intrinsic motivation of the follower and the influencing power of the leader. We have seen even under circumstances of severe punishment, whether physical or emotional, such as the Nazi Concentration Camps, or the Abolishment of Slavery during the Civil War, that over a period of time, people will only follow those, whom they believe in. 

Reasons Transformational Leadership has an influential effect:

  • It is able to create a supportive environment where responsibility is shared
  • It is able to encourage actions that support the organization rather than personal interests
  • It is able to break through status quo; have freedom to set strategy and change direction
  • It is able to allow one to earn genuine trust, respect, and admiration of their team
  • It is able motivate performance and business impact beyond expectations



In our next article, we will discuss, suggested ways a leader can find their transformational voice.  In the mean time, stay tuned to our Interview Series Titled:  The Voice of Leadership on Blog Talk Radio.

Transformer Photo Credit: HD Wallpapers

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