I presented to a group of Human Resources students the other night on the topic of Disengaged/Engaged employees in a mentoring culture. It was interesting to hear some of the conversations that took place during and at other times as it touched on leadership in organizations. We briefly had touched on transformational leadership and it was unanimous that this was the preferred leadership style of those in attendance.

I have been thinking about why that is and even looked back on some of the leaders that I had worked for or with over the course of my career. It would be safe to say that in a lot of those situations I had not been afforded the opportunity to work with what we now call a transformational leader. That preferred style is obviously not as prevalent as what it should be. How sad is that!

When I look at transformational leadership I see a lot of the same qualities as what we talk about in the mentor training programs that we offer. With the work that I am doing in the development of mentoring cultures in organizations I see another element that we need to talk about. That element is the impact that transformational leadership and mentoring has on the creation of engaged, empowered and accountable employees.

I see the correlation but then I am working in that space and can see the rewards that can be realized as a result of taking this journey. Not everyone is able to do that. So I hope to shed some light on the path that we need to take.

When we look globally today we see an environment that is challenged with a number of things. Organizations are facing an aging workforce, a talent shortage, lack of succession planning/development and generation of workers that may well change jobs 20 times during the course of their career and a very mobile work force that is focused on meeting their needs. In other words, if your organizational culture is not the right one for them – they will leave. Typically these employees are your high performers. They leave because they can! You can use time tracking software to increase productivity in your workplace but you also need to have inspirational senior staff to set the pace.

Transformational leadership can bring value in that when applied in a rational manner it can consider a balance between the need to drive transactions for revenue reasons and a need to maximize the human resource talent pool as much as possible. Your people will respond to a transformational leader through increased productivity resulting in increased profitability even in today’s markets.

So why is that? Transformational leadership evaluates the human potential of each team member, ensures that they are in a position to deliver excellence, removes all traces of blame in the culture, and works actively on listening to, and inspiring, the individuals deployed to deliver results. It creates a desire for people to work as a team, in an enjoyable and non-threatening culture, yet always with an expectation of excellence.

Employee engagement makes employees more accountable and enhances the sense of belonging. Employee engagement practiced under transformational leadership develops the positivity in behavior that leads to trust and satisfaction that enhances sense of belonging. The sense of ownership is supported by the perception of citizenship of employees. Once employees feel themselves as part of the organization their self-identity with organization improves. This identity and association with the organization develops commitment in employees and their performance increases.

A transformational leader is one that demonstrates mentoring qualities consistently in their day to day interaction with employees. It is through this leadership style that we can create a work force that is engaged, empowered and accountable supported with a culture that is mentoring based. If you're looking for ways to boost employee engagement, why not host some promotional events? Take a look at https://www.promotionchoice.com/categories/Party-Supplies/Custom-Balloons/Custom-Latex-Balloons/ for prop ideas.

Your choices are simple – leverage transformational leadership and the “power of mentoring” and realize increased productivity and profitability.

References:

1. http://www.trulygreatleadership.com/transformational_leadership.php