Leadership: Transformational and Transactional Leadership
“One of the most universal cravings of our time is a hunger for compelling and creative leadership”
In 1978, James Burns believed that western culture was experiencing a crisis in leadership.
“The crisis of leadership today is the mediocrity or irresponsibility of so many of the men and women in power, but leadership rarely rises to the full need for it” (1).
Burns wrote those words 43 years.
43 years later, we have leadership books on every shelf, workshops in-person and online, retreats and executive getaways, coaches and coaching organizations. Yet, somehow, we still feel the irritation of mediocrity.
What is it about leadership that we crave so desperately but seldomly experience it fully?
Burns argued 43 years ago that "we fail to grasp the essence of leadership that is relevant to the modern age and hence we cannot agree even on the standards by which to measure, recruit, and reject it" (2).
James MacGregor Burns (1918-2014) was a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book awards. He was a doctoral graduate from Harvard in Political Science and is credited with launching the modern discussion on leadership. This book, Leadership, inspired Bernard Bass to write his Transformation Leadership, which is still regarded as a staple textbook in any collegiate course on leadership today.
Burns introduces the western mind to two different leadership structures.
Transformational and Transactional Leadership
Burns argues that the most effective forms of leadership are found within these two structures. This book is simply too extensive to cover in one article, so I will come back to it several times in 2021.
For now, let's start with a baseline definition and explanation of what leadership is not, and then address the two styles Burns believes are the most effective.
Positional Authority
Burns is quick to note something fundamental. Power-holding and wielding is not leadership. Meaning, people who rely upon positional authority to accomplish their task or mission are not exercising leadership. Perhaps at best, they are managing, but they are certainly not leading.
Authentic leadership requires willing and wanting followers. Within this basic definition lays the essence of transformational and transactional leadership.
Transactional Leadership
Transactional leaders attract willing followers.
To use his words, Burns states that transactional “leaders approach followers with an eye to exchanging one thing for another” (4). People are willing to follow transactional leaders because they are looking to gain something for their support.
Modern scholars have shifted this meaning to sound like management. And while leaders certainly manage, not all managers are leaders. But Burns isn't talking about management.
Transactional leaders genuinely invest in their people. They look for what the people in their care are looking for and want. As a result, they find ways to get those people what they want in exchange for support in accomplishing their mission, goal, or task. In doing so, transactional leaders can muster significant support and excellence from their people as they operate with a win-win mentality.
Transformational Leadership
Transformational leaders attract wanting followers.
Today, transformational leadership is all but wholly adopted as the highest and best form of leadership style. However, in Leadership, Burns refers to this hallmark style as an infinitive— transforming.
“The transforming leader recognizes and exploits an existing need or demand of a potential follower… [looking] for potential motives in followers, seeks to satisfy higher needs, and engages the full person of the follower” (4).
The transformational leader seeks to inspire and motivate people to think outside and beyond their context into something beyond their natural capabilities. This leadership style results in a relationship of mutual stimulation and elevation that converts followers into more leaders (4).
People follow transformational leaders because they want to. Something has stirred inside them to break their natural self-seeking desires to contribute toward something greater than themselves.
This is just a mere introduction to several posts throughout the year on Burn's book Leadership. However, I want to end this post with 1 statement and 2 questions.
One Statement
Both transformational and transactional leadership are effective styles of leadership. As Burns states, “Both forms of leadership can contribute to human purpose” (426).
Two Questions
1. Should the church learn from secular methods of leadership?
2. If yes, what lessons should the church learn and adopt from secular leadership?
These thoughts will be taken up in another article in the future!
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John Owen came from Welsh descent, was educated at Queens College, and became a renowned Puritan theologian, Oxford professor, and passionate pastor who lived from 1616 to 1683. In 1647, he wrote the exhaustive treatise The Death of Death defending Limited or Definite Atonement against the Arminian view of Universal Atonement or Unlimited Atonement.