Modern Leadership Views

  James MacGregor Burns is a well known and respected author on the topic of leadership and has written a Pulitzer Prize winning biography on Franklin D. Roosevelt.  When he views leadership, he spurns the commonly held notions that a leader is someone who influences a follower to do what they would otherwise not choose (Wren, 1995).  Instead, he suggests that leaders help motivate followers towards certain goals that are representative of values that both the leader and the follower hold.  This creates an inseparable bond between the leader and follower and their combined goals and aspirations.  The common goal that is being strived for is representative of both parties values and aspirations and not simply the leader's.  Here, Burns suggests two different forms of leadership: transactional leadership and transforming leadership.  Transaction leadership involves the exchange of valued things with both parties recognizing the humanness of the other but not attempting to continue a pursuit of higher purpose.  Inversely, transforming leadership involves the interaction or engagement of two parties that results in the raising to higher levels of motivation and morality.  This is still possible to occur in conjunction with the practical achievement of a shared goal.
  Nadler and Tushman look at the "Charismatic Leader" who could embody characteristics of the transactional or transformational leader though by definition would be more plausibly seen as a transformational leader.  The charismatic leader is seen exhibiting a "special quality that enables the leader to mobilize and sustain activity within an organization through specific personal actions combined with perceived personal characteristics" (Wren, 1995, p. 108).  This is an interesting definition because so much of it is dependent upon public perception instead of reality.  Through the characteristics of the charismatic leader, they are more equipped to be able to bring about transformation in their followers and lead the collective to a greater level of success.  The authors then proceed to list out some of the potential pitfalls experienced by charismatic leaders and their followers.  In closing, Nadler and Tushman introduce instrumental leadership as leadership style designed to bring to reality the vision given from charismatic leaders.  They suggest that instrumental leadership is vitally important to charismatic leadership and in fact, they are interdependent for success.  
  The example I have read about that embodies the transformational leader as well as aspects of both the charismatic and instrumental leadership styles is Darwin Smith, CEO of Kimberly-Clark.  His story was detailed in Good to Great (Collins, 2001) and was a model for how to apply leadership to daily life in the here and now.  Smith embodied the ability to show personal humility while exerting fantastic professional will and this carries itself out to into my future profession.  I am immensely confident that I will not be the best in the world in whatever I choose to do with my professional life so humility in it will come easily enough.  But the ability to transform the environment I find myself will require a great deal of will in the endeavor.  As I place a final stamp on my college career, I hope that I find the will and strength to imprint my impact on the environments I have found myself in these four years.  

Collins, J (2001) Good to Great. New York: Harper Collins Publishers
Wren, J (1995) A Leader's Companion. New York: The Free Press