Communicating Leadership

Communicating Leadership, Traditional Versus Transformational

THE LEADER AS COMMUNICATOR

April 11, 2008

Leadership, Traditional versus Transformational

What should a leader look like? Important leaders, such as presidents and prime ministers, work hard communicate an impression of confidence and power. A leader, they assume, should look like a leader, and many of them hire an image specialist to learn how. Wherever they go, press agents, bodyguards, loyal assistants, and throngs of eager admirers follow in their wake. In the Bible, Matthew depicts Jesus as a true leader, a king in fact, however one who broke stereotypes. Jesus had undeniable power and he was not concerned about a powerful image. The Word of Matthew 13:54-55 tells us, “Where did this man get his wisdom and these miraculous powers? They asked. Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?” (The Student Bible, 1992). What is a traditional leader, or what is a transformational communicating leader?

The term leadership has many definitions. The encyclopedia version from Britannica is, “1: the office or position of a leader; 2: capacity to lead; 3: the act or an instance of leading” (Britannica). In the text book, Management a Competency-Based Approach definition for leadership is, “Leadership is an influence relationship among leaders and followers who strive for real change and outcomes that reflect their shared purposes” (Hellriegel, Jackson, and Slocum, 2005). Another definition offered in Leadership a Communication Perspective, “Leadership is human (symbolic) communication, which modifies the attitudes and behaviors of others in order to meet shared group goals and needs” (Hackman, Johnson, 2004). The focal point on the ways leaders communicate their expectations to cohorts, can have a momentous impact on subordinate performance. Authors Hackman and Johnson tell us, “The same effects can be generated by expectations that followers place themselves, however.”

A Traditional or Transformational Communicating Leader is defined as a leadership behavior, style of leadership, or a viewpoint of leadership. There are many definitions and interpretations of traditional or transformational communicating leadership. The text book definition for traditional viewpoint of management offers this, “The oldest and perhaps most widely accepted view of management is the traditional viewpoint.’ вЂ?It is split into three main branches: bureaucratic management, scientific management, and administrative management” (Hellriegel, 2005). Studies have been made on leadership communication and management styles since the Civil War. With many decades of research it has evolved over time to specific categories. Traditional is still viewed today because of its long-term use. God’s relationship with Moses was a traditional leadership. Moses had his doubts about his ability to lead. The Word in Exodus 3:11-13, it is discussed Moses resisted God, bringing up his unworthiness and lack of authority, his fear of the people’s distrust, his speech difficulties, and sheer cowardice. Moses developed under God’s direction as one of history’s most decisive and powerful leaders (The Student Bible, 1992).

Even so, he thrived under a rank and file style of leadership where only Moses had direct connection with the ultimate leader. Additionally, the people had to follow a set of policies, known as the Ten Commandments. Only through his association through God did the people follow Moses. However, when Moses was absent for long periods of time, the people fell again into doing things displeasing to God. It led to the single authoritarian power of Moses to bring everyone back in line with God’s will.

Contrasted with Jesus, Jesus was human, he walked among his people. They worshiped God through their love of Jesus. They were loyal and dedicated and were able to continue to uphold the will of God in Jesus’ absence. It was because of the organizational structure Jesus created among the disciples. They were all students of his word and of God in everyday life. No one of them was more important than the other. They supported each other, counseled and corrected each other. While there were leaders, they spoke of encouragement not of following rules but finding love in their own hearts and sharing that love with others. Empowering others to learn to love and encourage and support others in the way of the Lord. They built confidence by ever expressing a confidence in the Body to do what is right. Rather than complain to God about how week they were and not worthy of God’s blessings, Jesus frequently asked for strength and wisdom so that he could communicate and teach his disciples to do better.

“Transformational communicating leaders inspire others with their vision, often promote this vision over opposition, and demonstrate confidence in themselves and their views” (Hellriegel, 2005). No country, no organization, no family is great without great leadership. But how do you get it? When you look at the three styles of traditional management, you have effective and stable theories that worked for generation after generation. However with companies being managed with out ever physically being in contact with an employee except through electronic technology, we have evolved to a world that needs leadership delivered and communicated in the most efficient and effective way.

There are five characteristics that describe transformational communicating leadership, creative, interactive, visionary, empowering, and passionate (Hellriegel, 2005). Ken Blanchard states, “We have found that leadership is a four-stage transformational journey that includes self leadership, one-on-one leadership, team leadership, and organizational leadership.” He further tells us self-leadership starts on the inside, one-on-one leadership is developing relationships, team leadership trusts the team members, and finally organizational leadership is supervising more than one team (Blanchard, 2007).

In the book titled Designing Effective Organizations, author David Banner tells us that with up-and-coming postindustrial era, it is apparent with the studies of leadership from traditional to transformational communicating approach takes form. As the turning point and shift in opinion is underway, leadership is moving away from traditional, reductionistic, automatic world view to an ecological, holistic systems