Transformational leadership is leading by motivating. Transformational leaders provide extraordinary motivation by appealing to the ideals and moral values ​​of followers and inspiring them to think about problems in new ways. These followers have felt trust, admiration, loyalty and respect for them and were motivated to do more than they thought they could or would. In essence, transformational leaders make tomorrow’s dreams come true for their followers.

Perhaps the most important characteristic that transformative users possess is their ability to create a vision that brings people together. Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech galvanized a generation to support the civil rights movement in the United States. But transformational leaders must have more than just a vision, “they must also know which way to go to achieve it.” Followers are drawn to the vision and the leader must have the plan to energize them to achieve it.

Vision plays a crucial role and leaders who are totally committed to their vision and course of action are often called charismatics. Charismatic leaders have an unwavering belief in their mission, are confident in its success, and have the ability/talent to convey these beliefs to their followers. In turn, they are rewarded with unquestioning loyalty and obedience.

In our society, we have a common notion of the leader as a person with the vision, who then gets people to accept, align with that vision. This notion is bankrupt and dangerous, because the leaders who have done well for their communities and organizations are not the ones who came up with the vision. If we imagine them as the conductor, they are good at embodying the soul of music. These leaders are good at articulating the overarching values ​​of the organization or community. A leader’s vision must have precision and not just charm and imagination. Articulating a vision for an organization or community has to start with a lot of listening, a lot of stimulating debate and conversation, to distill, to capture the values. It has to start, too, with a careful diagnosis of the current problematic environment to which one needs to adapt.

When changes in the environment occur slowly, managers often don’t recognize them as threats to their organizations. To become aware of environmental changes, transformational leaders must frame their vision by providing employees with a new purpose for working. Framing is a process through which leaders define the purpose of the group in very meaningful terms. In organizations, framing often involves identifying the core values ​​and purpose that should guide employees. For example, at Walt Disney the central goal is simply “to make people happy.”

Impression management involves an attempt to control the impressions that others form about the leader through behaviors that make the leader more attractive to others. The impression sounds manipulative, and sometimes it is. On the other hand, it is also a natural and sincere expression that reveals to followers an alignment between the vision and the person. Integrity, for effective leaders, is just that. Reveal how the message heard by followers relates to the personal experiences of the messenger. Telling a story or giving a clear example can become a particularly effective way of managing impressions, according to some it is the essence of charisma.

With or without authority, exercising leadership is risky and difficult. Instead of providing answers as a means of direction, sometimes the best you can do is provide questions or confront people with hard facts, rather than protect people from change. It is often necessary to make them feel the pinch of reality, otherwise why should they go through a painful process of adaptive learning? But, people are often reluctant to do painful adaptation and learning work. They resist in several typical ways. If you want to lead others, you must understand how to counteract this kind of resistance.

Transformational leaders are most effective when the company is new or when their survival is threatened. The ill-structured problems facing these organizations demand leaders with vision, confidence, and determination. Such leaders must influence others to enthusiastically join joint efforts and arouse their feelings about what they are trying to do.