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Part 1: Overview of Transformational and Authentic Leadership Theories

Transformational Leadership is when a leader creates a connection with a

follower and motivates them, both ends receive motivation as well. This Leadership

style tries and helps the followers reach their fullest potential. Transformational

Leadership Theory is when a leader “encourages creativity, recognizes

accomplishments, builds trust, and inspires a collective vision.” (Northouse, 2019, p.

264). “The emergence of transformational leadership as an important approach to

leadership began with a classic work by political sociologist James MacGregor Burns

titled Leadership (1978). In his work, Burns attempted to link the roles of leadership and

followership,” (Northouse, 2019, p. 264). During Transformational Leadership leaders

were able to improve their “self-efficacy, positive effect, and ability to consider multiple

perspectives,” (Northouse, 2019, p. 265). This type of leadership drastically improves

the leaders and follower’s ability to do their jobs, it enhances their psychological

achievements as well. The different factors of the Transformational Leadership are

charisma or idealized influence, inspiration or inspirational motivation, intellectual

stimulation, and individualized consideration. The Transformational Leadership theory

moves their followers to accomplish more than what is expected from them because of

the motivation they experience.

“Bass argued that transformational leadership motivates followers to do more

than expected by raising followers’ levels of consciousness about the importance and

value of specified and idealized goals, getting followers to transcend their own self-

interest for the sake of the team or organization, and moving followers to address

higher-level needs,” (Northouse, 2019, p. 269). Bennis and Nanus, discovered leaders
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had a clear vision of the future of their organizations, they were social architects, they

created trust, and they used creative deployment of self through positive self-regard

within their organizations, (Northouse, 2019). Kouzes and Posner model consists of five

fundamental practices that push leaders to great accomplishments, (Northouse, 2019).

These fundamental practices include, model the way, which leaders need to share a

clear value with the group. Next is inspire a shared vision, and then challenge the

process. “Challenge the process means being willing to change the status quo and step

into the unknown,” (Northouse, 2019, p. 279). Enable others to act, meaning the leader

is effective with working with others, gaining their trust. Encourage the heart is last,

making sure the leader rewards others for their accomplishments. Followers want

support and recognition, leaders are attentive to this, (Northouse, 2019).

As described in the textbook, Ryan White was a good example of the

Transformational Leadership Theory. White, as a teenager, raised American people’s

awareness of AIDS while also being a representative for increasing the governments

support of AIDS research, (p. 265). He was trying to make a difference and had people

joining his team every day. He was motivating others while continuing to motivate

himself. He was trying to make a change for the government to be fair and have

stronger set of moral values, which in turn would make both the leader and follower

have a higher set of ethical values.

Authentic Leadership Theory fulfills the need for trustworthy leadership in society

and provides broad guidelines for people who want to use this type of leadership,

(Northouse, 2019, p. 321). The authentic leadership approach was developed by Bill

George, which focuses on characteristics, (Northouse, 2019, p. 310). George believes

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people can develop their leadership qualities to becoming the best authentic leader.

When completing his interviews and studies on Authentic Leadership he found that

leaders have a passion to serve others, and that they know themselves, as well as

leading with their core values. “Authentic leaders demonstrate five basic characteristics:

They have a strong sense of purpose, they have strong values about the right thing to

do, they establish trusting relationships with others, they demonstrate self-discipline and

act on their values, and they are sensitive and empathetic to the plight of others,”

(Northouse, 2019, p. 310).

As mentioned in the Northouse text, Noble Peace Prize laureate Nelson Mandela

had a strong set of values, (2019, p. 312). Mandela was a smart man with a strong

morality. “While fighting to abolish apartheid in South Africa, he was unyielding in his

pursuit of justice and equality for all,” (Northouse, 2019, p. 312). When Mandela was

arrested and imprisoned, he was offered early release if he stopped what he was doing,

however he did not want to take this opportunity because he didn’t want to give up on all

he was trying to accomplish, he strongly believed. His leadership reflected his values

very much.

Part 2: Case Study from Chapter 8: Her Vision of a Model Research Center

1. She is a very positive person, and a freethinker. Rachel is always open to new

ideas, opportunities, and approaches. She is not afraid to take risks and is an

optimist. Her being optimistic has had a significant influence on the company’s

accomplishments and the climate they work in. The employees at ICCR love how

progressive the company is and how well they are treated, especially the women.

They see Rachel as a role model. 85% of the company is women and fully
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supports all of them. “Rachel has designed an on-site day care program, flextime

scheduling for mothers with young children, and a benefit package that gives full

health coverage to part-time employees,” (Northouse, 2019, p. 294).

2. The rapid growth of ICCR has required Rachel to spend a lot of time traveling

throughout the country. Since she is frequently traveling, she has begun to feel

distant from the daily operations of ICCR. She feels that she is losing her ways of

what makes the company keep on moving. She has noticed that many

employees have stopped calling her by her first name and some did not even

know who she was. She used to be able to give weekly pep talks to supervisors,

now all she can do is give two formal presentations a year. Also, she noticed that

the directors want to move in a different direction than she has been pushing the

company and is frustrated with this.

3. In order for Rachel to reestablish herself as a transformational leader at ICCR is

to motivate her employees again. She can do this while she is travelling as well.

She can have those meetings again and even travel less or send other people

that she trusts to travel as well. Once Rachel motivates others this can then

motivate her because she sees that she has gotten everyone back on the path

she would like them to be on. She can reward her employees for the work they

get done too, like raises or bonuses too. Sometimes this is not doable though,

but if it can be it can make all the difference. Rachel just needs to take a deep

breath and communicate with the other directors because she has been

successful this far, then they should be able to listen to her and what she thinks
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should be the next step. Especially since everyone working there is because of

her.

Analysis of Case Study from Chapter 9: The Reluctant First Lady

1. Betty Ford was known for being outspoken and very open. During the time she

was first lady, many women did not work outside of the house and women were

actively fighting for equal rights at the time. Betty was all for women rights and

spoke out about it often, even though the public questioned her. It was her

openness to the public that made her the leader she was, she was not going to

stop talking about important topics that needed to be discussed just because of

few people did not like it. She believed in her moral values.

2. Betty Ford was “a breast cancer survivor, an outspoken advocate of women’s

rights, a recovering alcoholic and addict, and cofounder and president of the Betty

Ford Center, a nonprofit treatment center for substance abuse,” (Northouse, 2019, p.

332). All these things she has accomplished or survived during her life made her the

leader and amazing person she was. When Betty was diagnosed with breast cancer,

she was very open about it with the public because it was not a disease that was

widely talked about yet. Her talking about breast cancer and being open about it all

raised awareness of the disease and helped many women.

3. Betty is all about bringing things to light in the public, topics that were never

discussed in the public eye, but topics that needed to be. She made sure people did

not feel alone and that they weren’t the only ones going through something like she

has, especially someone that was in a position that she was in. Betty mentioned that
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she was proud to know that many women were getting cancer checkups because of

her.

4. Betty Ford exhibits qualities such as self-awareness and transparency that are

associated with authentic leadership. She does this with the way she talks about

things with the public and is not afraid to voice her opinion, even if the opinion is not

liked by many people. Betty is self-aware when it came to her dealing with her

alcoholism and addiction to medications. She found the strength to fight some of the

hardest things a human can go through while writing all of this to the public. Betty

Ford is a prime example of someone who is an Authentic Leader through and

through.
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Works Cited

Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and Practice (8th ed.). CA: SAGE

Publications. Retrieved 2021.