Transactional and Transformational leadership are two of the forefront ways of leading. Transactional leadership is relevant very much every four years. The elections are prime examples of Transactional leadership. The candidate is promising things that he/she will do in hopes of a vote in return. Many times politicians are scrutinized for making these promises and not following through with them. In our democracy it’s all about just getting into office it seems like.
Transformational leadership is one that I am more familiar with. Becoming a captain on a sports team is a great example. The captain leads the team, however they will be held accountable by the rest of the team. When the captain grows, the team grows. The concept of accountability is then created within the team.
I agree with you that in this era it feels like all that matters is the campaigning and physically getting elected into office. I would argue that we definitely need more transformational leaders who genuinely follow through with the promises they make to their nation of followers, but how can we elect leaders into office we know will do this?
I definitely agree that the way that our government works makes it seem like all people need to do to get into power is say theyre gonna do stuff, they never have to actually do any of it just promise they’re going to. It’s really frustrating and it makes it hard to elect people who are going to actually be good for the country. Honestly transformational makes a lot more sense to me. It makes it seem like you have to actually earn that leadership position not just say what people want to hear.
As cynical as it is, I agree with you that candidates’ concerns for the country may not be as genuine as they seem. I feel like there’s too much money involved in politics for every move not to be calculated. I also think that transformational leadership is alive and well in athletics. Accountability plays a huge role in sports, and it’s not something that’s a one way street. A captain cannot expect to hold a teammate accountable and then not be held to the same, if not higher, standard.
I really think it is interesting as well that the government makes it so that when you are running for a leadership position you are able to say you are going to do one thing and then once you earn the position, you can do whatever you want.
I feel that while yes the transnational leadership seems to be the political standard of leader ship i would argue that the tranformational style of leadership is actually becoming the predominant style within business as I see transformational as akin to the servant leadership style coined by Robert Greenleaf.
I completely agree with your example of presidential campaigns as a transactional leader. I think that politics are more corrupt then the general population believes it to be. I also agree with your example of being a team captain because I had a similar experience.
You used two great examples of each type of leadership. For a transactional leader, it’s easy to make promises to get elected into office for example, but the leadership tactic becomes ineffective when the promises are not kept. I feel like we experience this a lot present day.
I like how you make the point that once elected into office, that person can do whatever they want once elected .
I agree that now it seems like politics is more of a transactional leadership rather than transformational, especially during election time. However, I believe that politicians should be more transformational leaders in order to uplift the people rather than just give them false hope and empty promises to get enough votes.