For people to be successful leaders, different traits should manifest, such as charisma, effective communication skills, and a high innovativeness level. With such characteristics, it is possible for one to lead, control, and manage others. Effective leaders may regularly communicate with their teams and discuss issues before making significant decisions to improve the success of the organization (Northouse, 2018). Successful leaders should maintain constancy in behavior. They should treat all the people below them fairly and uniformly regardless of the positions they hold in the organization. Moreover, they should have excellent planning skills and initiatives over and above the regular setting of realizable and challenging goals for their projects. Successful leaders should effectively manage organizational operations while concurrently making innovations for new projects.
Charismatic leaders do not appreciate the efforts of their followers as they are not given any reward for their contributions. On the contrary, transformational leaders work with their teams to discover the required changes, generate a vision to direct modifications, inspire their subjects, and implement policies together with dedicated members of the group. In transactional leadership, leaders encourage compliance by their followers through punishments and rewards, which keep them actuated for the short-term. In charismatic leadership, leaders are strongly motivated and have high self-assurance. Actions of charismatic leaders inspire other people and motivate them to follow their ideas (Yahaya & Ebrahim, 2016). Such leaders generate curiosity and interest in their followers, who then desire to have a bigger picture of different circumstances and standpoints. They bring the organizational vision into existence and encourage their followers to works towards its realization. If leaders leave the company or group, followers lose motivation, which makes it impossible for them to achieve the set target or vision of the organization. Examples of charismatic leaders include Bill Clinton and Mother Theresa.
If transactional leaders leave the group, the effective operation of followers will be negatively affected since they form the habit of following the leader’s direction. Unlike in charismatic and transactional leadership approaches, in transformational leadership, followers will carry on with the work and realize the set goals even after leaders leave the organization or group. This may progress for a long time without causing leadership problems. This may lead to the conclusion that transformational leadership is the best when compared to transactional and charismatic leadership practices. An excellent example of a leader who employed transformational leadership is Sam Walton, who founded Wal-Mart.
In transformational leadership, leaders motivate employees to think beyond their anticipations. Under transactional leadership, followers are supposed to adhere to the guidance provided by their leaders (Northouse, 2018). Although transactional leaders offer rewards to employees for their hard work and realization of organizational goals, they also have the right to punish employees who do not satisfy their expectations. Most high-level military leaders, Chief Executive Officers of large multinational corporations, and National Football League coaches employ transactional leadership. The best examples of transactional leaders are Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. The two leaders tended to regularly visit their teams, provide guidance, and pose challenging questions up to the moment they were satisfied that everything was proceeding well and in line with organizational goals.
For one to be a successful leader, different characteristics should be apparent, such as appeal, practical communication skills, and a high rate of innovativeness. Effective leaders can successfully manage organizational practices while concomitantly making innovations for new plans. Transformational leadership might be the best when compared to transactional and charismatic leadership approaches since employees are highly involved in organizational decisions and can proceed successfully even after the leader leaves the group.
References
Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and practice (8th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Yahaya, R., & Ebrahim, F. (2016). Leadership styles and organizational commitment: Literature review. Journal of Management Development, 35(2), 190-216. Web.
