Transformational Leaders Increase Their Employee's Engagement by Leading By Example. Here’s Why.

Clorox CEO Benno Dorer was recently named the highest rated CEO for 2017 based on anonymous employee reviews submitted on the job site Glassdoor. Dorer got a 99% employee approval rating and often refers to the company values and working according to those values as one of the major components of Clorox success.

According to Dorer, at Clorox, everyone is united by the values of the company, and people are empowered to take ownership of his or her work, while the leaders create an environment that supports this empowerment. When leaders lead by example, it helps their employees grow their beliefs in their leader, and as such, leaders can efficiently transmit their inspirational motivation to them. Consequently, it leads to making a positive vision, setting high standards, and establishing zeal along with optimism for attaining success at work. It is vital to the success of any business. 

Transformational leaders have a genuine interest in their employees, and they are fully aware that their employee's inspirational and motivational level directly impacts their organization's performance. Research shows that transformational leaders transfer their enthusiasm and high power to their subordinates by modeling the behaviors they expect from their employees and as a result, this has increased their employee's engagement and boost performance by 100%.

Bass (1985b) suggested that employees were more likely to devote additional extra effort at work if they reported to a transformational leader who stimulates and inspire trust in the company. This is a significant point outlined by bass; when applying transformational leadership behaviors like "Idealized influence," it can become very disheartening for an employee if the leader proclaims one thing, like valuing employee input, communicating change, asking for feedback and then modeling behaviors that are in direct contradiction to what is espoused. It will erode all trust while creating a very toxic place to work. 

The world has an employee engagement crisis, many companies and leaders worldwide recognize the advantages of engaging employees, but sadly many don't. Although some of these organization have instituted surveys to measure engagement, however, employee engagement has barely budged in well over a decade. Gallup, for example, has been tracking employee engagement in the U.S. since 2000.

Though there have been some slight ebbs and flows, less than one-third of U.S. employees have been engaged in their jobs and workplaces during these 15 years. According to Gallup Daily tracking, 32% of employees in the U.S. are engaged; meaning they are involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace. Worldwide, only 13% of employees working for an organization is engaged.

Transformational leaders are admired, respected and trusted because their employees identify with them, and in turn, they want to emulate their leader by incorporating the behaviors they experienced into their development and leadership. According to Schein, an organizational culture is a direct result of a leader's behavior and values, but more importantly, people tend to emulate the conduct of their leaders with the assumption that their actions are right.

Leaders are most potent when they lead by example. If the leader of the company does not believe in the vision and values of the organization, your employees will quickly identify the insincerity.  Employee engagement significantly increases when leaders successfully “walk the talk” and model the behavior they expect from their employees. It will make their employees become more engaged with the vision and be willing to make more sacrifices to achieve the organizational goals. 

Transformational leaders inspire their people to believe that the impossible is possible, they hold their people to a high standard, and they have the ability to make employees do more than what was expected of them at work simply because, they lead by example. 

To determine if you are a transformational leader and if any gaps exist in your leadership. CLICK HERE to complete the Self-assessment. 

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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. 

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