Let me drag you back to a conversation from a few months ago¹ . 

Who Cares?

We return to transformational leadership.  What is it, and why does it matter to me, an everyday kinda’ guy in a local community?  Why does leadership of any kind matter to me – who cares whether its transformational, transactional, or any other kind of “-tional”?

Does effective leadership matter to a typical Sunday School teacher?  A typical pastor or board member in a church?  An employee for a local non-profit?  Does effective leadership matter to that hard-working teacher in the elementary school down the road?

Why are we still talking about this?²    

We might be getting a bit closer to understanding why transformational leadership is so important, especially if we want our organizations to be effective.  So, let’s talk about it again.  I was motivated recently by a series of articles in a book edited by Joanne B. Ciulla, Ethics: The Heart Of Leadership³ .  James MacGregor Burns wrote the forward!  The book consists of a series of essays debating the meaning and efficacy of transformational leadership (as opposed to other forms of leadership).  The final essay by Bernard Bass is a very helpful summary of the key issues raised by scholars and practitioners over the decades.

I was most intrigued by the article by Robert Solomon, Ethical Leadership, Emotions, and Trust: Beyond ”Charisma”.  Solomon helps me get to the heart of the matter, especially if I expect leadership to matter to everyone involved in my organization.  After effectively debunking the age-old myth about the role of “charisma” in leadership, Solomon concludes, “Charisma distracts us from looking at the relationship between the leader and the led, and, in particular, the relationship of trust” (p. 98).  In short, Solomon suggests that leadership is effective when a trusting relationship exists between the leadership team⁴ and everyone else in the organization.

As A Regular Kinda’ Guy, What Am I Supposed To Trust?

Permit me to take Robert Solomon’s excellent point one step further.  As a regular kinda’ guy in a local community — maybe I’m a volunteer for a local non-profit, a teacher in a school, a volunteer in the local church — I need to trust that the leadership team I follow is unequivocally dedicated to the mission of our organization.  Without that level of trust in my leadership team my willingness to follow them wavers.  My commitment to our organization depends greatly on my perception that our leadership team cares singularly about the mission of our organization.  To the extent our leadership team becomes distracted by other priorities, my commitment weakens.

Of course, we need to wonder, as we should, what is the mission of our organization?⁵   Beyond this primary question, however, we might wonder: 

• How did the decision our leadership team made last week contribute to the mission? 
• How does the new program our leadership team recently launched contribute to the mission? 
• Does the behavior or our leadership team during meetings display their commitment to our mission, or do they tend to be distracted by less important matters? 

These are hard questions, but they point to my willingness to trust our leadership team.  In particular, I am intrigued by the potential distraction of even a good program.  I wonder if we are sometimes lured off-course by our passion for the success of a good program instead of our focus on accomplishing our mission.  Fine line here, but regular kinda’ guys notice this sort of thing.

In short, the heart of transformational leadership is that everyone involved in our organization has confidence that our leadership team believes in, clings to, and tenaciously implements our mission. This is mission trust⁶ .
 

© Copyright by Jeffrey Y. Harlow, Ph.D (2009).

1. Apologies for the unattractive title.  Bloggers everywhere are groaning.  As well, I am guilty today of shifting topics, apparently willy-nilly.  More groaning.  You might be saying, “I’d rather talk about Neil Young, or Obama!”  OK, so I’m changing topics.  Too bad.
2. If you are coming into the conversation late, check out the series of articles I wrote  in the summer and fall.  Click on the “Transformational Leadership” category to the right.  Scroll down — some of the articles are only indirectly related to leadership.  See especially From Mission To Flesh: The Central Idea For A Non-Profit Organization ,  Mission, Change, And Transformational Effectiveness, Part 1 ,  Mission, Change, And Transformational Effectiveness, Part 2 , Transformational Leadership: From Mission To Flesh ,  Transformational Leadership: Effective Change In The Murky Middle , and Transformational Leadership: Change to make change .
3. Ethics: The Heart Of Leadership,edited by Joanne B. Cuilla (1998). Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers
4. I won’t re-state my previous argument that I believe effective leadership — at least in the church — is not about the nature of an individual leader (e.g., pastor) rather it is about the nature of a team – this is body leadership which is, in my view, a more biblical leadership model.
5. In the United Methodist Church, for example, our mission is to “make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”
6. This is closely aligned with the idea of mission mindfulness that I introduced in Mission, Change, And Transformational Effectiveness, Part 1.  When volunteers recognize their leadership team is mindful of the mission, they are more likely to follow.