Transformational Leadership
Essays

Leadership landscape has evolved greatly over last few decades. Where there has been an extensive research performed in this area, major emphasis has been levied on distinguishing managers from leaders. And, in today's robust and diversified workplace, leaders with exceptional motivating power and business management ability is what every organization needs. This is the reason why obsolete leadership styles when exercised, tend to bring out disastrous results.

As case studies have shown, authentic leadership is predicated on the ability to create, sustain and strengthen trust and commitment to shared objectives over time. The essential attributes and characteristics of effective authentic leaders can be found in their ability to lead, not necessarily just manage or direct activities. A truly authentic leader will have the ability to bridge cultural, psychological and physical distances (in the case of virtual teams) while still keeping his team entirely engaged and committed (Purvanova, Bono, 343). A transformational leader paradoxically can emerge out of the most challenging, difficult times a business faces, including the loss of a major leader. This is why Tim Cook is one of the most authentic, transformational leaders operating a business today. As CEO of Apple, he has had to quickly keep the company focused on its vision, while its architect of visions, passed on. While arguably there is momentum in the business and its highly successful business model, transformational leadership is essential for keeping Apple focused on its most pressing opportunities while reducing its many potential risks. All of this is extremely difficult for any leader to do even if they are initially promoted into a position, yet to take the helm from a visionary, as Tim Cook has from Steve Jobs, the inevitable comparisons and pressure are exceptionally strong. This is another factor in choosing Tim Cook and Apple has having the greatest level of authentic leadership. The intent of this analysis is to evaluate how Apple has been able to continually gain market share and profits under Tim Cook.

Michael Alfonso is a man who is envied by his peers having moved up the ranks and taken charge of Trident submarine because very few officers qualified for such commands hardly get them. The paper applies the various leadership theories in this case scenario, also looks at the several behavior theories applicable.

This paper looks at the career and leadership style of General David Petraeus and the applicability of his attributes to other organizations. His rules for living are discussed as his transformational leadership style. The manner in which he has thus far dealt with the recent scandal that was the impetus for his resignation from the CIA is also examined.

Most of the time, it is really not that difficult for some people to easily recognize differences of the other people. Others' working ways can be totally different from one's own. At times they can even be annoying. A lot of the time their subordinates can experience their leaders as very adverse and others can undergo the same leaders one of the best that they have ever seen.

McClelland's needs Based theory identifies three distinct needs and explains how these needs may be able to motivate employees to improved performance at the workplace. The three needs consist of the need for achievement, the need for power, and the need for affiliation. Employees possess each of these needs at varying levels depending on their personality and innate drives. Employees who have a high need for achievement are motivated by the opportunity to prove themselves to be better than their peers by meeting or surpassing performance standards. They are willing to assume personal responsibility for solving problems and making decisions.

Long term care is something that is going to be needed by a lot of people in the future. The population is aging, and because of that facilities are running out of room and running out of funds. As the baby boomers continue to age, there will be a large influx into nursing homes and assisted living facilities. The more prepared these facilities are, the better.

Of the myriad of articles that could be potentially assigned to students, my selections would center on the most practical and pragmatic aspects of project management. I'd also orient the articles more to case studies and away from the highly theoretically based, equation-centric studies of product management constraint theory and modeling. I'd want to infuse a sense of enthusiasm and insight into how project management is transforming enterprise globally and making them more competitive in the process. With criterion in mind the first article would be a study of how project management was able to completely turn around a major telecommunications network project and get it back on track and achieved in the city of Los Angeles (Imam, Dhillon, 1989). This case study brings the very pragmatic aspects of how project management theories can transform the most complex and cost-constrained projects, taking what would surely be a failed initiative and making it successful. The successful completion of the telecommunications network throughout Los Angeles in this first article shows what's possible with project management techniques and strategies applied to very complex, potentially challenging situations. In keeping with this case-based approach to showing the value of project management, the second article centers on how European Aerospace plc was able to also transform its core operations and stay competitive in turbulent markets as a result of successful project management planning, execution and continual monitoring (Quayle, 1999). What makes this second article such an excellent study for anyone looking to teach project management is the coverage of concepts, frameworks and advanced scheduling techniques while also concentrating on customer-centered growth of the business (Quayle, 1999). Staying customer-centric is another factor or variable the company had to contend with while keeping a very complex project continually moving forward. The ability to intermediate across so many factors and still emerge successful and on schedule differentiates this article from many others that are otherwise comparable from a case study standpoint (Quayle, 1999). The third article or study I would recommend is one that deals with the toughest aspect of project management, which is change management. The article, Selling Project Management to Senior Executives: The Case for Avoiding Crisis Sales (Thomas, Delisle, Jugdev, Buckle, 2002), shows just how difficult it is to make change permanent in any complex project management scenario. This article provides useful insights into how best to overcome resistance to change and keep a project moving forward. The ability of a project manager to gain consensus and keep a project moving forward is also shown, which is a critical skill for anyone teaching others how to manage projects as well. Finally, this study touches on the most critical skills that any practitioner or professor needs to have a mastery of, both in theory and practice, and that is how to get projects done with people who may not always buy into the direction and concepts, schedules and costs, of the project. Change management is very critical in project management and must be covered in this set of three articles.

Leithwood and May (1992) discuss ' transformational leadership - another term for 'instructional leadership' and discuss its application to the No Child Left Behind rule. The No Child Left Behind Act states that…

In order to know the type of skills that characterize a leader one first has to know what a ‘leader' means, but, as Van Wart (2003) points out, leaders vary from age to age and from country to country and cannot be pinned down in a quantitative manner. Definitions and perspective of leadership, therefore, have transitioned through various paradigms from the great man theories that debated whether leaders were born or made, to transformational leadership that asserted that the leader was the one who not only led his follower but also changed him (Schein, 1985). Other historical theories of leadership categories revolved around some of the following: Great Man: that leadership was innate and could not be taught (Pre-1900); Trait: that leadership depends on certain traits (1900-1948); Contingency: that leadership is formed by one's environment (1948-80's); and transformational: that the leader has to be capable of transforming society and individuals. From the 1978to present, the idea was that the leader has to be visionary inspiring others to follow (1978-present); that he has to be a servant (i.e. exemplary); and that leadership consists FO making the follower centeral to the leaser's oriject whatsoever that may be.