Aspirant Blog

Transformational Leadership: 7 Steps to Start the New Year Right

Written by Judy Johnson, Ph.D. | January 5, 2024

Successful leaders have a transformational leadership style that moves a company closer to its goals fast. These leaders know the new year is the perfect time to assess, adjust, and take a giant leap forward.

Transformational Leadership in 2024

Be the transformational leader that your company needs in order to grow and succeed. Here’s how to start the new year with a bang! 

  • Permeate and infuse company goals
  • Prioritize strategic initiatives
  • Activate your team
  • Adjust your leadership style for today’s workplace
  • Create a consistent employee experience
  • Upgrade your customer experience
  • Make sure your tech works for you

Transformational leaders move the needle by motivating, encouraging, and inspiring employees. They are a foundational component to successful change management

So how do you lead effectively? Seven steps to improve performance:

 

1. Cascade Goal, Objective, and KPI Alignment

It’s not enough to just set goals. For goals to be successful, they need to be well-defined and permeate every step and every level of a business or project. 

This means your goals, objectives, and KPIs must all be brought into alignment. Additionally, employees on all levels must be aware of and focused on the same goals. 

 

2. Prioritize Strategic Initiatives

Make strategic initiatives highly visible and easy to measure. Keep track of progress and don’t hesitate to make changes as you gather data. Empower project managers to do what is necessary to drive the visibility and success of these programs.

 

3. Organizational Design 

Transformational leaders understand that much of their success is based on their people. You absolutely must have the right people in the right roles if you want to really want to get your company or team ahead. 

You may have to make some tough decisions when honestly assessing your team. To be more comfortable making these decisions, it is imperative that you work closely with your human resources department to ensure there is a hiring plan to meet your needs. 

 

4. Provide Leadership for Today’s Workplace

Today’s employees expect open, transparent communication.  This is actually a great way to give employees responsibility and ownership in their job. This will allow for more accountability and positive reinforcement, which makes them feel valued as well as see that their contributions mean something. 

Through this type of rapport and being supportive of employees in their development efforts, you can greatly enhance your retention of your top employees without necessarily providing additional financial compensation. 

 

5. Create a Better Employee Experience 

Employees are happiest working for predictable and fair employers. You should partner with your human resources department to ensure a consistent and cohesive experience for every employee. 

To maintain a focus on achieving your desired goals, development plans, promotions, projects, and people all have to align to support strategically important actions. 

 

6. Fully Incorporate Your Customer Experience

You will want to keep updating your buyer persona and ideal customer profile to make sure you capitalize on every contact point and are providing products and services that customers want to buy.

All employees, even those who do not have forward-facing jobs, should be aware of how their jobs affect customers and the bottom line.

 

7. Tech Stack Review

Most businesses would be stopped dead in their tracks without the technologies they use from software to storage. Take an accounting of what you are using and whether or not it is really working for you. 

Consider whether your team would be more efficient if they had better software or other technologies. Make sure what you are using is what is best suited to your company’s goals and objectives. 

 

Learn Transformational Leadership

Transformational leaders keep people focused, engaged, and inspired throughout the change management process. These initiatives drive a company’s overarching strategy and make all the difference in achieving organizational goals. 

 

Thinking that stronger transformational leadership could make a serious impact for your organization? Reach out to our Organizational Effectiveness team by filling out the form below.