Let’s help you to grow into the transformational leader your company needs right now. I’ll share a few simple tips that you can use right now, today to start making positive changes.
Customers are changing, employees are changing, markets are changing. The skills that used to work are changing.
If you’re …
If you’re not using the 4 leadership skills we will discuss in this article you might find yourself—and your team—getting left behind. Let’s help. You need to be flexible, forward-thinking, and ready to inspire your teams through constant change. I’m not going to sugar coat it… this is hard to do well.
This is where transformational leadership comes in. It’s all about helping you drive innovation, adaptability, and long-term success. Let’s explore how you can lead with this approach and keep your team thriving no matter what comes your way.
What is Transformational Leadership?
Leadership isn’t just about hitting targets or managing the day-to-day. It’s about inspiring your team to get on board with a bigger vision, empowering them to take charge, and creating a space where new ideas can flow. It’s about hitting the right targets, it’s about unleashing the full capability of the combined experience, character and knowledge of the people in your teams to continually add value to your company and customers.
Your primary role as a transformational leader is to create an environment where people can be and do their best in the pursuit of achieving company goals and vision.
Here are the key elements of transformational leadership. I will go into detail in future articles.
Visionary Thinking
People need a clear, inspiring future vision. This vision has to be big. It must include a compelling future and be clear and concise. It must ‘do good’. I like to include emotions in a vision. “To feel proud when we…” People long to be part of something bigger than them. Give them the vision that they can see their part in, one that inspires them and excites them, one they believe in and are proud of. You must constantly talk about and remind pepper of this vision and how they play a part in making it a really.
Empowerment
Now get out the way! Set the vision. Communicate the vision. Embed the emotional outcome of the vision and continually discuss the vision. Explain the outcomes/goals that are needed. Regularly ensure they are understood. Now let your people do their best. It will take some time for people to be comfortable with this new way of working. Years of conditioning of being told what to do need to be shed. This is where you need to shine. Support your people. If they make mistakes celebrate them and learn from them. Create a safe place to try things. You must give people the freedom and trust to do what they need to be their best.
Ask them what they need, create the environment so they can thrive and deliver the outcomes in ways you would have never thought of.
Responsiveness and Adaptability
You inspire people about a compelling future. You empower people to be their best and to contribute how they want to. Get those right and you can say goodbye to change resistance and hello to ‘change excited’. When people and teams have the right mindset, are working towards the common goal that inspires them, change is just a step towards a greater future.
A responsive team is able to easily adapt to rapid changes, The team is empowered and skilled to be able to adapt as and when needed. This takes trust to enable.
Continuous Learning and Improvement
I love what I call the innovation to implementation cycle. Its roots come from the agile movement. Look up ‘agile retrospectives‘ – you’re welcome! Build into your teams a mechanism for trust, truth and transparency through regular open feedback. I like to dedicate 60 minutes on a Friday afternoon for this. The first 30 minutes we capture ‘what worked well”, “what should we stop doing” and “what should we try”. The entire team must be involved in this. Ensure the quiet ones have a voice too. The last 30 minutes is spent with team members showcasing and explaining great things they achieved that week.
Your role here is to facilitate and ensure is a safe environment. A good measure I like to use on ‘safe environment’ is when something I have been doing is captured as something to stop doing. That tells me the team feel safe. For this to work, the actions have to be… well… Actioned. Work with the team on how they want to make these changes and how they will be measured and ensure the changes are instigated the following week. These may be physical changes, mindset changes, product changes, any changes.
Why Innovation and Adaptability Matter Now More Than Ever
Three word answer. To remain relevant. If you have read my previous thoughts you’ll know the answer to this. Most companies are set up to follow this… “Doing today what you did yesterday hoping tomorrow gives the same results”. It worked quite well for the past 100 years, but it no longer works. Customers’ and employees’ needs and demands now change so fast that companies with that thinking are no longer able to keep up with the change.
Companies like Amazon, Uber and Google have reeducated us all as to what true customer experience is, what great work environments look like. Social media empowers us all to consume and share information and tends at crazy speeds. All of this has created dynamic customer demands that require companies to transform to remain competitive.
We’ve all heard that way over-used saying “the only constant is change” but it’s true, and because it’s true we must rebuild our companies, our teams and our mindsets to be able to respond faster than anyone else if we are to remain relevant.
The best leaders aren’t just reacting to these changes—they’re ahead of the game, using them to push their teams and companies forward. They are building their teams to respond, to remain fluid and to complete faster than ever before.
Transformational leaders don’t just wait for things to happen. They inspire their teams to think creatively, take risks, and embrace change. But how can you do the same?
4 Ways You Can Lead Innovation and Adaptability as a Transformational Leader
1. Create a Bold Vision for the Future
Transformational leadership is all about embedding a big-picture vision that goes beyond the next quarter. What can the future look like for your team and company? Inspirational, emotional and customer beneficial.
Think about this: What’s your company’s long-term impact? How can you inspire your team to buy into that future? How will what you do make your customers lives better. How will that matter you feel?
Quick Tip: Stay open to tweaking your vision as market conditions shift. The best leaders are flexible, but they keep their team aligned on the overall goal and don’t forget the emotions – it’s a strong tool for embedding change.
2. Lead with Empathy and Flexibility
Transformational leaders lead with heart. You need to understand the unique strengths and challenges your team members face and guide with empathy.
When asked by a team mate if he could take a day off I responded with “You know our goals and what you need to do this week, check with your team and make a smart decision yourself.” His response was amazing. He smiled, then looked concerned and said “No ones ever let me make a smart decision before!”.
As the trust grows between your team and yourself (in both directions) your job will change. You will spend a lot less time managing tasks and a lot more time leading… And that will make your results even better (and your boss will be impressed too).
You also need to be adaptable and supportive. Your teams need to know you have their back, you support them and will fight for them when needed. Be open to shifting strategies when things don’t go as planned. Work with you people to review problems, support them, help them to be and do better. The ability to pivot quickly is crucial when navigating uncertainty. Remember to engage your team when faced with a problem. Use their collective experience to find a solution. It will build trust that will be paid back ten-fold.
Pro Tip: Stay close to your team. Talk to them, find out who they are as people their lives, their dreams, what’s important to them, their families. Regular scheduled check-ins feel forced, make conversations part of your daily interactions, you’ll quickly know how they’re doing and gather feedback. People who feel supported and listened to are more likely to thrive.
3. Empower Your Team to Innovate (You can’t lead alone)
This is easier said than done. Most managers I have coached to make this change believe that their role is to tell people what to do, and how to do it. It takes them time to realise that their role is to get the results required. When they sell the results empowered generates, and once they get over the stress of trusting their team, they say they will never go back to old-school management.
You need your team to feel empowered to step up and innovate, whether they do or not is purely up to you and the environment you create as a leader. Build trust by giving them the freedom to try new things, even if it means making mistakes. Use mistakes as opportunities to build trust and to reinforce safe space.
Encourage your team to take risks and learn from failures, it’s how we change the norm and find better ways. When people feel safe to experiment without fear of blame, they’re more likely to come up with breakthrough ideas. By the way, most breakthrough ideas are a combination of lots of small ideas and changes.
Look at Amazon: Jeff Bezos made it clear that failure is part of invention. By encouraging experimentation, Amazon stays at the forefront of innovation.
Pro tip: Start putting this into practise right now. You’ll be surprised at how quickly people will start to bring their best to work.
4. Foster a Learning and Continuous Improvement Culture
Our technology, skills and markets are always evolving, your team needs to keep learning to stay ahead. As a leader, it’s your job to create a culture where curiosity and growth are valued. Follow what I discussed earlier.
What you can do: Offer opportunities for your team to learn and grow—whether that’s through courses, workshops, or mentorship. And don’t forget to invest in your own development, too. The ‘retrospective’ process described earlier are a powerful way for teams to learn together.
Teams that embrace a growth mindset are more adaptable, better at problem-solving, and ready to take on whatever comes next. They take pride in bringing their best to work.
Why Transformational Leadership is Key to Thriving in a Changing World
Doing today what to did yesterday hoping tomorrow gives better results is dead.
To lead successfully, you need to inspire your team, embrace innovation, and stay adaptable to change. Transformational leadership is your key to doing all of this and more—helping you and your organization thrive, no matter what’s around the corner. Your role as a transformational leader is to communicate the vision and create an environment whether your teams can thrive whilst making them vision a reality.
Go and Lead: Take Action
Think about your current leadership style. Are you empowering your team or are you telling your team? Are you pushing for innovation or are you building an enjoyment where innovation is part of daily business? Start making small changes now to become the kind of leader who inspires transformation and creates environments where people achieve their best at work.
Join the Conversation
Have you tried leading with a transformational approach? What challenges have you faced when encouraging innovation and adaptability? Let’s chat—drop your thoughts in the comments below!
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