Emergent Transformational Leadership-Battlefield to Business

Leadership is such a critical aspect of team success that without it they will ultimately fail. Companies spend millions a year selecting, grooming and developing leaders. Organizations that seek to transform their operations should keep an eye out for transformational leadership that can adjust and change to new environments. Whether one is seeking a business executive or the next military officer understanding emergent transformational leadership as it works in live situations is beneficial for recruitment.

Groups, regardless of type, will eventually form a command structure. It is one of the most natural occurrences in both civilized and uncivilized society. The kind of leadership, poor or high, will determine the values of the group and how well it performs under pressure. Whether discussing business or the military, ensuring the right type of leaders makes their way forward helps in developing high functioning teams.

Research into military teams highlights how transformational grassroots military leadership emerges from within the ranks when times are tough. Traits of emergent transformational leadership includes: visionary, leads by example, empowering others, sincerity of purpose, moral value system, genuine car for others, compassion, self-sacrificing, and self-efficacy (Bangari & Singh, 2014).

The confident but compassionate leader runs contrary to cultural fallacies that believe effective leadership is a domination game only. Transformational leaders create followers where power oriented leaders rely too heavily on formal position or fear that limits loyalty. Having the “golden touch” with others will still being driven toward goals seems to make a significant difference in outcomes.

Selecting and fostering leadership in business and military occupations is important because they can inspire followers to raise their performance to accomplish objectives above and beyond themselves. Ensuring that the people with the right characteristics are brought forward and develop a sense of responsibility for others helps in solidifying social bonds and promotes loyalty.

Bangari, R. & Sngh, V. (2014). Establishing a framework of transformational grassroots military leadership: lessons from high-intensity, high-risk operational environments. The Journal for Decision Makers, 39 (3).

How Social Position Empowers Our Opinions

Sharing knowledge and information is an important part of learning and development in society. Active members improve upon the social construction of knowledge. The same process occurs in all groups regardless if it is a network of friends, a classroom, or on a macro social setting. A study in the Academy of Management Learning & Education brings forward the idea that social position determines whether or not we participate or withhold information in discussions (Yi-Shun, et. al., 2014).

Think for a moment how we sit among our friends and discuss life events and seek to create social agreement on those issues. Sometimes these may be personal issues while at other times they are more functional in nature like business or politics. Providing information and sharing perspectives is a natural part of that process as each member evaluates this information and comes to a conclusion.

Eventually a shared coconscious will evolve where negotiated understandings solidify into a shared perspective. Without full participation in the group only a few perspectives will rise to the top and this can derail reality construction that applies to all members. Withholding or stifling information can have a negative impact on how groups perceive information and the type of conclusions generated.

As more vocal members push for the acceptance of their perspectives and other members fall silent the creation process is thwarted. Group think starts to skew the understandings of people as they remain silent and accept the status quo of consensus. Their own personal misgivings begin to lessen as group think forms around newly developed shared principles that may not be accurate.

Those willing to stand up and disagree have a confidence and empowerment level that minimizes the destructive effects of group think. The study helps show how people who are socially connected are also more likely to stand up and state what they believe while those who are less confident in their social impressions are less likely to stand up or voice their opinions.

The findings are important for the management of teams. It is beneficial to ensure that all people feel that their opinions are valued and an integral part of the overall group process. If negative or bully behavior in a group occurs other members will be prompted to not bring up their opinions or ideas that limit the functionality of the entire group. Socially connected people with higher levels of empowerment are more likely to voice their opinions than those who feel they are at a lower social status. Providing opportunities for all members to voice their opinions develops higher levels of decision making. 

Yi-Shun, W., et. al. (2014). What drives students’ knowledge-withholding intention in management education? An empirical study in Taiwan. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 13 (4).

Developing Learning Teams-Lessons from the Military

Teamwork is the bread and butter of creating stronger organizations.  Research in military teamwork and leaders can help organizations develop higher levels of functioning teams that learn and develop with each new challenge. Transformational leaders matched with learning teams can produce some of the highest outputs in performance. When developing your next team you will be wise consider a few lessons from the services.

It is first beneficial to understand what a learning team is. Learning teams are capable of taking in new information and adapting to the environment around them. When these teams are capable of changing to stressors they become stronger and are more capable to solving problems in a ways that help them survive.

According to a study on military teams in challenging situations  a transformational leader matched with a learning team can create positive adaptation (Di Schiena, et. al, 2013). Adaptation being the process of developing to a higher level of functioning through new knowledge, higher mental models and shared vision.

New challenges bring more opportunities to learn, integrate the information, and put it to practical use. As teams stay together and face these challenges they also begin adjust themselves to handle new situations when they arise. Transformational leadership provides that extra push to keep the team changing and moving in the same direction.

The study helps business leaders understand that team development is more than throwing a bunch of people together to find a solution. Developing a strong team requires facing challenges and then adapting to those challenges. Each successful adaptation creates a stronger business team that can handle more difficult situations.

Teams don’t always adjust without some level of guidance. When put under major pressure a team can dissipate into chaos. Transformational leaders help to ensure the team stays pliable and continues to adjust without disintegration. Businesses should connect teams with transformational leadership to help them build new models on how to compete.

Di Schiena, R., et. al. (2013). Relationship between leadership and characteristics of learning organizations in deployed military units: an exploratory study. Administrative Sciences, 3 (3).        

Designing Your Team for Effectiveness

Teams are a popular method of organizational problem solving. The very design of the team is often ignored in an effort to hastily put together a team of people who can achieve goals in the least amount of time and effort. However, the formation of the team, personalities contained within, and the background of members will have an unyielding influence on whether or not that team will succeed in its endeavors.

Let us consider a problem a department is having in terms of making themselves more efficient and customer focused. The standard approach is to gather together the leadership team of the department and demand that they come up with new solutions. They will certain put their minds together and come up with a laundry list of solutions of which they have already said before.

The problem is that we are not necessarily sure that this will lead to the "right" solution. The right solution is that which is comprehensive and streamlines processes while raising customer satisfaction. Including all of the same people that allowed the department to become less efficient and customer friendly in the first place really isn't that wise.

This doesn't mean all is lost. By swapping out a few of the old guard for some new blood will be helpful. However, if your going to move that far you might as well be a little more strategic. Consider some of the following tips:

Include Different Stakeholders:

Finding new and unique solutions requires including people on the team that have new and unique perspectives. This isn't possible if you continue to include the same members over and over. Try keeping managers who don't dominate the group but do have knowledge of the operations of the department while adding a few managers from other departments.

No department works in isolation and processes & procedures run together and mesh in many ways. When solving problems be sure to include a representative from the departments that will be impacted by the change. They will provide insight into how well, or poor, things worked before and whether or not they can be improved. Good solutions will have a wider group of supporters.

Include Different Personalities:

Personality has an impact not only on the group dynamics but also the way in which people perceive information. Having serious personalities mixed with more artistic personalities may create some friction in the group but ultimately does lead to higher levels of development. Experienced personalities may help steer creative ideas into something more practical while creative personalities will ultimately push innovation.

Each group comes with its own dynamics. Switching around personalities helps to ensure that the dynamics don't become solidified unless it is beneficial. For example, an extremely dominant person may attempt to force their will o  each group but this doesn't necessarily mean that the group dynamics are beneficial for solution creation.

Include Knowledge Based on Goals:

In our example of improving customer service and improving efficiency it is necessary to include those people who have the actual knowledge to contribute meaningfully to the discussion. Operational questions will need someone that can understand operations while customer service will need someone who understands customer service.  Without this knowledge it is likely that results will be off.

Depending on the type of business you are running it is beneficial to include a marketing person in the group. Ideas must have market utility and raise the value of the company. Marketing people have the ability to understand the utility of ideas and whether or not they will achieve certain external expectations. A goal of improving customer service should have the knowledge support from marketing, customer service, or other qualified representatives.

Provide Skills for the Team:

Any serious ideas should be vetted through finance, legal, and others to determine if they are feasible. Even though all of these skills need not be on the team the support to analyze this information should be available to the team. Having someone who can understand and manage the process of analysis is important.

This means someone on the team that will have a basic level of statistical understanding, data metrics, finance, and human relations abilities to understand the feasibility of proposed ideas. Before coming to a final recommendation numbers will need to be run and a SWOT conducted. Without the ability to analyze options the team will not know which are likely to be approved.