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Jade is held in high regard by her teammates. Her team members say that she constantly reinforces the end goal of their work, they’re loyal to her and prefer her over other leaders in the company.

Jade is a transformational leader.

No wonder:

A leader has the ability to make or break the team. It’s no secret that today, the workplace has evolved, traditional leadership methods bear minimum fruits. Now is the time where all employees focus on growth and development and it takes a true leader to identify a person’s potential and help them realise it.

Amongst the many leadership types, Transformational Leadership is probably one of the most coveted. This article will take a close look at what transformational leadership means, its model, pros and cons, and contrast it with Transactional Leadership.

What is Transformational Leadership?

Transformational leadership is a leadership type where leaders encourage, inspire, and motivate their employees to transcend their own self-interest and to innovate and create a change to achieve the best for the organisation.

Transformational leaders often inspire change driven by a strong purpose and ultimately create an environment characterised by trust and innovation.

In its ideal form, the objective of transformational leadership is to lead the followers into becoming good leaders in future. This type of leadership is known to enhance the motivation, morale and performance of employees through a variety of mechanisms.

4 Is of Transformational Leadership

In the year 1985, Bernard A. Bass based the modern idea of transformational leadership around the following four elements:

1. Inspirational Motivation: Transformational leaders inspire each person at a singular level to help them align their goals with that of the organisation. They keep their employees motivated and communicate their expectations to individual followers.
2. Intellectual Stimulation: These leaders encourage an environment of innovative thinking. They create a space where people tap into their full potential and also challenge others to do the same.
3. Idealised Influence: Transformational leaders are role models for their employees, they exert influence on the group and are deeply respected by the team for their vision and high standards of performance.
4. Individualised Consideration: These leaders display care and consideration for their team members, and value their inputs. They strive to create an environment of trust and develop in their followers’ leadership skills.

Transformational Leadership Characteristics

Leadership is a fluid practice, it is constantly changing and reinventing itself. Good leaders understand their role and work to maximise worker efficiency and achieve organisational goals. Transformational leaders pay attention to the developmental needs of their followers and strive to increase followers’ awareness by encouraging them to look at old problems in new and innovative ways.

Now:

The following points explain the individual traits of Transformational Leaders

• Visionary: They are committed to the organisation’s development and guide their followers through change and motivation.
• Positive Role Model: The followers emulate their leaders’ actions because they look up to him/her. Transformational leaders use empowering language to elevate efficiency and ensure high team morale.
• Risk Tolerance: Transformational leaders realise that there is no safe route to change. Who doesn’t take risks? However, transformational leaders take calculated risks and rely on research and inputs from their team while doing so.
• Communicative: Transformational leaders ensure that the company’s vision is effectively communicated to each member of the team. They possess good interpersonal skills and are considerate towards each team members’ ideas.

Transformational Leadership vs. Transactional Leadership

Often known to follow the “carrot and stick” approach to leadership, transactional leaders use rewards and punishments to induce good behaviour. They focus on supervision and group performance. Further, they aim to maintain the status quo of the organisation and tend to be more passive than transformational leaders.

On the other hand,

Transformational leaders set clear goals and high standards of performance while actively interacting with the employees themselves. They aim to improve the status quo and focus on individual performance as well.

The following table summarises the differences between the two –

However,

The real question is –

Which Leadership Style Is Better?

While transformational leaders try to sell their vision to their followers, transactional leaders divide roles and responsibilities and tell each member what to do. Outwardly, it might seem like transformational leadership is better, but that’s not true. There isn’t a definitive answer to this question as both transformational and transactional leadership are well suited for different situations.

Consider a crisis situation. These situations require linear progress and set rules and regulations are more effective under such circumstances. Here, transactional leadership is better suited.

Many big corporations such as Hewlett-Packard, NFL coaches, and high-level military members use the transactional leadership model. Even for minimum wage employees, transactional leadership is better suited.

Pros And Cons Of Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership may seem like the ideal form of leadership, however, there are also some drawbacks to it. Following lists the advantages and disadvantages of transformational leadership in an organisation:

Pros

• Empirical evidence suggests that transformational leadership is positively correlated with job satisfaction. Increased involvement of subordinates and a more contented workforce leads to a more balanced workplace
• Effective transformational leadership improves the status quo of the organisation as employees are motivated and identify with the organisation’s goals. This ensures a higher level of efficiency and output
• Employees feel empowered and trusted by the manager, thereby feeling confident and loyal towards the organisation
• Easy resolution of conflicts through collaboration and a good understanding of relationships
• Transformational leadership results in long term relationship building as employees feel valued and respected with the knowledge that their leader has invested in them and trusted them
• The focus of transformational leadership is to create an environment of trust and cooperation. Thus, employees enjoy the freedom of failure and have the opportunity to learn from their mistakes. This freedom to fail turns the company into a hub of innovative thinking

Cons

• Transformational leaders can struggle with detail as they focus too much on the bigger picture. They need to maintain connections with detail-oriented executives to help them overcome their lack of transactional focus
• Often, transformational leaders can set unrealistic expectations for their employees which can cause employee burnout. There can be increased pressure to maintain high productivity at all times worsened by unreasonable deadlines and exhaustion
• Transformational leadership can have negative consequences. Influential leaders leave a great impression on humanity… virtuous or wicked. Consider Adolf Hitler. Hitler personified transformational leadership and is the most extreme example of a negative transformational leader. He had a vision that appealed to his followers that drove them away from humanity and moral sense.

Barriers To Transformational Leadership

No leadership comes without challenges. Following lists the barriers, or what hinders the implementation of transformational leadership –

Resistance To Leadership

It is unrealistic to expect each employee to be on the same boat. There might be some who are content with the status quo of the organisation and low job performance standards. Such employees don’t desire to seek new opportunities or develop new ways to perform tasks.

Such individuals might perform better under transactional leaders, with defined roles and responsibilities.

Unclear Objective

If the focus is solely on new ideas and creativity, employees might lose sight of the end objective. This would result in the same task taking a lot longer to complete. Individual development is good, but not so much that it hinders the growth of the organisation.  

Transformational Leadership Examples

Transformational leaders are catalysts of positive change. Founder of Standard Oil, John D. Rockefeller, founder of Virgin Group, Richard Branson, are two of the most prominent transformational leaders.

Richard Branson

Branson is known for his fun and friendly business establishment. He considers himself a “rule-breaker” and prefers to maintain healthy leader-member relations. Further, he believes in giving freedom in decision making and carefully selects his employees.

He has successfully built 400 companies under the name of “Virgin”, thanks to his participative and goal-oriented approach. His leadership style is far different from transactional leadership. He doesn’t consider money to be a measure of success. For him, and his followers, the excitement is the challenge. This is the main reason why Virgin staff, even though paid a little less than market rates, yet are happy to work for Virgin because they enjoy being in the team.

John D. Rockefeller

Believed to be the wealthiest American in history, John D. Rockefeller, is known as one of the greatest leaders of all time. He was known for his perseverance and benevolence towards others. He routinely praised his employees and selected them with care. He possessed several noteworthy traits that made him stand out and many leaders today learn from his success and apply his principles in their organisation.

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Have you ever been a part of gossiping or a random chit-chat in your office’s canteen? Do you feel it’s intrinsically rewarding but extrinsically a major dereliction of duty? Have you received any rebukes from your superiors for the same?

If the answer to any of these questions is a yes, then you are already aware of the concept of informal communication. But guess what, all of us are.

From making jokes about superiors in canteens to digital pages dedicated to memes, the times might have changed but the trend seems to be not going anywhere.

However, what really has changed over the years is the way in which informal communication has an altogether different meaning attached to it now. What’s this meaning and how can any organization use it for its own good? Let’s find out.

What Is Informal Communication?

Informal communication refers to a type of casual and spontaneous communication that takes place without following the formal chain of the network in an organization.

This type of communication springs out of an employee’s personal need to identify with others in order to achieve intrinsic satisfaction by socializing. However, this might be one of the objectives of this type of communication, but definitely not the only one.

Think of informal communication like a truck that’s headed to a particular destination but helps several passengers to reach their own destination in the midway.

Such communication form had much more haters than any other, just a few years back. This is because of zero control or curbs that can be levied on it. However, repeated interventions only make employees hysterical about their own rights, thereby forcing them to leave such a dogmatic organization.

Companies today are much more equipped to use such a form of communication for their own benefit. But before we move further, let us first look at the various features of informal communication.

Features Of Informal Communication

Informal communication is mostly spontaneous, hence, it does not follow any fixed chain of authority or accountability in the organization. It does not take into account the formal structure of the organization rather the informal needs of the employees. Some of the features include the following.

Multidirectional

Employees are free to talk to their immediate supervisor or a remote worker or even the CEO for that matter. Similarly, the top management is free to talk to the immediate authority under them or someone as low in the organizational hierarchy as a daily wage worker.

Born out of social relations

The need for informal communication arises because of the personal and social needs of employees to interact with each other.

Zero location hindrance

No, the canteen is not the only zone of chatting with fellows. In fact, this type of communication can happen right after a board meeting outside the conference hall to discuss the effectiveness of the entire event.

Zero time hindrance

Similarly, lunch hours aren’t the solely dedicated hours of the daily talkers. Informal communication is not time-bound and can take place anytime.

Unverifiable

Since there is no official responsibility assigned to any one employee for the communication, such conversations can never be verified.

You must be thinking if such communication can be of any good to an organization? Well, yes. Let us look at why organizations need to allow such communication to breed without any censorship.

Advantages Of Informal Communication

Even though the source of the information passed in such communication is hard to find, the benefits definitely supersede this setback. Let us look at some.

Facilitates Team Spirit

Once employees know that their supervisor has a similar music taste and isn’t that tough a person to deal with, the chances of a good project presentation increase manyfold times.

Saves A Lot Of Time

Consider information being passed through a fixed chain and communication being spread through the word of mouth spontaneously. Well, we clearly have the winner in terms of speed.

Improves Employee Morale

In the formal network, people in top authority often tend to underestimate the lowermost strata in the organization. Informal communication makes them realize their own potential by talking to others who recognize it on a daily basis.

True Feedback

Since this form of communication is free of organizational bias and fear of authority, employees tend to give their honest opinion, thereby providing a chance for a real change.

But, how are organizations exactly using such forms of communication? Is there a way they can be used without leading to rumours or fake news?

How To Use Informal Communication For The Greater Good Of The Business?

Even though informal communication might be a norm in today’s culture, yet organizations find it difficult to mould it in their own manner for the greater good.

As a result, they end up using headphones or games as a distraction for workers to keep them away from communicating with each other. Sure enough, social distancing, huh!

But a good leader always views every business calamity as an opportunity, and this for sure isn’t calamity in the absolute sense.

This section will help you understand how you can incorporate informal communication from the business point of view.

Make It A Part And Not Leave It Apart

Informal communication does not always involve gossiping or rumours, in fact, sometimes they lead to actual criticism of the company’s policies and programs.

Once leaders try to cut off employees from heading to such conversations, they start looking for a new spot and a new time to discuss it. Reason? Human behaviour. They do what they aren’t told to do.

It will be best to actually let such conversations happen in the vicinity, just so one could hear the honest opinions of the employees. Constructive criticism cannot be just avoided because it is coming from your own subordinates.

Be Transparent

The biggest crime levied against informal communication is the cropping up of gossip or rumours without appropriate source confirmation.

But apart from pondering over how to curb them, have you tried to find out the reason behind such gossips? Gossips often become a part of employee conversation because organizations lack transparency to hold open-ended discussions.

Involve various interest groups or their representatives while taking important decisions. You can even discuss crucial issues with them. This will help with building confidence and cooperation between all the members of the organization.

Threat And Negative Promotions Are Not Good

Sometimes, members in the top organization tend to threaten workers to stop gossiping or else pay for it. The payment comes in the form of a delayed promotion or a pay cut, or over time with less pay.

However, this often shows the incapacity of the business to deal with its in-house critics. There are plenty of other steps, but such negative criticism degrades the overall image of the organization.

Identify The Overall Motive Of The Talk

Informal communication mostly is of 2 types. One that is light in nature and fosters team spirit and cooperation and the other being the one that leads to conflicts and misunderstandings.

Ensure that the light ones are allowed to take place while creating enough room for discussion for the latter.

Entertain Get-Togethers

Timely get-togethers can play a major role in facilitating good informal communication. What’s better than organizing one and being the head there? You can use your communication skills to share the company’s ideals without making it sound like an instruction.

You can even mould the conversation as you want because of being the organizer. These events can help you open a heart-to-heart with your colleagues while ensuring you can communicate your own ideas as well.

Final word

Informal communication might be a discomfort for a company loyalist. However, informal communication must be allowed in order to facilitate team spirit and honest opinions. Also, what a particular employee says is inherently his own belief and hence, a matter of subjectivity prevails.

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Remote Working has become quite common in the past decade –

But it is not always going to be sunshine, beaches and whiling away on the hammock when it comes to remote working. While you are given the freedom of choosing the way you go about your work, not setting limits and following certain etiquette will snowball into other problems & challenges –

• Poor communication,
• Poor performance,
• Overworking,
• Not able to meet deadlines, and
• Unnecessary stress.

So it helps to keep in mind that working remotely is still work nonetheless. Moreover, these challenges can be avoided by following certain dos and don’ts while remote working to make it more manageable.

Let’s start with the Dos of working remotely.

Dos

Set a Fixed Location

You should set a fixed work location – a standard workbench in a relatively quiet corner with plenty of natural light will work wonders. This not only provides you with a fixed workspace with all your equipment in one place but when set properly, can also help you maintain proper body posture while working. This is often overlooked when it comes to remote working and goes a long way in providing comfortable work experience.

Remote working lets you work from any place you wish as long as you get your work done on time. But for the most, lying on your sofa or sitting in the public and going about your office work is not advisable since not all have the concentration of a saint.

Follow a Routine

Follow your normal office hours – in case you had worked at a firm before – or try setting particular hours of the day when you feel the most productive as your work hours. Work hours usually get thrown out the window when it comes to remote working. While this might work for a few, it soon becomes harder to be productive with your irregular work hours.

Learn to manage your time when working remotely or when working from home. The beauty of remote working is that it allows you to experiment with your work hours, location and it is up to you to find a comfortable combination that works the best.

Set Boundaries

For those working remotely or working from home or a co-working space, make sure you politely inform your family, friends and colleagues about your work hours and not to disturb you unless it’s for something of importance. If you’re separated by a door, it is advisable to put up a “Working. Please Do Not Disturb” sign or doorknob tag on it.

This would be the first thing that you should do, even before you set up shop if possible. The reason for the emphasis on setting boundaries is to have a distraction-free work environment. In case you’ve got kids around, they will generally be curious and instead of shutting them out, you can explain to them about what you do and even show your work routine when free and tell them not to distract you while you’re working.

Follow Up on your Progress

You must make it a habit to keep in touch with your team, company and colleagues while working remotely. This gets overlooked easily since there is no observing figure for you to instantly report to, leading to irregular communication between you, your team and company.

Instead, set aside a small portion – may be at the end – of your work hours to relay your progress to your team and maintain regular communication in general. This doesn’t have to be daily, but make sure it does not, in any way, hinder work progress. If possible, it would be even better if the whole team or company can follow the same timings for catching up on everybody’s progress. See what fits for the situation you’re in and set one accordingly.

Take Breaks

Always manage to take breaks when working remotely. You can follow the 20-20-20 rule – take a break every 20-minutes and look at any object at least 20 feet away from you for 20 seconds.

The beauty of remote working is that it allows you to intersperse your routine with as many breaks as you wish – whenever you want – as long as it doesn’t disrupt your work-flow. But make sure to take regular breaks, and this applies everywhere – when working remotely or while at your office.

Working remotely and working from home generally means that you have no set schedules and you have to make additions to your routine to include breaks at proper intervals. This helps, in the long run, to make work that much more manageable.

Have a Backup Plan

Always have a backup plan for everything that you require or utilize for work. Make sure you have a backup in case your broadband gets disconnected – having mobile data for temporarily using mobile hotspot will come to help you at times when you least expect it to.

Got guests at your place? Make sure you have access to a place like the public library or another workspace that is more secluded to continue working even when the situation around you doesn’t pan to your advantage.

Maintain Personal Hygiene, Grooming & Neat Workspace

Make sure you maintain your hygiene and be presentable. When remotely working, you’re mostly going to connect and communicate with your team, company or clients over a video call. So, make sure you keep yourself presentable – you don’t have to wear your work uniform – wearing something understated, clean and neat is more than enough. Also, make sure your workspace is clean and neat. Make sure it is free of litter and looks clean.

Following these helps in a long way to drastically improving your remote working experience.

Let’s look at the don’ts of remote working.

Don’ts

Don’t multi-task between Personal Chores and Work

When working remotely, keep your chores aside from your work as much as possible. This will help on multiple levels – not only will doing so help you focus on the work at hand, but also helping in reduce your stress and pressure that comes with juggling between different tasks.

Don’t Use Social Media during Work Hours

Make sure you keep your social media presence to the minimum while working and especially during remote working hours. This is a no-brainer since your family, colleagues and higher-ups will notice it.

Don’t Have Your Workplace in the Public

Avoid having your workplace in a common area or the public unless you are sure you can handle the constant interruptions or distractions. There’s no stopping you from going about your work while sitting on a park bench or dining room – it boils down to what you’re comfortable with – but be ready to handle the interruptions to your workflow.

Don’t Think of Remote Working as a Day Off

Working remotely can lead you to while your time away from doing things that don’t exactly fall under “work”. So make sure you don’t fix it in your mind that working remotely is the same as receiving paid holidays. While you do get a lot of extra time on your hands, but make sure you work when you have to.

One way for easing this mentality would be by asking for reduced work hours with flexible breaks interspersed in between so that you acclimate to the new environment better.

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