The 4 I’s of Transformational Leadership

Have you ever had the privilege of working for someone, who makes you feel inspired to the point where you actually look forward to going to work? 

 I read this story about someone who experienced an extraordinary moment at their job during a very challenging project with his team. The CEO of the company, sensing something was wrong gave a compelling and motivational speech that left each person believing that they can achieve anything.

 Half an hour later everyone left the room looking at each other and saying: “Yes, let’s do that right now, let’s go for it.” 

 The late great Dr. Myles Munroe said that great leaders could walk into a room of depressed people and transform those people into warriors. Note the word Transform. My experience has shown me that transformational leaders are a rare breed because businesses are run by what we define as managers: people with a list of objectives to accomplish, really skilled at identifying, giving and following orders, making pressure to ensure that these are done.

In many cases, businesses can be driven by managers, but what separate the great companies from the good ones are transformational leaders. According to Fernando Vilas, these leaders are capable of inspiring others to follow them, even in very adverse situations. 

Here are the four typical traits of a transformational leader: 

Individual Influence

Transformational leaders are capable of transmitting a message to each person in their team. They spread enthusiasm and integrity, acting as a role model. They have one or more characteristics which make them really authentic, without caring about what others think about them. They are really good at setting real-life examples which make people identify with them.

This behavior can be summarized with the word “Identify.”

Inspiration

These leaders are capable of leveraging the meaning of goals and tasks. Their emotions are magnetic, touching the most buried feeling inside of their people. They give purpose to the organization, explaining the personal reasons to achieve them as opposed to following an order from a manager. They are capable of communicating an attractive vision, a dream: “by scoring those points you will enter in the list of the world’s most recognized football players…” And really important: they appreciate the job done by their people.

 This is the second I: “Inspire.”

 Intellectual Stimulation

In other words: capacity to challenge their people. They question old ways of doing things, imparting new perspectives. They are auto critic, making their followers understand that they are all at the same level and transmitting that success to every individual. They adequate complexity and challenge their people to be the best by telling their people that only the best can achieve the goals, and this accomplishment depends solely on them. But most importantly they challenge the status-quo.

 This behavior is summarized with: “Intellectual.”

Individual Treatment

Contrary to what managers usually do, transformational leaders develop each employee individually, with full credibility. They understand their employees’ needs, and they genuinely care about them. They give to their followers the importance that they deserve by soliciting feedback and engaging their people in topics of a personal nature as well. They enter into real valuable dialogues that build a healthy relationship between leader and follower.

 This is the fourth and last I: “Individual”.

Transformational leadership takes place when all the four I’s appear at the same time. Now you know this leadership style, are you one of these leaders? CLICK HERE to complete a Transformational Leadership Self-assessment, it will help you determine if you are a transformational leader and if any gaps exist in your leadership. 

I am the founder of Leadership First, a website dedicated to helping all leaders lead with inspiration and purpose. I am also the author of Communication for Change Management, Mastering Communication To Architect Change. When you read this book, you will become an inspirational leader, who can develop and implement a successful communication plan for any type of change in any industry or sector. 

Available here on Amazon