The aim of this chapter is to respond to the emerging scholarship regarding first-time leaders and their situational and potential lifelong learning environment. While transformational leadership may be the long-term goal, this chapter explains how the process of other traditional leadership theories can help assess and build upon its effectiveness. In this regard, this chapter argues that transformational leadership can be conceptually understood through five other supporting leadership theories, namely behavioral, psychodynamic, situational, path-goal, and leader-member exchange. Thus, there are essential characteristics from traditional leadership theories and others that can help aspiring transformational first-time leaders. Through lifelong learning and development of these leadership approaches, culminating characteristics for aspiring transformational first-time leaders must include not only motivation and morality, but also care and concern for others.
TopBackground: Building Leaders As We Follow
The current aphorism, “build the plane as we fly it,” is a memorable expression that helps to describe the principle of acting in real-time, while figuring out the specifics at a later time, or even at the same time. This aphorism arguably describes the obvious feeling of first-time leaders. In fact, emotions, and feelings such as risk and uncertainty, are relevant to all leaders (including first-time leaders). Yet such feelings and emotions do not solely belong to the leader. It would be perilous to ignore the role that followers or fellow members play in the support of first-time leaders, which influences the overall action, feeling, emotion, and effectiveness of the leadership situation (Bryman, 2011).
For this reason, we propose a similar expression of “building leaders as we follow” to capture the collective role of leaders and their teams to make leaders effective and successful through the real-time process of development. To build leaders in this way, there must be attention given to lifelong learning (Yorks & Scott, 2014), or the continuous learning that helps build intelligence, confidence, and experience. Imagine how motivated a leader would be, if she knew that she had the full knowledge and support of her team and colleagues.
Some historical theories, such as trait theory, or the Lange-James theory of emotions, places the leader in isolation. Left with their own personal traits, characteristics, actions, and emotions, leaders must present themselves as sufficiently finished products. William James (1911) On vital reserves: The gospel of relaxation, gives an explanation about actions and emotions regarding what James describes as the psychological literature of Lange-James Theory:
“So to feel brave, act as if we were brave, use all our will to that end, and a courage-fit will very likely replace the fit of fear” (p. 45-46).
The general idea behind the Lange-James theory involves how the actions of the body precedes the emotion. Thus, the emotion is not a direct action, but only a reaction to how the body acts in that situation (Roeckelein, 2006).
In the context of first-time leaders, according to Lange-James theory, the leader should first act as a leader (fully formed, developed, and finished) and then later the emotions related to leadership, such as self-confidence, motivation, or even charisma would follow. The Lange-James aptly labeled, counterintuitive theory of emotions, has faced many criticisms (Cannon, 1927) and developments (Fiedler, 1978) relating to commonsense theory (Peters, Hartke, & Pohlmann, 1985). Commonsense theory of emotions simply suggests the notion that “we laugh because we're happy,” and not the counterintuitive theory that holds the opposite belief that “we're happy because we laugh” (Roeckelein, 2006). In the current scholarship and literature surrounding holistic, whole-person learning (Yorks & Kasl, 2002) emotions and feelings are internal sources of experience, learning, and leadership.