How do transformational leaders enhance the goal-setting process?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

As discussed in Chapter 14, transformational leaders use transactional leadership to set goals for their followers. However, transformational leaders add to the goal-setting process by inspiring followers as well as by offering them financial rewards for performance. As a result, transformational leadership augments, or increases, leaders’ overall effectiveness. Avolio (2011, p. 51) described several ways in which transformational leadership augments the goal-setting process. First, transformational leaders help followers see their short-term goals in terms of the bigger picture and the relevance of their goals to other employees, their organization, and their customers. Second, transformational leaders use challenging goals as a way to further develop their followers’ skills and abilities. Third, transformational leaders challenge basic assumptions about how the work is usually done, and as a result, they increase creativity and efficiency. Fourth, transformational leaders emphasize moral responsibilities and values and encourage followers to achieve their goals without compromising ethical standards. As the following paragraphs indicate, transformational leaders may also help followers agree on common goals.
When everyone on a team agrees about the importance of various goals, they have high goal importance congruence, or goal importance agreement. When team members disagree about priorities and about which goals are most important, they are not likely to work well together. Because transformational leaders are effective communicators, they can communicate their vision for the organization in a way that helps team members understand their top priorities. Transformational leaders develop organizational goals by working together with their followers; as a result, they build consensus the team goals and priorities.
A study by Colbert and her colleagues demonstrated how vital goal importance congruence is to top management teams and organizational performance (Colbert, Kristof-Brown, Bradley, & Barrick, 2008). They surveyed CEOs from 94 credit unions, along with 517 members of their top management teams. They found that CEOs who had a transformational leadership style were more likely to have top management teams with high goal importance congruence. In turn, this high goal importance congruence created higher organizational performance. In brief, their results looked like this:
Transformational Leadership ? Goal Importance Congruence? Organizational Performance