Transformative Leadership

Transformative Leadership in a Nonprofit Organization Yulanda Harris EDD8100 – Foundations of Educational Leadership and Management 1 April 21, 2013 Capella University Abstract A transformative leader is a leader who can bring about influential change in others. These leaders not only transform essential change, they change the way we think and act. Transformative leaders create practices and processes in organizations proactively. In addition, transformative leaders can be found at different levels in an organization.They can hold the title ranging from supervisor to executive director. This essay primarily focuses on the challenges faced by the Training & Development (T&D) Specialist, who is capable of helping to make essential changes and encourage transformational leadership at Presbyterian Villages of Michigan (PVM). Introduction The purpose of nonprofit organizations is to offer programs and services to assist the public. Presbyterian Villages of Michigan (PVM) is a fait h-based, nonprofit organization.PVM offers quality senior living housing and services, offering a wide range of residential service options including apartments, condominiums, assisted living, and skilled nursing care (Presbyterian Villages of Michigan, 2013). The ideal leadership style is that of a Servant Leader. According to Robert Greenleaf, servant leadership is a philosophy and set of practices that enriches the lives of individuals, builds better organizations and ultimately creates a more just and caring world (Greenleaf, 1991).In contrast or a more similarity practice, transformative leadership can transform organizational culture and influence job satisfaction of the employees. However, the supervisors and managers appear to be disengaged or a gap presents itself within the organization. Therefore, it was necessary to begin the journey of conducting research within the organization. As in the case of action research according to Joe Donaldson, the T&D specialist must have a particular perspective about what is going on within the organization (Donaldson & Francis, 2013). Developing Transformative Managers and SupervisorsTransforming the managers and supervisors is an ongoing process primarily because he or she have not had any formal training on leadership. Typically as adult learners, we bring knowledge, skills, and abilities from previous experiences to the learning environment (Wainright, York & Woodward, 2012). However, concerning the managers and supervisors at PVM they have very little experience of leadership to bring into the learning environment. They are very familiar with process and procedures therefore; this is what was predicated on their promotional opportunities with the organization.In other words they were promoted into their role base on their performance. However, they lack knowledge in the area focusing on behavioral matters and how to coach or develop the line staff. To begin the process of developing transformative leaders, the T&D specialist uses the ADDIE methodology to complete a valuation of the training needs of the organization to determine if training is the best result to address the issues of the lack of leadership among the managers and supervisors.It is critical to begin the process by asking questions that will develop their ability to initiate and manage change in their department along with developing creative approaches to support strong team leadership and growth. This will allow the managers and supervisors build cohesion among each other and improve upon organizational efficiency. The following are questions that are asked during the analysis phase utilizing the ADDIE methodology. 1. What motivations you to lead a team? 2. What are some challenges you have faced as a manager or supervisor? 3. How would you describe your leadership style? . What leadership characteristics do you value about yourself? 5. What challenges do you face in your day-to-day operations with your employees? 6. How would you describe your decision-making process. For example, when your staff comes to you with a problem, how do you come to a solution? The above questions cited the importance of empowering others, inspiring others, delegation, collaboration, mentoring others. If managers and supervisors are to become transformative leaders they must answer those questions (Lansford, Clements, Falzon, Aish & Rogers, 2010).The goal is to have managers and supervisors feeling capable of reaching the right decisions independently with the goal of possessing their team to feel good about their contributions. Furthermore, the T&D specialist is ensuring the mission and values of the organization will affect the managers and supervisors thinking and management style. As a result they will transform organizational culture and inspire job satisfaction of the employees. The managers and supervisors will need to form a good example, self-confidence and understand needs of the staff.This means they can motiv ate the staff by their actions and words, in addition to ensuring their loyalty to PVM. As a result new training programs are created to develop strategies where new competencies are being taught. This will allow managers and supervisors gain valuable insights and find new opportunities to align their job or career satisfaction and performance with the organization’s outcomes and success (Wainright, York & Woodward, 2012). References: Presbyterian Villages of Michigan. (2013). Welcome to Presbyterian Villages of Michigan! Retrieved from www. pvm. org Greenleaf, R. K. (1991). The servant as leader.Indianapolis, IN: The Robert K. Greenleaf Center. [Originally published in 1970, by Robert K. Greenleaf]. Retrieved from http://www. greenleaf. org/ Donaldson, J. , & Francis, B. (2013). Converstion about research. Retrieved from www. capella. edu Wainright, C. , York, G. , & Woodward, B. (n. d. ). A transformative framework for. (2012). The Journal of Health Administration Education , 40-70. Lansford, M. , Clements, V. , Falzon, T. , Aish, D. , & Rogers, R. (n. d. ). Essential leadership traits of female executives in the non-profit sector. (2010). The Journal of Human Resource and Adult Learning, 6(1), 51-62.