Often times when we hear the phrase Transformational Leadership and we read about people who were deemed to be transformational in their leadership destiny, we wonder what really makes them exceptional and stood them out among their counterparts. In this podcast, I am going to be sharing with us what worked for them and why they were able to command such result in their leadership.

 

I believe you will agree with me that not every leader is transformational in nature. Real transformational leadership is borne out of the fact that people will gravitate towards a leader who inspires and motivates them. What does this mean? It means that the leader motivates and inspires by his vision (that is: every leader must have a vision), his ability to sell that vision (that is: communicate it), and focusing on developing a productive relationship with his followers as a teacher, a mentor, and a coach (that is: developing people who would see to the actualization of that vision through influence and motivation). The things that I have mentioned here you could say ARE THE RAW MATERIALS THAT PRODUCES TRANSFROMATIONAL LEADERSHIP.

 

Now, let us look at this example in the life of Jesus our model leader. There is no doubt about the fact that Jesus embodied what transformational leadership entails. When Jesus walked the face of the earth, He had a compelling vision. What was the vision of Jesus? It is seen in the proclamation of the Kingdom of God. Luke 4:42-43, the Bible says:

 

“Now when it was day, He departed and went into a deserted place. And the crowd sought Him and came to Him, and tried to keep Him from leaving them; ⁴³ but He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.”

 

 Also, in Matthew 4:12-17, the Bible says:

“Now when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, He departed to Galilee. ¹³ And leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali, ¹⁴ that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:

¹⁵ “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles:
¹⁶ The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light,
And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death
Light has dawned.”

¹⁷ From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

 

So, we could see here that Jesus’ vision was a compelling one. When Jesus announced this, He was about this vision till He himself said “It is finished.” You would realize from Jesus’ life that what attracted people to Him most of the times is the miracles, signs and wonders that He performed. But beyond these things, people also came to Him because of the preaching of the kingdom of God. Before this time, the people had been under the oppressive rule of the Roman kingdom, they had been impoverished and plundered by the Pharisees and Sadducees and the Scribes. So, when Jesus was talking about a new kingdom, they were so much interested and the Bible says that they would come from everywhere to hear Him. So, what does that tell us? It simply means that the first component of transformational leadership is a COMPELLING VISION.

 

Don’t just aspire to be a leader but aspire to be a leader with a vision. It is vision that would make the people to follow you as a leader. If you would ever transform your organization, your nation, irrespective of where you are leading, you need to have a vision. It is vision that drives productivity, it is vision that drives progress, it is vision that drives effectiveness and it is vision that drives transformation. The Bible says in Proverbs 29:18 that: where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained. They will continue to do anyhow and there won’t be progress. But anywhere there is vision, there is growth, there is transformation, there is progress and there would be success.

 

Another component of transformational leadership is the ability of the leader to communicate His vision accurately. There are a number of ways this could be done; however, I think the most effective of them was how Jesus communicated His vision to his disciples. Luke 5:1-4, 8-11, the Bible says:

 

“So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him to hear the word of God, that He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, ² and saw two boats standing by the lake; but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. ³ Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat. When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” ⁹ For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken; ¹⁰ and so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.” ¹¹ So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him.”

 

In this place, Jesus used a charismatic approach of communicating His vision, and it was absolutely stunning. He saw multitudes all about Him, used Peter’s boat to reach out to them, performed a beautiful miracle in the life of the boat owner (Peter) and then afterwards He said to him “From now on you will catch men.” You would notice that they didn’t have any choice than to follow Him. Why? Because all that Jesus did in that place have shown to them that this is a man to follow. Now, the challenge with most organizations’ leadership today is not about lack of vision, it is about the ineffectiveness in the way the vision is being communicated. The leader’s vision is good, but he or she is just vague when it comes to communicating that vision to the followers who would see to the execution of the vision.

 

How can you then overcome this particular challenge of vision communication as a leader? The answer is not far-fetched. Just look at Jesus’ example and learn how to do it. Sometimes communicating your vision would require that you come down to the level of your followers or employees and relate it with them with something that they could see or appreciate or that they have been used to. This was exactly what Jesus did, asked Peter to catch fish first and then, told Him “From now on you will catch men.” By that simple way of communicating with them, Peter and others caught that vision and they began to run with it.

 

The last two components of transformational leadership I would love to share with you are INFLUENCE AND MOTIVATION. I have decided to join the two words together so that I could explain them in context. As a leader, you must realize that the best way to motivate a people is to first and foremost have some level of influence over them. As a matter of fact, you can hardly motivate anyone you don’t influence first. The very first law of motivation that every leader should be aware of is the law of influence. The first thing Jesus had on his disciples was influence. He didn’t start from the place of motivation. Imagine that Jesus had not had some level of influence on His disciples first, and He just came and said to them “all of you, leave your businesses and your means of livelihood and come follow me.” How many of them do you think would have followed Him?

 

Many leaders today want to see motivation in their followers, in their staff or employees first without first and foremost influencing them. INFLUENCE TALKS ABOUT THE ABILITY TO HAVE AN EFFECT ON SOMEBODY OR SOMETHING IN AN IMPORTANT OR POSITIVE WAY. See for example, some of the disciples showed how motivated they were about Jesus and His vision that they said “they are willing to die for Him.” In John 13:36-37, Simon Peter said: “Lord, where are You going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward.” ³⁷ Peter said to Him, “Lord, why can I not follow You now? I will lay down my life for Your sake.” How did Peter get to this point that he would offer to die with Jesus? It is in the place of motivation.

 

You see, as a leader, you must realize that real transformational leaders don’t just motivate, they simply influence first and then motivation becomes so easy from their followers. And the truth is: anyone can be a transformational leader. All you need to do is to simply practice these things that we have shared in this podcast and you would see yourself commanding the needed result that you have longed for. Have a vision, communicate that vision in the most compelling way ever so that people can run with it with you, don’t take for granted the place of influencing your followers in the most impactful and positive way ever and you would see them being motivated.

 

This is where we are going to draw the curtains on today’s episode of Leaderview. I believe you have learnt something. Please don’t forget to share this podcast with your friends, drop your comments in the comment section and let me know your thoughts on what we have shared with ourselves today. Till next time on Leaderview, stay blessed and God bless you.

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Obayomi Abiola Benjamin!

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