Transformers...No Not That Kind

Being prior military listening to Stanley McChrystal's give a Ted Talk was an interesting experience. When you are in the military your perspective is limited; typically just the job in front of you. As you gain a bit of rank that perspective changes and broadens a bit. However, very few ever make it to the rank of General. Though looking back on my time in the service part of why I left was a loss of faith in leadership and a focus on image rather than substance. It's anecdotal but certain career fields such as McChrystal's have a much more focused mission and as such less time is spent devising ways to politic among themselves.

McChrystal's understanding that he is leading a group of people with vastly different life experiences was refreshing to hear and it's part of what makes transformational leadership so effective. Transformational leadership understands that an individual brings more to the group than just their skills and talents. They also bring synrgey and what happens to that person also affects the group as a whole. A focus on developing the subordinate's overall ability to be a better person is much more important than just developing skills.

Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale also makes some valid points regarding leadership and changing how he employees viewed their roles. Jim invested a great deal of time and money into improving his workers skillset. What I found most interesting was teaching employees how to use iPads and electronic devices. This is a skill that goes beyond work into making a worker a more flexible citizen, able to adapt to a changing economy, and is certainly a function of transformational leadership.

When a company moves to a transformational leadership model a culture change typically takes place. Mattress Mack's team building was a great example of how company understood the need for change and then began to manage the change itself. It appears from his answers that the workforce was resistant to changes at first and I wonder how it was finally sold to them though if I had to guess once the state of company was made clear there buy-in began to increase. This would place the company near the line of quadrants three and four on a Strategy-Culture Matrix. They knew they needed to make a change quickly but still had the time to properly implement a transformational process throughout the company. 

McChrystal's leadership was more a change within himself and Mattress Mack changed external processes, though likely by learning new things. Both are important for transformational leadership. This form of leadership isn't particularly new and it's taught in many leadership courses but the component that I feel is left out is the transformation is a two-way activity. Leaders need to also be aware of how they themselves may need to change and grow in order to proper grow those they lead.