Michael has recently ascended rather quickly into a new leadership role at his company TechCo and

is struggling with communicating to those on his team such that everything is not a debate or
collaborative project. He’s been heard telling his director Jim, “There are times when I need people
to do what I am asking them to do, simple as that. Yesterday, a direct reportee James looked at me
and said, “Are you the lead on this, or am I?”. This happened when I was instructing him on how a
certain part of a project that I had assigned to him needed to be handled.” Sometimes I feel like my
instructions are not clear or may be I am seen as a micromanager although I am just doing my job.
Today I will have a conversation with him about how he is the lead on projects I assign to him, but
that he is still under my direction which means if I have to step in and say how something should be
handled a certain way, it’s not a suggestion, but a directive.

Just after the meeting with Michael, James was heard swearing in the office, that how unreasonable
Michael’s behaviour is and that at his level, he would want Michael to trust him and give him some
autonomy. James mentioned to Claire one of his peers, “ I have 10 yrs of work experience, I know
what I am doing and I don’t need him to keep tabs on my work! I feel like I am in a Kindergarten. I am
one of the good performers on the team and ultimately work more hours than anyone else here (I
work through my lunch)…but that doesn’t seem to be appreciated at all”.

Claire who has been working with Michael in her previous project, knows that Michael is a great but
a nervous leader. He has mentoring capabilities, but his nerves can get better of him. Sometimes his
actions can come across as patronizing by team members who see him as someone hindering their
growth and development in their roles. This happens more often when the deadlines to finish
projects are fast approaching and he fears that his team might not be able to deliver.

ANSWER

Creating a followership is an essential trait of any leadership style (Grint, 2003). To get buy-in of
followers, leaders need to build trust, inspire their teams and establish credibility (Zangerle, 2023).
Michael seems to be struggling with this. His leadership style demonstrates an imbalance of the
essentials of transactions and the aspects of transformation. The concepts of transformational and
transactional leadership style were first introduced by Burns (1978) and developed by Bass & Avolio
(1990) to encompass the “full range model of leadership” (Bass, 1985; Avolio & Bass 1991; Bass &
Avolio, 1993). Transactional leadership tends to be more managerial and transformational leadership
more developmental. Michael’s comments such as “if I have to step in and say how something should
be handled a certain way, it’s not a suggestion, but a directive” suggest that Michael’s leadership
style is more transactional. It also suggests a lack of focus on building relationships. Claire’s comment
that, “he fears that his team might not be able to deliver.”, shows that Michael ‘s approach is similar
to ‘management by exception (active)’, where he fears that the team might fail to meet deadlines
which has led him to have a more directive or proactive approach (See Bass & Riggio, 2020).