The heart of transformational leadership is becoming a leader in a new way of working, leading sustainable change and innovation. It is about seeing and acting from a new perspective and is much about unlearning what no longer serves us, as it is about learning new ways. We keep and nourish the core values and traditions with an organisation, while giving up fears and limiting beliefs that prevent us from seeing where transformation needs to happen and growing beyond where we are now.
Transformational leaders actually do what others only speak about. This is a path of authenticity which requires us to change ourselves in order to change the organisation or system we belong to. Transformational leaders step outside of rigid hierarchical structures to cultivate and support participatory leadership, releasing the fear of giving up control and allowing others to step into leadership and something new to emerge.
Transformational leaders work with purpose, openness, curiosity and a passion for creative process. They make room for organic co-creation, while recognising the deep roots of an organisation, collaborative process or event. Any event, workshop, team coaching or intervention needs to be viewed from the larger lens of past, present, and future.
The events, processes and team trainings that I host allow for cross-disciplinary connections beyond silos. This is achieved by transforming the spaces where we gather, creating the conditions for new ways of relating. Together we take a transformational approach to every step of event production – from invitations, to venues, to participant interactions and feedback. By levelling and opening the field we create space for leadership to emerge from unobvious places.
Organisations often struggle to innovate within rigid or overly complicated structures that are serving out-dated purposes. Transformational leadership finds the elegant simplicity that can hold the complexity that is present when we gather in groups for collaborative work. Formats can be remarkably simple, but hold deep power and potential to bring about sustainable shifts. Processes animated by transformative leadership can create breathtaking results.
Transformational leadership is as much an internal practice as an external one. We begin with personal leadership, then come into co creation with others to finally together listen to the future that truly emerges. A degree of inner transformation must be present in order for the outer transformation to take place.
