Chapter 6

Transformational Management

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Objectives

What is transformation and why is it important for implementation of a project?

What is ego and how it may come in the way of change and transformation?

How moving out of comfort zone leads to entrepreneurship, which is an advanced stage of personal transformation?

How organizational effectiveness is improved through transformational endeavors?

What are the principles for effective transformational leadership?

How to create inspirational environment?

The following are discussed:

• Transformational Leadership: Components
  • Why Transformational Leadership?
• Entrepreneurship
• The Science of Moving Out of Comfort Zone
• Improve Organizational Effectiveness through Transformational Leadership
• Principles of Transformational Leadership
• Create Inspirational Environment

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Project management approach is essentially a change-intensive endeavor, where every team member is required to perform right at the right moment for achieving the desired outcomes. Keep learning, for collaborative leadership, and prevail over project/program/portfolio/EPMO management. When changes increase in scale and complexity, an organization runs under greater pressure to ensure that the human side of the challenges gets equal attention.

In order to achieve the aim of implementing a change, you need to determine how well your organization considers the people impacts, clearly communicates its goals, encourages executives to lead by example, provides its people with the skills to adapt, and adopts specialized change management processes.

In a demanding situation when someone takes control of a task by conveying a clear vision of the team’s goals, a marked passion for the work and an ability to get the job done make rest of the team feel recharged and energized. Such a team member is called a transformational leader.

Leadership deals with building personal capacity and organizational capabilities for advancement in increasing complexity and volatile business environments. This requires creating a right blend of the following:

• People development/team empowerment
• Personal enrichment—being able to mentor, coach, and inspire
• Process management/process improvement

Leadership is a process, not a position. Leadership deals with people and their dynamics, which are continually changing. The challenge of leadership is to create change, influence, and facilitate growth.

Transformational leaders are generally energetic, enthusiastic, and passionate. Not only are these leaders concerned and involved in the process of change, they are also focused on helping every member of the team succeed.

Albert Einstein once said, “Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another, it is the only means.” This sentiment is the essence behind the theory of transformational leadership. The term “transformational leadership” was coined in the late 1970s and continues to be a leadership style that proponents say allows leaders to not only achieve success but also transform the thoughts and actions of individuals, groups, and even organizations. This style of leadership requires passion, charisma, and the ability to motivate others.

Transformational leadership was initially introduced by the leadership expert and presidential biographer James MacGregor Burns. According to him transformational leadership may be seen when “leaders and followers make each other to advance to a higher level of moral and motivation.” Through the strength of their vision and personality, transformational leaders are able to inspire followers to change expectations, perceptions, and motivations to work toward common goals.

6.1 Transformational Leadership: Components

Bermard M. Bass (1985) has suggested four different components of transformational leadership:

1. Intellectual Stimulation—Transformational leaders challenge the status quo and encourage creativity among followers to explore new ways of doing things and learning new opportunities.
2. Individualized Consideration—Transformational leadership involves support and encouragement to individual followers to foster supportive relationships, keep lines of communication open, share ideas, and recognize each unique contribution.
3. Inspirational Motivation—Transformational leaders have a clear vision that they are able to articulate and help followers experience the same passion and motivation to fulfill goals.
4. Idealized Influence—Transformational leaders serve as a role model for followers to emulate and internalize the ideal.

You will always strive to get the best results in everything you do, but it’s not always easy to accomplish. You know that it is very easy to get stuck into a routine of doing things the way they have always been done. Some say, if it’s not broken why fix it? Innovations that we see today may never have been made if people like Henry Ford, Bill Gates, and Albert Einstein would have thought that the same. They all had one thing in common that has changed the way we live today. They all considered things in their largest context.

Eliel Saarinen once said, “Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context—a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.” You see, all of these innovators thought about the larger context than what could be seen at the present moment. They saw how things applied in the next larger context.

Why Transformational Leadership?

When you use the success principle to be able to reach your highest levels of leadership success, you will end up as a transformational leader. You need to find reasonable responses to questions like: How does the work that you do as a leader affect those who are closest to you? How does it affect the families of those working with you? How does it impact your town or community? How does it affect your country? How does it affect the world?

Your answer to these questions will lead you to do things in a way that will produce the best results for your short-term and long-term goals.

Understand fully what you are doing as a leader, and how it affects people on all levels, and you will start reaping better results. The different approaches of leadership are as follows:

Transactional Leadership

The transactional approach of leadership has a very restricted application in project management. Essentially, the change-intensive focus on “desired outcomes” management does not afford transactional leadership style, which is more concerned with maintaining the normal flow of processes. Transactional leadership is described as “keeping the ship afloat.” Transactional leaders use disciplinary power and an array of incentives to motivate members to perform at their best. The term “transactional” refers to the fact that this type of leader essentially motivates team members by exchanging rewards for performance.

The approach does not require looking ahead in strategic directions and guiding an organization to a position of market leadership; instead, these managers are solely concerned with making sure everything flows smoothly today.

Situational Leadership

The requirements of project management are fulfilled with situational leadership, where changing leadership styles with the demands of a given situation is carried out to reach the desired outcomes.

Situational leadership emerged as a prominent approach in organizational leadership in the early 21st century. While other leadership styles are based on the traits and approaches of the leader, situational leadership is based on the notion that the leader adapts to each situation one faces.

ChangingMinds.org refers to transformational leadership as a single preferred style, while situational leadership means applying different leadership skills to the motivation and capabilities of the team members in a given situation.

A number of factors are related to situational leadership, including external relationships, resources, group management, and organizational culture. A transformational leader would apply the situation-demanding approach regardless of organizational culture. A situational leader recognizes a culture that places strong importance on teamwork and cooperation. The situational leader in such situation would communicate with a particular team member while giving due respect to that team-oriented culture.

Ken Blanchard, www.KenBlanchard.com, points out that situational leaders put special emphasis on retaining top members and make individual development a priority for organizational success.

6.2 Lower Your Ego and Make Others Follow

Project management is driven by high-potential leaders who are in great demand. One of the major problem arises with egoistic thinking, when a talented leader believes that the road to success is paved by capability alone, where an enlightened leader has a more collaborative mindset.

Understand the pros and cons of a big ego and why leaders cling so tightly to it. The significant difference between a big ego and big ambition needs to be understood. Healthy ego is not an issue. High-potential professionals usually start out with great ambitions, big ideas, and a combination of talent, ideas, and healthy ego that drives success. Great achievements invariably happen with good timing and timely support from others.

The big ego issue starts when leaders are trapped in believing that their capability brought success alone and they were responsible for workplace accomplishments. Once leaders are publicly visible and celebrated, they have a greater tendency to forget the other factors involved in their success. They start attributing all the success to their personal talent, and their big ego grabs them. Ego illusions the belief that anything they do will be a success.

Sometimes it is hard to recognize the point where ego becomes big ego. The problem emerges when the corporate world paints the stories of the “great man.” The mythology asserts the hard chargers with big egos who know how to get results and do not suffer as fools.

They are “larger than life” change agents who leave a big impression that they have achieved big things in bold ways. But the reality is always different. 

Jim Collins, as part of the extensive research for his bestseller Good to Great, refutes the myth of the “larger than life” CEO. Collins researched 1,435 Fortune 500 companies and identified 11 that achieved greatness over a long period of time. He defined greatness as achieving stock returns that exceeded the market average by three times over a 15-year period. He determined that there was only one attribute that the 11 companies had in common, the presence of a “Level 5” leader. Here is where it gets really interesting. 

These leaders were not what anyone would have expected. They were not famous. They were not high profile. They did not do commercials. They sought no celebrity. They did not publish memoirs in the hopes of political office one day. They were not egomaniacs. As a matter of fact, you probably have never heard of any of them.

Oddly enough, they were humble. Collins discussed the simple concept of “windows and mirrors” with regard to these leaders. That is, they looked out the window to give credit and into the mirror for blame. They did not like to speak of themselves or their accomplishments. But they were also fiercely resolved to get results. They stayed focused on long-term objectives and did whatever was necessary to attain them. They were interested in something bigger than themselves. 

When you are interested in becoming a truly great leader, park your ego at the door. Take a lesson from Level 5 leaders and focus on the things that matter most. You may find many egomaniacs in leadership positions; help them to move out from the trap, which does not make them leaders, not the most successful ones.

Improve Behavior against Ego

Take note of the following tips for changing behavior:

• Develop a team mindset for working on a project/program/portfolio

  Respect everyone’s time—keep to scheduled meeting times. Show understanding, empathy, and emotion in a natural way. Overacting or emotions may damage credibility and trust, be yourself!

• Stay within defined project management structures in collaborating.
• Define the best possibilities for moving into action.
• Define the next steps in all details.
• Develop a calendar with everyone involved and make it happen!
• When you get into the swamp with your emotional reactions take some quiet time, and stay positive. Look at team members who want to help and let them help you. Teams are hungry for strong and definitive leadership. 
• After all, the test of a true leader is to face the truth.

What Makes Others Follow a Leader?

The most effective leaders make people follow by demonstrating the following general attributes:

1. A strong belief in purpose, goals, and objectives, and a sense of how to achieve all three by being good at communicating to their team
2. A strong belief in their team, which they make widely known to the team
3. A strong belief in the creativity of the team and encouragement to innovate
4. Genuinely available to listen, sensitive to negative emotions and attentive to issues for earliest resolution.
5. Open recognition of the inputs of every individual, and creating opportunities to play as per individuals’ strengths(they believe in celebrating success along with the team)
6. A safe environment for experimenting and trying things out with creativity and innovation while remaining humble
7. The quality to remain steadfast, strong, and consistent whatever the circumstances, thus instilling confidence and maintaining reliability

Leaders understand the fundamentals of successful leadership, which creates an enlightened following, and they recognize that true leaders are there to serve others, no more and no less.

6.3 Entrepreneurship

It is a matter of mindset and attitude for taking responsibility to achieve the desired outcomes and essentially a matter of courage to move out of one’s comfort zone. All the characteristics shown in Figure 6.1 add to the strengths of an entrepreneur.

Researchers agree that “at its core, it is a mindset—a way of thinking and acting. It is about imagining new ways to solve problems and create value.”

A professional entrepreneur may possess an internal desire and stamina to drive actions for value creation in an improved or different manner. Such superior energy is always needed to withstand challenges in progressing for desired outcomes particularly in highly challenging circumstances.

In a project-team context, a team member may desire and show confidence for taking a lead to complete a task and reach the desired outcomes in a different way. The challenge one faces convinces someone to give your idea a shot, especially the boss. It becomes easy when you are prepared to identify the problem and explain how your idea will be a perfect solution.

The bare minimum strength of entrepreneurship is to gain support with an ongoing learning process of the following topics in the back of your mind, sharpening your mind gradually; you must not lose your focus while improving yourself on the following:

1. Learning from Failure: Your own failure or that of others in the same field helps you stay away from getting into it.
2. Leadership: Self-development starts from self-leadership encompassing self-awareness, self-management, self-growth, and self-grooming.
3. Problem Solving: Find the best solution to an emerging problem before egos get into it. Negative emotions cropping up from any team member must be identified and addressed immediately as the loss it entails is tremendous.
4. Passion: There should be a clarity of purpose and the desire to make a meaningful difference in achieving values.
5. Resource Management: You may need to be comfortable to manage a variety of resources, from cash flow to vendors, partners and stakeholders. You may never have a perfectly well-oiled relationship to helm, but you may choose the right components and proactive measure to ensure your team members work well together.

   It demands time and diligence; both are in short supply in projects with important priorities. Most entrepreneurs find themselves often wishing they could somehow do resource management in an easier way.

6. Decision Making and Learning: Use pro/con-style analyses to find the most effective solutions and keep learning. You will always find yourself wanting to make decisions just a little bit better.
7. Healthy Work–Life Balance: It is difficult to strike a work–life balance easily on a project all through progression. The time demands of involvement vary in different phases. Unfortunately, there’s no solution that works for everybody, and there’s no strategy that can give you a perfect balance all at once. You need to work it out through effective delegation and team works.

None of these characteristics are simple, and may be learned through traditional means. You need to master these topics, experiencing them for yourself and finding your own unique ways of mastering them. You may have to experiment, find out what works and what doesn’t, and be un-intimidated by the fact that you’ll never be perfect at any of them.

Watch for the Negative Side As Well

Fearlessness, determination, self-reliance, persistence, and confidence, the very same things that propel entrepreneurs to greatness, may also hold them back. What determines whether those traits are assets or liabilities? It is all about moderation, as in all other things in life. Watch for the overdoing on any of the traits, which may be fatal for the team and for the end results. A cold glass of water may be a gift on a warm day, whereas a massive flood is never a good thing, no matter what the weather.

Project management challenges in implementing a unique project very often require team members to move out of their comfort zones. How to do it successfully is discussed in the following section.

6.4 The Science of Moving Out of Comfort Zone

The following text has been adapted from Henry(2013):

You’ve seen inspirational quotes that encourage you to get out and do something strange—something you wouldn’t normally do—but getting out of your routine just takes so much work. There’s actually a lot of science that explains why it’s so hard to break out of your comfort zone, and why it’s good for you when you do it. With a little understanding and a few adjustments, you can break away from your routine and do great things.

It’s important to push the boundaries of your comfort zone, and when you do, it’s kind of a big deal. But what is the “comfort zone” exactly? Why is it that we tend to get comfortable with the familiar and our routines, but when we’re introduced to new and interesting things, the glimmer fades so quickly? Finally, what benefit do we derive from breaking out of our comfort zone, and how do we do it? Answering those questions is a tall order, but it’s not too hard to do.

What You Get When You Break Free and Try New Things

Optimal anxiety is that place where your mental productivity and performance reach their peak. Still, “increased performance” and “enhanced productivity” just sound like “do more stuff.” What do you really get when you’re willing to step outside of your comfort zone?

• You’ll be more productive. Comfort kills productivity because without the sense of unease that comes from having deadlines and expectations, we tend to phone it in and do the minimum required to get by. We lose the drive and ambition to do more and learn new things. We also fall into the “work trap,” where we feign “busy” as a way to stay in our comfort zones and avoid doing new things. Pushing your personal boundaries can help you hit your stride sooner, get more done, and find smarter ways to work.
• You’ll have an easier time dealing with new and unexpected changes. In an article in the New York Times, Brené Brown, a research professor at the University of Houston, explains that one of the worst things we can do is pretend fear and uncertainty don’t exist. By taking risks in a controlled fashion and challenging yourself to things you normally wouldn’t do, you can experience some of that uncertainty in a controlled, manageable environment. Learning to live outside your comfort zone when you choose to can prep you for life changes that force you out of it.
• You’ll find it easier to push your boundaries in the future. Once you start stepping out of your comfort zone, it gets easier over time. This same NYT article explains that as you step out of your comfort zone, you’ll become accustomed to that state of optimal anxiety. “Productive discomfort,” as they call it, becomes more normal to you, and you’re willing to push farther before your performance falls off.
• You’ll find it easier to brainstorm and harness your creativity. This is a soft benefit, but it’s fairly common knowledge (and it’s easily reproducible) that seeking new experiences, learning new skills, and opening the door to new ideas inspire us and educate us in a way that little else does. Trying new things can make us reflect on our old ideas and where they clash with our new knowledge, and inspire us to learn more and challenge confirmation bias, our tendency to seek out only that information we already agree with. Even in the short term, a positively uncomfortable experience can help us brainstorm, see old problems in a new light, and tackle the challenges we face with new energy.

The benefits you get after stepping outside of your comfort zone can linger. There’s the overall self-improvement you get through the skills you’re learning, the new foods you’re trying, the new country you’re visiting, and the new job you’re interviewing for. There’s also the soft mental benefits you get from broadening your horizons.

How to Break Out of Your Comfort Zone?

Outside your comfort zone can be a good place to be, as long as you don’t tip the scales too far. It’s important to remember there’s a difference between the kind of controlled anxiety we’re talking about and the very real anxiety that many people struggle with every day. Everyone’s comfort zone is different, and what may expand your horizons may paralyze someone else. Remember, optimal anxiety can bring your best, but too much is a bad thing.

Here are some ways to break out (and by proxy, expand) your comfort zone without going too far:

• Do everyday things differently.
• Take your time making decisions. 
• Trust yourself and make snap decisions.
• Do it in small steps.

6.5 Improve Organizational Effectiveness Through Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership includes a vision for where you want the business to go and a passion to drive it. You must have solid integrity to inspire trust from members, and you must have—or develop—the people skills to encourage your members to work together to make the vision become a reality.

The heightened competitive markets businesses encounter in the global competition is managed through transformational leadership. Businesses demonstrate higher levels of performance and team-member satisfaction. When you wish to improve your performance, examine what you do in the context of what transformational leadership embodies.

Build organizational structures aligned with a project management framework, develop leadership for every level in the hierarchy, and collaborate to create powerful change. The leadership of a visionary manager revitalizes and reinvents the workplace by combining project management systems, best practices, and defined management skills. This offers the tools to energize team members and provides a way to share your passion for the business with your team members.

Transformational leadership is an energetic management style that allows charismatic leaders to motivate team members through various methods. Persistent transformational leadership can be its own form of motivation. Once you have the right transformational managers in place, you may begin to inspire and motivate others.

Transformational Leadership at Work

Transformational leaders are often charismatic individuals, “but are not as narcissistic as pure charismatic leaders, who succeed through a belief in themselves rather than a belief in others,” according to ChangingMinds.org. The successful transformational leader is on a moral mission and truly believes in the benefits of change. The selling of this vision never stops, and the followers receive constant encouragement to do their part. However, any sign that the leader manipulates the followers or has a hidden agenda will destroy the trust that is necessary for this style of leadership to be effective. When the followers see the mission itself as immoral or even trivial, they may rebel or simply cease to participate.

The important factors are as follows:

Communication Issues

The leader must continually reinforce the vision and must empower followers to do their utmost to achieve it. This requires close and frequent communication with followers to maintain a personal touch. Transformational leadership style meets the needs of followers to be an important part of something good that is bigger than they themselves are. To maintain enthusiasm, followers need frequent feedback on progress made and their part in it. A leader who fails to communicate will fail.

Negative Transformational Leadership

One needs to be mindful that transformational leadership is a sharp, but double-edged sword. It has a potential immoral and unethical dimension that could be exploited by an unscrupulous leader. The desired end results must be well defined to offer a transcendent vision. An example of negative transformational leadership was Jim Jones of the People’s Temple. He was charismatic and expressed a lofty vision that eventually led to the murder-suicide of over 800 followers in 1978, according to the PBS documentary, “Jonestown—The Life and Death of People’s Temple.”

Considerations

According to Transformational Leadership: Characteristics and Criticisms by Professor Iain Hay, “To bring about change, authentic transformational leadership fosters the model values of honesty, loyalty, and fairness, as well as the end values of justice, equality, and human rights.”

Two examples of authentic transformational leadership include Moses and Mahatma Gandhi. They both had a burning personal conviction that their goals for their nations were the right and best goals. They both communicated their zeal to their followers and, because of the strength of their convictions, were able to overcome the many obstacles they encountered, including the threat of injury and death. They inspired many thousands of followers to make heroic and self-sacrificing efforts toward the realization of their goals.

Driving Factors

Confidence

Transformational leaders tend to be visible to their team members. They work with the team, moving the members forward with inspirational words and actions. One of the lasting effects of this kind of management style is that team members begin to develop a stronger sense of confidence in the organization. Managers are seen as representatives who are overtly upbeat about the future and desired outcomes; the team members accept that as motivation and work harder to achieve the results.

Commitment

Team members inspired by transformational leaders find themselves desiring success. When pushing the team, they believe in success and take it personally. This amounts to a stronger sense of commitment from the team and has a direct positive effect on productivity and efficiency. Team members want to see the success that they hear about and it causes them to dedicate more time and effort to ensuring success.

Education

Transformational leaders often inspire team members, explaining how a member may improve performance through greater education and skills. They help team members to envision career success through further education and training. When team members see positive results from training and education, they become more dedicated to developing their own careers as outlined by the transformational leader.

Growth

Transformational leaders delegate responsibility to team members and assist in their career development. They believe in members benefiting through additional responsibility, according to Ronald E. Riggio, a professor at Claremont McKenna College who researches leadership issues.

Team members take on greater responsibility and become leaders themselves. Transformational leadership tends to prevail by involving the team in important decisions and showing confidence in their ability to make the right choices. This creates an ongoing managerial talent pool to choose from and allows growth.

Pitfalls

The drawbacks cannot be ignored in the enormous potential for change through transformational leadership. The approach is learnable; it takes a visionary personality to make. The transformational leader tends to see the big picture but may not be mindful of the details that it takes to get there. Not everyone on the team may buy into vision, and may prefer a known concept to an uncertain promise. Transformational leaders’ excessive enthusiasm may wear thin, because all team members do not move at the same pace.

Performance

It is based on the belief that each member of the team has valuable contributions to make. Transformational leaders plan their strategy to empower each member. Transformation means redefining the approach and culture and considers what will work for team. Reward team members’ good ideas, and empower them to develop those ideas.

Recognize the team member who is the best performer of the month, and show that appreciation with a certificate, a written note, or a gift card. Be sure to share your appreciation with all team members, and do away with perception that all the rewards may go to a few, to avoid resentfulness. Include everyone, combine the public recognition with one-on-one coaching to those who may improve with additional attention.

6.6 Principles of Transformational Leadership

The following text has been adapted from the article “7 Principles of Transformational Leadership” (2006):

Transformational leaders are true and trusted leaders. They apply the seven principles of transformational leadership to obtain a harmonious work atmosphere.

Simplification

The principle of simplification compels the transformational leader to speak in a clear and practical manner while articulating the direction for the team. The plan for each project must include more than what needs to be done. The desired end result is also vividly communicated. By knowing and effectively relaying what the project needs to transform into the anticipated result, you eliminate miscommunication and misunderstanding.

Motivation

Team players need motivation to perform at their best. Under the principle of motivation, you gain the agreement and commitment necessary to elevate your vision. By understanding your team’s likes and dislikes, you know what motivates and what doesn’t. For example, recognizing and applauding their accomplishments, providing training to increase their knowledge base, establishing a pleasant work environment, giving days off for performing, or providing weekly snacks may motivate team members to perform at the highest level.

Determination

Determination means having the tenacity to finish the race regardless of the hurdles that come your way. The principle of determination requires you to depend on your courage, stamina, strength, and perseverance to realize your vision. By displaying endurance, you show employees that hard work pays off in the end.

Mobilization

You need the right people to elevate your vision. Transformational leaders know how to assemble the appropriate team to get the job done. This includes enlisting, empowering and equipping qualified team leaders and other willing participants who do not have leadership roles. The transformational leader understands the importance of assigning tasks based on participants’ characteristics and abilities.

Preparation

The principle of preparation requires transformational leaders to be perennial students. You must have the introspective ability to keep learning about yourself, alone or with the assistance of others. To maintain a flourishing bond with your team members, you must always be prepared to nurture and support the relationship. This means looking outside yourself, concentrating on what’s best for the team, and transferring this energy to your teams to emulate the behavior.

Facilitation

The principle of facilitation requires you to provide your team with the proper learning tools to elevate the vision to its greatest height. Team members need stimulating work that challenges and expands their minds and facilitates the desire to keep learning. Transformational leaders recognize the principle and work toward improving team-members intellectuality.

Innovation

The business environment is inevitably changing. Under the principle of innovation, transformational leaders courageously recognize the need for change and initiate it accordingly. For example, innovation may include learning and adapting to an upgraded accounting system, or adjusting to a team member who has just been promoted to management. Transformational leaders effectively show members why the change is needed, how it will benefit them and the organization, and how to embrace it.

6.7 Create Inspirational Environment

Project management provides a working ground for creating change and offers ample opportunities for innovation and creativity in building processes piece by piece for incremental advancement to greater outcomes of projects and programs.

Inspiring your team to see the vision of the successes to come is vital. Make the team feel invested in the accomplishments of the organization. Whether everyone owns a piece of equity, or you operate on a bonus system, generating enthusiasm for the hard work you are all putting in is important. Being able to inspire your team is great for focusing on future goals, but it is also important for the current issues. When you are mired in work, morale is low, and energy levels are fading, recognize that everyone needs a break now and then. Acknowledge the work that everyone has dedicated and commend the team for their efforts. It is your job to keep spirits up, and that begins with an appreciation for hard work.

There are five steps for creating an inspirational workplace:

1. Assess team members for efficient work performance enhancement
2. Decide what your needs are to enhance performance
3. Find ways to bring out the best in team members
4. Leverage your talent by understanding your strengths
5. Be a leader—change happens when you change

How to Inspire

• Inspiration is a full-time effort, not something to be left for the annual company kickoff. Opportunities arise every day.
• Inspirational leaders are adept at making emotional connections with their team members.
• The word “together” is a powerful social cue to the brain—use it often.
• When team members make their own decisions, they are more dedicated to everything that follows.
• Team members who do not understand their roles become disengaged. Clarity is the key to success of the team and the organization.
• Trust is the foundation of all forms of influence other than coercion. Gain it and foster it.
• The most powerful trigger for high performance is recognition, not always money.

Leaders need to follow the “stairway to inspiration,” which includes some themes that need to be explored:

1. Industrial Advancement

   Every industry is advancing with improvements in methodologies, processes, materials, and technology. It is not only interesting to learn about the changes taking place but also helpful for incorporation into project when the need arises. The best way is to contribute and take part in continuing advancement through concerned institutes and associations.

2. Professional Advancement

   Each profession is advancing to cope with the changing needs of customers and business circumstances. Likewise, the project management profession is advancing with standards and practice guides to support practitioners. It is equally inspiring to stay abreast of these advancements and make use of knowledge at its first availability.

3. Philosophy

   There is such a wide variety to choose from, but it is usually better to start with the basics. Philosophy asks fundamental questions about the nature of everything around us and it is amazing how the classical philosophers asked the questions science is only now beginning to answer. At the individual level, developing a personal philosophy helps make sense of the confusion around us.

4. Biographies

   Reading biographies of great women and men is a wonderful way to be inspired. As opposed to autobiographies, these provide an external view, which can otherwise be lost. There are great historical characters as well as titans in the world of politics and business to help us along.

5. Fictions

   Getting lost in other dimensions and fantasies may take you out of mundane, day-to-day existence and into an exciting space. Action thrillers, netherworlds, romance, and science fiction all await curious minds.

   Caution: Do not forget to return to your routine life after the adventure is over.

6. Psychology

   “Why do you do what is that you do?” These and other questions are explored in the various branches of psychology that exist today. The origins of each movement are as fascinating as the body knowledge itself and the many experiments undertaken to prove or disprove theories about human behavior are insightful.

7. Humor

   How would you survive if you do not have the gift of laughter? From satire to cynicism, from tongue-in-cheek to high-brow, humor is the oxygen all need to survive in this mixed-up world. Humor denotes a very high level of intellect, as it is nonlinear and requires you to break many mental boundaries. Of course, the ability to laugh at one’s self is priceless. It is often said, “Leaders are readers.” Give yourself a boost by reading, and once hooked, pursue the habit for sheer joy of it.

Summary

Project management deals with unique projects that demand unique endeavors to stand up to challenges. That is managed through transformation. Ego is always a big issue. This chapter discussed how to deal with big ego and manage to keep it under control at workplace. Understanding the science of moving out of comfort zone is an underpinning factor, mandatory for advancement in leadership transformation and into entrepreneurship.

Principles of transformational leadership are the building blocks for organizational effectiveness.

References

Henry, A. 2013. “The Science of Breaking Out of Your Comfort Zone (and Why You Should).” https://lifehacker.com/the-science-of-breaking-out-of-your-comfort-zone-and-w-656426705

Riggio, R.E. “Cutting-Edge Leadership.” https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/cutting-edge-leadership

Humairah,. 2006. “7 Principles of Transformational Leadership.” https://theleadership.wordpress.com/2006/07/27/synergy/