Educational and other organizational leaders face many challenges in their pursuits toward high organizational achievement. Not only must they establish and maintain a high standard for their organization by setting and pursuing a shared vision and mission. They must also manage and support their staff through collaboration and team building measures. However, there has been much research to shows that leadership can affect the culture and climate within an organization and people’s perceptions of the work environment, and that different leadership styles produce different effects (Raes et al., 2013). Transformational leadership theory and practices is the one leadership style that I believe can best help a leader with team building and communicating goals, values, and procedures.
As it relates to teamwork and collaboration, transformational leadership practices have leaders and followers, through a well-established and mutually-supportive culture, focus on the common good of the organization and the accomplishment of the goals of the organization (Eliophotou-Menon & Ioannou, 2016). This aspect of collaboration separates transformational leadership theory from other leadership styles in so far as it challenges leaders to empower their followers to each provide their own level of leadership. When staff members/employees feel empowered they contribute their unique passions, talents and ideas toward achieving organizational success (Tabassi, Roufechaei, Abu Bakar, & Yusof, 2017).
When it comes to team building and team learning, transformational leadership seeks to empower staff members/employees and take them past their own immediate self-interest by providing individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation, and inspirational motivation (Raes et al., 2013). Therefore, through transformational practices, the organizational leader spends time understanding each staff member/employee’s own talents and abilities. Then, they tap into them by developing them and utilizing them to grow the entire organization. According to Tabassi et al., (2017) this can specifically be done by “developing particular aspects of the teamwork process, such as conflict resolution, team communication, and cohesion”. Therefore, practicing transformational leadership is likely to help improve team building by emphasizing relationships among staff members/employees, thus boosting the organization’s achievements.
Finally, communicating goals, values, and procedures is one of the most powerful ways transformational leaders can grow their organization. Using this leadership style benefits the organization while building upon benefits to individuals. The organizational leader helps set a shared vision and mission for the organization, while highlighting achievable and actionable goals. Then, the leader harnesses each individual staff member/employees’ talents. Therefore, each staff member/employee’s growth is valued and supported while they each use them to advance the entire organization. The shared vision, mission and goals provide a framework that is used as a blueprint to provide a foundation on which the organization’s successes are built upon.
According to Raes et al. (2013), “Generally, it is stated that transformational leadership is likely to have a positive impact on learning processes that take place in a group.” Furthermore, through that learning process, transformational leadership practices can affect the culture and climate within an organization and people’s perceptions of the work environment, and produce effects that help boost an organization’s achievements and level of success. These reasons support my belief that aspects of organizational leadership such as team building and communicating goals, values, and procedures are most successful when organizational leaders use transformational leadership theory and practices.
References
Eliophotou-Menon, M., & Ioannou, A. (2016). The link between transformational leadership and teachers’ job satisfaction, commitment, motivation to learn, and trust in the leader. Academy Of Educational Leadership Journal, 20(3), 12-22.
Raes, E., Decuyper, S., Lismont, B., Van den Bossche, P., Kyndt, E., Demeyere, S., & Dochy, F. (2013). Facilitating team learning through transformational leadership. Instructional Science: An International Journal of the Learning Sciences, 41(2), 287-305.
Tabassi, A. A., Roufechaei, K. M., Abu Bakar, A. H., & Yusof, N. (2017). Linking team condition and team performance: A transformational leadership approach. Project Management Journal, 48(2), 22-38.
