What\'s Best for the Workers Is Best for the Company

¶ … Workers is Best for the Company

One of the clearest indications that an organization has attained a high level of transformational leadership is in how employees perceive their jobs and responsibilities. Best-selling Mexican restaurant Chipotle has a rapid-fire approach to customizing orders for each customer, and can literally fulfill a reasonable complex, customized order in minutes. In this type of environment, job satisfaction and task ownership created through transformational leadership is essential for the business to succeed. As the employee states, "I love the Chipotle standard that what's best for the people (employees) is best for the company and vice versa, so I always strive to do my best." Attaining this level of loyalty is a direct result of a very strong, stable and trust-based psychological contract made with employers by leaders who are transformational (Behery, Paton, Hussain, 2012).

Analysis of Transformational Leadership

While the definition of "doing one's best" will vary significantly from one to another, it has a universality to it of excellence, and the continual striving to deliver the very best performance possible. To a slacker doing one's best may be performing at a level that is the baseline of the highest achievers in the company. The highest performers may have expectations that are far beyond the average, even above those of their managers. Transformational leaders have the ability to create a culture where employees hold themselves to these exceptionally high levels of performance, pushing themselves forward at a pace and intensity no external force (or boss) could (Muchiri, Cooksey, Walumbwa, 2012). When an organization models behavior like this in transformational leaders, the culture of the company takes on an altogether different context, and becomes a place of achievement and accomplishment over merely doing the minimum to get by (Wang, Howell, 2012). Transformational leaders create a consistently high standard of performance and reinforce it with continual rewards, both tangible and intangible, so that employees begin to create their own standards of performance and excellence over time (Brown, May, 2012). This is precisely how an organization goes from being mediocre and barely getting by in their industry to being one of the best, as Chipotle is. They have one of the highest market valuations of any business competing in their area of the quick-service restaurant market and it is in large part due to the consistently high levels of performance attained by employees serving customers. It is the culture, not their superiors or senior managers, that hold the supervisors and first-line managers accountable (Wang, Howell, 2012). Managers are often held to performing to the standards they set; this is how they earn additional credibility and trust throughout the organizations they serve (Brown, May, 2012).