Transactional AND Transformational Coaching
How they go together and why it matters
For as long as I have been working in athletics, transformational leadership has been a buzz word. And for good reason, it is a leadership theory that provides an outline to make a higher-level impact on others. For idealistic people, which there are many in athletics, it is appealing and intuitively makes sense. However, it is not an end all be all. In this post, I will outline transformational AND transactional leadership approaches, describe how they work together, and introduce one more leadership approach that I think is a helpful framework on making progress on difficult problems and thinking about these problems.
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Transformational leadership “occurs when on or more persons engage with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality (Burns, 1978, p. 20)”. Transformational leaders possess a high level of self-esteem, self-actualization, and emotional intelligence. The ultimate goal is to love and care for the group and to challenge one another to higher levels of achievement. It is about both people and outcomes, but people first. Success is ultimately a byproduct of these higher purposes.
Four distinct parts of transformational leadership as described initially by Bass (1985):
· Idealized Influence- leaders model how to act, treat others, and working towards the goal of the organization.
· Inspiration Motivation- Leaders provide a vision that is inspiring and meaningful, not fear based
· Intellectual Stimulation- challenge and emphasize growing and learning and focusing process
· Individual Consideration- Lead the individual, build relationships, and help them feel a part of the greater organization
TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP
In my opinion, transactional leadership gets a bad rap and is misconstrued. It is the start to any trustworthy working relationship. However, it is not as glamourous or idealistically appealing as transformational leadership. Burns (one of the godfathers of the academic study of leadership) described transactional leadership by saying it “occurs when one person takes initiative in making contact with others for the purpose of an exchange valued thing” (Burns, 1978, pg. 19). In short, “if you do this, I do that” OR “if I give you this, you give me that”.
There are two parts of transactional leadership:
1. Contingent rewards: rewards for work and provides initial motivation. Again…it is the “you do this, I do that” or “you give this, you get that”
2. Management by Exception: this allows people to work within the contingent rewards understanding and leaders only intervene or are asked to get involved in unusual or “exception” type situations.
This sounds very non glamorous, and lacks feeling, right?
Yes. But there is a point to it.
It builds trust. If we can’t count on people to do what they say, then we cannot trust them. Further, it is impossible to move on to a transformational type of leadership approach/relationship. From my perspective, and the perspective of many academic researchers, the transactional piece of the relationship is essential in order build trust and a foundation within the relationship.
It is really basic stuff. Player-coach or AD-coach agree on how they will communicate respectfully. How they will show up on time. That the coach and player will be prepared for practice. Agree upon how we will handle conflict. It is nothing crazy but without these things, a relationship cannot develop and move forward.
Sources
Bass, Bernard M. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectations. New York: Free Press.
Burns, J.M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper & Row.
Stuff That is Making Us Think
Much of What You’re Going To Do or Say Today is Not Essential: Thought provoking write up from Shane Parrish of Farnum Street. By trying to do more, we often end up doing less.
Anxious Generation: Rob just got done reading this extraordinary book by Jonathan Haidt. He explores the impact of technology and social media on our kids and what we can do about it.
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