Not long after I moved from Mississippi to Florida, I
began working as an accountant at Daytona State College. In Mississippi, my
only other professional job was an accounts receivable clerk, so I was not very
confident in my abilities to perform at my new position. In fact, my degree was
in banking and finance, and I realized the first day that the debits and
credits were backward. I had a lot of learning to do and had a low morale and lack
of confidence in my ability to adapt. Nosich (2016) describes transformational
leadership as an individual creating a connection with another individual resulting
in an increase in morale and motivation in both the leader and follower. I was
fortunate enough to follow a leader who practiced transformational leadership
and elevated my confidence.
The one thing I have learned during this leadership
program is that the managers or supervisors are not always the real leaders.
The leader I am referring to was not my director, but a coworker who took it
upon himself to train me and show me the ropes. Bass (1999) referred to the
four components of transformational leadership as idealized influence,
inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized
consideration. My coworker was able to utilize all four components to motivate
me in the learning process.
Northouse (2016) described idealized influence or
charisma as being a strong role model who followers wish to imitate. Looking
back and applying what I have learned about transformational leadership, I see
now that I did want to emulate my coworker. He was only a couple of years older
than me, he understood the system well and knew the accounting rules and
regulations, he seemed well-liked by everyone, he seemed to be ethical and was
a very nice person. One of the first things he told me when teaching me to use
the accounting system was that I cannot make a mistake that is not able to be
fixed, so do not be worried about doing something wrong. His words resonated
with me and began to build trust.
Inspirational motivation is the ability to communicate
expectations to followers while motivating and inspiring them to commit to the
organizational or departmental vision (Northouse, 2016). My coworker was great
at leading through inspirational motivation. Though my main job function was to
enter deposits and balance bank accounts, he made me feel like a key component
of the department. He used to tell me that without the deposits entered and the
bank accounts balanced, he would not be able to run the reports used to develop
the financial presentation to the board or the audit reports. He was able to
incorporate my job function into the bigger picture of the college and that
made me more motivated to work harder.
Intellectual stimulation was another element that my
coworker was able to exhibit while training me. According to Norhtouse (2016),
intellectual stimulation is allowing followers the freedom to be creative or
innovative in their job performance. Some of the spreadsheets that were being
used by the department were a bit outdated and bulky, so he allowed me to alter
them. He told me that just because the format of the spreadsheet worked for him
doesn’t mean that there is not a better format that will be more beneficial to
both of us. This action was another component to the trust we built. I felt
like he trusted me in the fact that he allowed me to make decisions to remove
obstacles while trying to be a more productive employee.
Individualized consideration is the final component of
transformational leadership. Northouse (2016) described individualized
consideration as providing support while listening to the needs of your
individual followers. My coworker took the time to understand me individually. He
knew that I was filled with self-doubt and would make sure to compliment my
work. He understood that letting me know I did things correctly would help me
feel more confident about the work. He also knew that I tend to ask several
questions when given a new or unfamiliar task. He always made time to answer
all of my questions and concerns.
Having this individual as a coworker, teacher, mentor,
friend and most importantly leader taught me a lot about myself. I still have
issues with self-confidence but working with him and moving forward using the
lessons he taught me lessened my concern of self-confidence. He once told me
that I was smart and a great accountant and that the only person that did not
see that was me. I always try to remember that statement when I feel self-doubt
start to creep in. Another important
factor he taught me was the standards of acting in a moral and ethical way. I
have always had a need to do the right thing, so it was soothing to work with
another individual who believed in ethics as much as I did. I have had leaders
in the past that did not feel the need to be ethical, and it was very
non-motivating.
Transformational leadership can be a very powerful and
motivating leadership tool. I was fortunate to work with a transformational
leader who helped form my work ethic while boosting my confidence. This
coworker moved (ironically to Mississippi) a couple of years ago, but we still
talk occasionally, and I usually try to have lunch with him when I am home. As
I pondered our department’s current leadership styles, I do not believe anyone
is a transformational leader. We have some great leaders utilizing many
different styles, but transformational leadership is not as prevalent.
References
Bass, B. (1999), Two decades of research and development
in transformational leadership. European
Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 8 (1), 9-32. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/135943299398410
Northouse,
P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and
practice (7th ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
No comments:
Post a Comment