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Management & Leadership vocabulary · Leadership Styles and Skills

Transformational leadership

Meaning in management & leadership, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In management & leadership, transformational leadership means: A leadership style in which leaders inspire people with a shared vision and their own example, encouraging them to look beyond their own interests and achieve more than expected.

In Turkish: dönüşümcü liderlik, dönüştürücü liderlik

How it is used

The idea was introduced by James MacGregor Burns in the late 1970s and developed by Bernard Bass. It is usually contrasted with transactional leadership, which is based on rewards and a clear exchange of effort for pay.

Example sentences

  1. The company's turnaround is often described as an example of transformational leadership.

  2. Transformational leadership works best when people really believe in the vision.

Common collocations

  • transformational leader
  • transformational leadership style
  • transformational and transactional leadership
  • leadership styleThe typical way a person leads others, including how they make decisions, give instructions, share information and involve their team.
  • visionA clear picture of what an organisation or team wants to become in the future, used to give people direction and a reason to work towards the same aim.
  • change agentA person who actively promotes change in an organisation and helps to carry it out, whether as a leader, a consultant or an employee who influences colleagues.
  • servant leadershipA leadership approach in which the leader's main role is to serve the team, by supporting people's growth and removing obstacles, rather than to control them.

More terms: Leadership Styles and Skills

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