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Transformational Leadership
12 hours 37 mins
Contrary to what you may have heard, great leaders aren't born. They're made. The ability to effectively lead teams, transform entire organizations, and achieve ambitious goals comes not from an inherent set of personality traits but from the mastery of a specific set of skills essential to the success of leaders at many levels and in many fields.
Contrary to what you may have heard, great leaders aren't born. They're made. The ability to effectively lead teams, transform entire organizations, and achieve ambitious goals comes not from an inherent set of personality traits but from the mastery of a specific set of skills essential to the success of leaders at many levels and in many fields.
13 pages, Audible Audio
First published July 18, 2013
18 people are currently reading
317 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
May 5, 2019
It requires focus to listen to such dense material while trying to retain key concepts to your memory. It summarizes many leadership theories from the classics but also "modern" and less scientific writers like Cialdini. Having studied basics of management/leadership at the university I did not find almost anything completely new from this course and I seem to have read most of the classics used as examples, so I see value of it as a summary/refresher that did lead to some new revelations when taking a holistic view at the material. The course also comes with 127 page (!) summary document that can be used for reference in specific topic.
Five leadership myths:
x Leaders are born, not made—some people come out of the womb ready to lead others.
x Leadership is the act of a lone genius, often thought of as the person at the top of the organization.
x Leaders must be charismatic extroverts in order to motivate and inspire others to get them to follow their vision.
x Leadership requires formal authority.
x All great leaders have a common set of traits.
Main Principles for a Leader
x Identify the challenge.
x Regulate the level of stress.
x Focus attention on the key issues and help people avoid getting distracted.
x Give the work back to the people but at a rate they can handle.
x Protect the voices of leadership who don’t have authority.
Tasks, Resources, and Tools Available
x Get people to tackle a problem, develop ideas, and ultimately
buy into your vision of the way you shape and frame the
circumstances in which they work.
x Engage people in dialogue and debate.
x Ask good questions to gather the right perspectives and ideas
that will help you make good decisions.
Kotter effective leadership:
x Establishing a compelling direction, a vision for the future, and the strategies for how to get there.
x Aligning people, communicating the direction, building shared understanding, getting people to believe in the vision, and then persuading and influencing people to follow that vision.
x Motivating and inspiring people to enact the kinds of changes and vision that you have articulated.
Four types of leader:
x A supportive leader nurtures followers and gets them to develop over time.
x A directive leader guides followers and provides a clear path that tells them what to do.
x A participative leader empowers them to participate in developing goals and the strategies to achieve those goals.
x An achievement-oriented leader sets ambitious targets for followers, encouraging them to go above and beyond to achieve those goals.
When companies talk about employee engagement, they are trying to measure the extent to which employees are self-motivated in an environment that is supportive and motivates them to work without focusing on a paycheck. Companies should not be focused on the engagement scores that
they found through measurement; they should focus on how leaders use them to modify behavior.
Hersey and Blanchard situational leadership theory - the level of follower maturity should determine how the leader should behave (empirical evidence rather weak though).
x Low follower maturity: Leaders need to focus on tasks.
x Moderate maturity: A high relationship orientation was required but still a moderate task orientation as well.
x High follower maturity: Leaders do not need to focus on either relationship or task—they need to empower and give autonomy to their followers instead of direction.
Vroom and Yetton normative decision theory - how situational variables should drive approaches to decision making (application depends on context and situation)
x The leader solves the problem alone, using information that is readily available.
x The leader gets data from group members and then makes the decision alone.
x The leader shares the problem with group members individually, garners advice, and then makes a decision alone.
x The leader shares the problem with group members as a group, garners advice, and then makes a decision alone.
x The leader works collectively with group members to generate ideas, discuss options, and reach a consensus.
James McGregor Burns defines transformational leaders as those who appeal to the moral values of their followers, trying to mobilize them to affect a major change in society. Transactional leaders motivate people by appealing to their self-interest, providing benefits in exchange for their effort
and contribution.
Dark side of charismatic leaders:
x Leaders sometimes go from confident to arrogant, from bold to excessive in their risk taking.
x They begin to have delusions of their infallibility and begin to go from consultative to simply suppressing those dissenting views.
x They alienate their followers because they begin to take all the credit for their success.
x They fail to develop successors.
x They begin to develop impulsive behavior and a failure to acknowledge and learn from failure.
House and Howell discovered that there are negative charismatic leaders, who are described as having personalized power orientation: They want to get people devoted to them as individuals as opposed to an idea, concept, product, or strategy. Positive charismatic leaders, on the other hand, have a socialized power orientation, which means that they seek internalization of values in their followers. They’re seeking devotion to ideas, not devotion to them as individuals.
US Army after-action review procedure:
x What did we set out to do?
x What actually happened?
x Why did it happen?
x What are we going to do next time?
An effective leadership development model includes the following.
x Customized executive education, often conducted within the firm
by a facilitator who may be an outsider, but who comes to know the
company quite well.
x Action learning projects that are engaging and interactive.
x Feedback in a 360-degree fashion.
x Coaching and mentorship programs.
x Job rotations and stretch assignments.
Five leadership myths:
x Leaders are born, not made—some people come out of the womb ready to lead others.
x Leadership is the act of a lone genius, often thought of as the person at the top of the organization.
x Leaders must be charismatic extroverts in order to motivate and inspire others to get them to follow their vision.
x Leadership requires formal authority.
x All great leaders have a common set of traits.
Main Principles for a Leader
x Identify the challenge.
x Regulate the level of stress.
x Focus attention on the key issues and help people avoid getting distracted.
x Give the work back to the people but at a rate they can handle.
x Protect the voices of leadership who don’t have authority.
Tasks, Resources, and Tools Available
x Get people to tackle a problem, develop ideas, and ultimately
buy into your vision of the way you shape and frame the
circumstances in which they work.
x Engage people in dialogue and debate.
x Ask good questions to gather the right perspectives and ideas
that will help you make good decisions.
Kotter effective leadership:
x Establishing a compelling direction, a vision for the future, and the strategies for how to get there.
x Aligning people, communicating the direction, building shared understanding, getting people to believe in the vision, and then persuading and influencing people to follow that vision.
x Motivating and inspiring people to enact the kinds of changes and vision that you have articulated.
Four types of leader:
x A supportive leader nurtures followers and gets them to develop over time.
x A directive leader guides followers and provides a clear path that tells them what to do.
x A participative leader empowers them to participate in developing goals and the strategies to achieve those goals.
x An achievement-oriented leader sets ambitious targets for followers, encouraging them to go above and beyond to achieve those goals.
When companies talk about employee engagement, they are trying to measure the extent to which employees are self-motivated in an environment that is supportive and motivates them to work without focusing on a paycheck. Companies should not be focused on the engagement scores that
they found through measurement; they should focus on how leaders use them to modify behavior.
Hersey and Blanchard situational leadership theory - the level of follower maturity should determine how the leader should behave (empirical evidence rather weak though).
x Low follower maturity: Leaders need to focus on tasks.
x Moderate maturity: A high relationship orientation was required but still a moderate task orientation as well.
x High follower maturity: Leaders do not need to focus on either relationship or task—they need to empower and give autonomy to their followers instead of direction.
Vroom and Yetton normative decision theory - how situational variables should drive approaches to decision making (application depends on context and situation)
x The leader solves the problem alone, using information that is readily available.
x The leader gets data from group members and then makes the decision alone.
x The leader shares the problem with group members individually, garners advice, and then makes a decision alone.
x The leader shares the problem with group members as a group, garners advice, and then makes a decision alone.
x The leader works collectively with group members to generate ideas, discuss options, and reach a consensus.
James McGregor Burns defines transformational leaders as those who appeal to the moral values of their followers, trying to mobilize them to affect a major change in society. Transactional leaders motivate people by appealing to their self-interest, providing benefits in exchange for their effort
and contribution.
Dark side of charismatic leaders:
x Leaders sometimes go from confident to arrogant, from bold to excessive in their risk taking.
x They begin to have delusions of their infallibility and begin to go from consultative to simply suppressing those dissenting views.
x They alienate their followers because they begin to take all the credit for their success.
x They fail to develop successors.
x They begin to develop impulsive behavior and a failure to acknowledge and learn from failure.
House and Howell discovered that there are negative charismatic leaders, who are described as having personalized power orientation: They want to get people devoted to them as individuals as opposed to an idea, concept, product, or strategy. Positive charismatic leaders, on the other hand, have a socialized power orientation, which means that they seek internalization of values in their followers. They’re seeking devotion to ideas, not devotion to them as individuals.
US Army after-action review procedure:
x What did we set out to do?
x What actually happened?
x Why did it happen?
x What are we going to do next time?
An effective leadership development model includes the following.
x Customized executive education, often conducted within the firm
by a facilitator who may be an outsider, but who comes to know the
company quite well.
x Action learning projects that are engaging and interactive.
x Feedback in a 360-degree fashion.
x Coaching and mentorship programs.
x Job rotations and stretch assignments.
October 30, 2022
An MBA concentration in Strategy & Leadership packed into 12 hours of audio - highly recommended for any MBA student.
February 5, 2024
Transformational Leadership: How Leaders Change Teams, Companies, and Organizations is a pretty engaging overview of some key lessons for aspiring group and team leaders. Some of the points were pretty obvious, and much of the material was cutting edge... for 2013. It could definitely use a bit of an update. Roberto clearly knows his stuff and is engaging. The course material isn't that difficult either, perhaps useful for a business major, a first semester MBA, or someone about to rise to a position of leadership, but you can be pretty passive when watching or listening to it. It could be enlightening for people who are just getting started, but the more you know about leadership or organizational structure the less use this will have.
April 30, 2019
Watch a detailed review along with my favorite ideas and takeaways at:
https://youtu.be/KviAocPHfk8
https://youtu.be/KviAocPHfk8
September 18, 2017
Generally, a solid, if occasionally very basic introduction to the literature on transformational leadership. Lectures on the traits and competencies of effective managers; on approaches to change management and effective communication; on the pros and cons extrinsic and intrinsic motivation; on the role of power in organizations, on persuasion, negotiation and building and sustaining effective teams; and on fostering learning and experimentation within organizations. The final lectures deal with leadership development and transition. Lots of interesting references to literature and case studies along the way, but a major drawback is the ridiculous level of US centrism in the selection of cases, literature etc.
August 26, 2017
Pretty much what you would expect from an academic look at the nebulous concept of "leadership." It cites all the latest studies on team building, persuasion, motivation, skill development, and much more. Main criticism: too business oriented. Important takeaways: 1. leaders are developed, not born. 2. leadership is context dependent.
January 27, 2019
This is a well-organized and solid book on leadership, but I finished reading it about a week ago, and already I can't tell you even one helpful thing I took away. I don't think that means there aren't important takeaways, and that people in leadership positions won't learn new information, but for whatever reason, nothing stood out to me as transformational or especially interesting.
January 2, 2018
Clear examples and case studies where you can improve your leadership skills by applying it. I like the idea of building leaders internally, providing the objectives, Jack Welch's principles like fix it, close it or sell it, examples given me new dimension of leadership.
March 27, 2020
These 24 lectures on Transformational Leadership, produced by Great Courses, are excellent and formative. Prof Michael A Roberto (of Bryant University) gives interesting insights and theories on the subject matter. Prof Roberto gave an excellent delivery.
September 7, 2018
I enjoyed reading this book. It taught me some insights I had never thought about before reading it.
July 7, 2018
Interesting. Many useful real life examples.
August 20, 2018
This was full of helpful "golden nuggets" of knowledge that I intend to apply to my new role at work. Some of the examples and tangents felt a little unnecessary, but what do I know?
January 16, 2019
3.5
Some high points and great thoughts sprinkled into a generally good book.
Some high points and great thoughts sprinkled into a generally good book.
June 2, 2019
Good principles, somewhat dry, listening made it hard to remember and apply principles
August 20, 2024
Such a good thing to show if we have a good relation.
December 30, 2020
I found this an interesting course. A little indecisive on certain points but that's better than false confidence. It was a good food for thought read.
September 2, 2024
At lecture 15, August 19 2024
April 15, 2017
This was a pretty good book and series of lectures on a dry subject so I will say that they were done by the right person. Now, granted, they weren't action packed by any means and I had a fiction novel going at the same time to relieve a little bit of the boredom here and there.
I would recommend this to every person in a position of management or leadership in any organization whether it is public or private sector that wants to learn and is seeking self improvement. The lecturer does a fantastic job of using examples from real life business situations of people who were incredibly successful and some of those who were less successful . . . including a few people who are probably more popular today than they were when this course was written including Carly Fiorina.
As usual with most studies and that create formalized methods and seek to quantify something is ephemeral and intangible as leadership different people will draw different conclusions and have different ideas from this. To each their own.
I would recommend this to every person in a position of management or leadership in any organization whether it is public or private sector that wants to learn and is seeking self improvement. The lecturer does a fantastic job of using examples from real life business situations of people who were incredibly successful and some of those who were less successful . . . including a few people who are probably more popular today than they were when this course was written including Carly Fiorina.
As usual with most studies and that create formalized methods and seek to quantify something is ephemeral and intangible as leadership different people will draw different conclusions and have different ideas from this. To each their own.
January 27, 2017
I thought this series was a great summary of many concepts I've heard over the course of reading probably 10-12 leadership books. It's a true college lecture format spoken similarly to like how a Jim Collins writes in his books built to last or good to great, a mix of thought and stats to back up the comment but not heavy stats.
I had a hard time finding it on good reads to start but I believe during that hunt I think I found a study guide or lecture guide for this material as well. If that exists I'm going to check into the cost and potentially use this as good mentorship material.
There is 24 lectures and for the most part they cover different topics with every lecture. I wish I could recite more specifically the topics but I was driving for 9 of the 12 hours I was listening to this course and it kept me listening the whole 9 hours.
Enjoy!
I had a hard time finding it on good reads to start but I believe during that hunt I think I found a study guide or lecture guide for this material as well. If that exists I'm going to check into the cost and potentially use this as good mentorship material.
There is 24 lectures and for the most part they cover different topics with every lecture. I wish I could recite more specifically the topics but I was driving for 9 of the 12 hours I was listening to this course and it kept me listening the whole 9 hours.
Enjoy!
November 11, 2015
This was the first of the great course audio books that I have listened to. I thought the content was excellent. I liked how it was broken up into thirty minute segments and how those segments were grouped into like topics. I thought that the author had good knowledge of the topic.
The one criticism I had was that at times it sounded too scripted. I'm guessing there was some multimedia going on behind the instructor that probably would have added to his discussion.
All in all an excellent first experience to the great courses program.
The one criticism I had was that at times it sounded too scripted. I'm guessing there was some multimedia going on behind the instructor that probably would have added to his discussion.
All in all an excellent first experience to the great courses program.
June 8, 2016
Since I am off for the summer I was looking for something to help keep me from getting rusty, so I've been listening to this course while driving back and forth to work.
I prefer the half hour format per lecture (my drive is about that length). While not as in depth as the individual courses I've taken so far, as one would expect the perspective is slightly different from those presented by my professors and the case studies are different from the ones we discussed in class giving me the opportunity to digest the content in a more nuanced manner.
Definitely worth a listen!
I prefer the half hour format per lecture (my drive is about that length). While not as in depth as the individual courses I've taken so far, as one would expect the perspective is slightly different from those presented by my professors and the case studies are different from the ones we discussed in class giving me the opportunity to digest the content in a more nuanced manner.
Definitely worth a listen!
August 3, 2015
One of the sales managers here at my company said something that sums Roberto's course up well, "Always be developing your bench".
Notes:
-Alignment and buy in
-No discernible personality traits that automatically translate to good leadership
-Hierarchies are helpful?
-Pros and Cons of politicking: slower decision making vs. faster implementation. Manager should ask, how can I turn this to benefit?
-Developing our people is our highest calling
Notes:
-Alignment and buy in
-No discernible personality traits that automatically translate to good leadership
-Hierarchies are helpful?
-Pros and Cons of politicking: slower decision making vs. faster implementation. Manager should ask, how can I turn this to benefit?
-Developing our people is our highest calling
March 20, 2015
This was an amazing course. Even though I listened to it on an audio book, I was still able to bookmark several chapters with topics I do not want to forget. I highly recommend this course for anyone in a leadership position or one who aspires to lead. These are the types of things we should be teaching our kids at a young age.
November 24, 2015
We've all heard that leaders can be taught. So in order to be a leader, you must learn! This course is a valuable contribution to the knowledge needed to become more effective.
Professor Roberto is clearly very energized about the topic of leadership. He covers many important topics. I highly recommend this course to anyone interested in improving how they work in an organization.
Professor Roberto is clearly very energized about the topic of leadership. He covers many important topics. I highly recommend this course to anyone interested in improving how they work in an organization.
March 6, 2014
Another great course by Michael Roberto. I listened to this via The Great Courses app after loving Roberto's course on critical decision making. I can't believe how much he covered in 24 lectures. Entertaining, current, highly valuable for any leader or person who aspires to be one.
September 3, 2013
Touches on numerous topics - great review of leadership
December 5, 2015
Really great!
November 14, 2016
This was really interesting. It was intended for business leaders so I had to work to pull out the principles that would work in other contexts but it was still very informative.
Read
January 28, 2017Great material!
January 5, 2020
This one was easy to get through and very insightful. He used a lot of stories as vivid examples for concepts. Clearly, he taught well for a long time.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews