By Barbara Mutedzi
This week’s advice:
Be a Transformational Leader
There are 3 levels of leadership, coaching and mentoring: Motivational, Inspirational, then Transformational.
Motivational means that you give out a LOT of energy to your teams. You are pushing, supporting and providing them with a lot of external, unending support, every single moment of the day.
It takes a LOT of energy and when you are not around or pushing people and micro-managing; work is hardly started let alone completed.
This is not sustainable, especially because it takes away from the time and effort you as a leader, also need to guard, share and uphold the vision of the business and the team.
In the Inspirational Stage, you are helping your People connect with their true authentic selves.
Inspire = In Spirit. You are connecting with their emotions and feelings. You are pulling at their ‘heart strings’ as they get inspired by how you live, lead and run the business. What you do, ‘touches’ them at their core, in their spirit.
Something awakens within them, when they see the committed, disciplined (insert here any other characteristics) manner in which you live, lead and run your business on an everyday basis.
How you exist in all that you do, in-spires them. They get to see what their inner power looks and feels like through you leading by example.
This sets them up to move ahead toward their own goals. They see their potential and capacity as they engage and are led by you.
Now imagine if you are living, leading and running your business from a deeply true and authentic space, one devoid of trying to keep up with the Joneses; but one that celebrates who you really are.
Inspirational leadership, means that you are open and vulnerable, true and honest, available and very communicative, using aligned stories and direction to help your team see the potential and capacity within themselves.
The Transformational stage: in this they are motivated and inspired to actually act toward their goals. You motivate them, Yes.
You inspire them, Yes. And at Transformation level, you provide them with the actual tools, resources and direction, that are clearly aligned, visible and attainable for them, to help them through their goals.
You transform them through actual action, supported by resources they have access to.
The questions to ask yourself when your team is not performing, is:
How am I supporting them? Am I clear on the expectations? Am I motivating them? Am I showing them their own capacity and potential, highlighting these to them so that they can see themselves? Am I providing them with the tools and resources they need to perform their work to the best of their ability?
Am I creating a psychologically safe environment so that they can step in, flouring and contribute at higher levels?
How am I setting myself and my team for transformed actions aligned with our goals?
If the answer to any of the above is No, then you know what you need to work on.
🔻 Real-Life Example
I am moving house by end of this month of September so I can be close to my friends and also to resources I need to thrive and flourish.
I am super excited for this phase in my journey to the point that I can’t wait. Counting the days as I speak.
Now, in one of the few houses that I went to view, the owner was very kind and generous with his time. We got to sit and chat a bit more, so I could get to know him and him, I.
As I shared the story of my own life, he mentioned how inspirational my story was.
He mentioned that my story encouraged him to view his life and his journey forward in a different light. I wish we had had more time to explore this, but I was aware I had already taken a lot of his time.
The conversation we had though, got me thinking on my way home, that we had had time for me to ask him: How had my story inspired him to do or be more of in his life?
This would have been a lovely segway into focusing on him and his transformation.
As an individual, I share my story to connect with other humans, and in the hope that part of it resonates with them, giving them more purpose and light on their own life journey.
Sharing our stories removes assumptions, projections and any pre-conceived notions about the other.
The brain in fact, thirsts for story telling as it allows it to use the bigger conscious space that we have compared to other mammals. Stories connect us.
This is why great advertisement work so well as the stories they are premised on, draw and tug at our emotions, feelings and therefore heart strings.
As a leader, the journey is always about the other person. We have the privilege to lead them in a way that yes:
At bottom level – motivates them to move diligently towards their goals; and
At a higher level, inspires them into action, whilst,
At an even more conscious and aware level, helps them transform into their true and best version of themselves by providing them with tools, advice and direction in how they can do that one day at a time.
When someone says you are very motivational or inspirational, go the extra mile of being a transformational leader and ask them –
How has what I have done/ said, motivated or inspired in you?
What are your next steps you are going to take to be the best version of yourself and
What can I do/ what do you need so you can move forward toward your goals with this information.
Every encounter is one that helps us move ahead. Set an intention toward transformational leadership.
At transformational level, we get to be, as the conscious and deeply aware leaders that we are, intentional in the way we live, lead and run our businesses.
*Barbara Mutedzi is a life coach
