Matt, I appreciated reading your post and perspective on transformational leadership. I love the transformational leadership approach and really value it’s emphasis on the people in the organization. I love to see people succeed.
However, you said something thought provoking, and I have been pondering this for some time.
In my experience, managing is often a delicate balance between choosing whether to work through, with, or sometimes even against people, as a means to achieve important objectives for the organization (Matthew, 2019)
How can one be a transformational leader when you are “working against people”; where there are hard calls to make regarding staffing or organizational directions? Sometimes, a leader needs to make a decision that is best for the organization, but this may mean that people lose their jobs or the decision appears unfair. Or, despite a leader’s best efforts at building community and investing in others, there are employees who are disgruntled and non-cooperative.
As I have been doing the reading on transformational and ethical leadership, I have been considering how to approach employees in the organization who demonstrate continued challenging behaviours. They may not be in the right position, are not succeeding in their current position, are perhaps not even in the right career, or worse still, spreading strife and contention throughout the community. It is very difficult to be transformative with these people, because they are not in the right place and/or do not have the right attitudes for learning and growth. In the business world, there are formal probationary periods, performance reviews and a process by which an employee can be dismissed. I acknowledge that though this process is not pleasant, an employee can be dismissed, or a leader can lay people off by downsizing or creating more efficient systems. How can one be a transformative leader in this midst of this kind of action?
Alternately, a leader may inherit a staff community that may need a different approach. Some staff can be very communal and supportive of one another, while others can be rife with discontent, gossip, and complaining. It is a daunting task to work with such a fragmented staff who have no sense of loyalty to one another or the organization. I believe that it is possible to be a transformative leader with such a staff, but it will take a significant investment of time to build trust and collegiality, while organizational goals go nowhere. What do you think would be a better approach that could be taken in the meantime in order to implement some organizational change and forward momentum?
References:
Matthew (2019, November 10). Blog post two. [Web log comment]. Retrieved from https://create.twu.ca/fourwinds/2018/11/10/blog-post-two-6/.
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