Transactional vs. Transformational leadership
Transactional leadership is one in which the relationship between leader and follower is task driven. With this leadership, a "give and take" approach is expected where both the leader and follower are exchanging something in order to reach their goal. A lot of times leaders in this role tend to focus on mistakes and how they can fix them.
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Transformational Leadership is one in which the relationship between and follower is inspiring. This type of leadership is very rare as it takes someone who is dedicated to inspiring change within their followers. Transformational leaders tend to be those are passionate and driven to ensure their message gets across to their followers and elicits change.
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Examples
An example of a transactional leader in my life is my supervisor, Eric. Eric is very task driven and focusses solely on the tasks that need to get done within each event. He always makes sure to ask if tasks have been completed and double checks his clipboard to ensure he stays on track. In return, Eric likes to show his appreciation for working hard by allowing us additional breaks. If there is down time and not much to do, Eric will make sure to give everyone a 10 minute break to rejuvenate before completing more tasks. He also ensures he always thanks us for our hard work and isn't afraid to share his appreciation. This exchange allows for a smooth event, ensures everything that needs to get done, does, and provides something in return for both his staff and himself.
On the other hand, my HTM Professor Lori Sipe acted as a transformational leader in my Innovation in the Experience Economy class last semester. Professor Sipe taught the course because she wanted all HTM students to believe that they could be creative, even those who thought they didn't have a creative bone in their body. Professor Sipe would constantly give us assignments that challenged our ways of thinking and forced us to think creatively. By doing so, she not only took us out of our comfort zones, but also showed us that we could be creative and explained the true meaning of creativity. By teaching this course, Professor Sipe was able to inspire everyone in the class to think creativity and change their mindset of not being creative to one in which creativity is possible within everyone.
An example of a transactional leader in my life is my supervisor, Eric. Eric is very task driven and focusses solely on the tasks that need to get done within each event. He always makes sure to ask if tasks have been completed and double checks his clipboard to ensure he stays on track. In return, Eric likes to show his appreciation for working hard by allowing us additional breaks. If there is down time and not much to do, Eric will make sure to give everyone a 10 minute break to rejuvenate before completing more tasks. He also ensures he always thanks us for our hard work and isn't afraid to share his appreciation. This exchange allows for a smooth event, ensures everything that needs to get done, does, and provides something in return for both his staff and himself.
On the other hand, my HTM Professor Lori Sipe acted as a transformational leader in my Innovation in the Experience Economy class last semester. Professor Sipe taught the course because she wanted all HTM students to believe that they could be creative, even those who thought they didn't have a creative bone in their body. Professor Sipe would constantly give us assignments that challenged our ways of thinking and forced us to think creatively. By doing so, she not only took us out of our comfort zones, but also showed us that we could be creative and explained the true meaning of creativity. By teaching this course, Professor Sipe was able to inspire everyone in the class to think creativity and change their mindset of not being creative to one in which creativity is possible within everyone.