There are many kinds of leaders in the world today, including leaders who are transformational, inspirational and charismatic. Leadership is vital for disability culture, and for the well-being of persons with disabilities who might otherwise be left out of society. In this portion of my paper I approach leadership and disability.
Leadership which springs from within the realm of persons with disabilities helps us to work toward our visions, goals, and our ability to work with one another. There are several kinds of leaders in the world; charismatic leaders, rational leaders, transactional leaders, and many others. What we need, though, is a transformational leader who can take the roles of all other types of leaders upon themself and use them for the benefit of disabled persons. (Bass, 1998)
Transformational leaders lead people back toward reality and shared vision, enabling creative tension. They help others deal with stress, and can be inspirational, charismatic or transactional as needed. Transformational leaders are considerate of individuals while keeping shared vision in mind. They don’t use threats to get what they want out of people, they use various forms of leadership skills.
A transformational leader can see shared goals between people who are in conflict over an issue. She points out the fact that one person or group cannot get along without the other, and maintains the freedom each person or group has. She finds ways to build trust between people and groups in order to keep agreements. Transformational leaders build understanding of issues, so that people can better see what had been dividing them, and why it is not needed. Transformational leaders use encouragement and support in times of panic to redirect people toward shared vision. Charismatic transformational leaders maintain perspective when dealing with threats, even life-threatening ones. (Bass, 1998)
One of the skills that leaders in disability culture have is the ability to inspire followers. Inspirational leaders motivate followers by providing meaning and challenge. Inspirational leaders help followers to think about the morality involved in what they do. They bypass bureaucratic leadership, resulting in performance and commitment that go beyond what might have been expected. Inspirational leaders find their job most challenging when they are faced with reluctant followers, such as followers who don’t want to hear their message.
Inspirational leaders must have experience as well as moral sense in order to successfully lead followers. Inspirational leaders restate potential and help the environment they are in to move from potentially threatening positions into ones of opportunity. Inspirational leaders are emotionally strong persons who have experience in what they are leading others toward. Inspirational leaders also revise missions, outline goals and generate solutions to the problems of stress and disagreement. (Bass, 1998)
Leading people can involve charismatic leadership abilities. Charismatic leaders are skilled at providing leadership that helps followers to identify with them, and emulate them. They challenge and persuade followers by providing a meaning and understanding of what they are doing. Charismatic leaders are mentors who coach their followers in their ways. A charismatic leader is someone who catches your attention, someone you can respect for what she is doing, and someone you want to be like. A charismatic leader instills faith in a better future to followers, while promoting self-expression, self-consistency and self-evaluation.
Intellectual leaders are skilled at motivating and inspiring followers by providing meaning and challenge to them that stimulates them intellectually. An intellectual leader helps her followers to re-examine their assumptions, and work toward a clearer understanding of their pursuits. Intellectual leaders promote creativity in their followers, as well as self-reflection. (Bass, 1998)
Inspirational, charismatic and intellectual leaders are all examples of transformational leaders. Transformational leaders value several things, such as empowerment, diversity, social justice and interdependence. They listen to their follower’s intuitions, feelings and sense of humor. A transformational leader is comfortable with ambiguity and paradox, and is holistic in her outlook. Transformational leaders, according to Bernard Bass, author of “Transformational Leadership”, are leaders who “get followers to transcend their own self-interest for a greater cause”, and “alter the need level of followers…or expand their portfolio of needs and wants.”
Transformational leaders are skilled at organizing under stress, including the organization of followers, through vigilance. A transformational leader can help people with disabilities to work toward a vision of the future which is better, while helping all of us to live with the current negative aspects of life with a disability. Perhaps most importantly, a transformational leader knows when we have reached the point when we want to do things we are able to succeed at, and leaves us to do them, without interference. (Bass, 1998)
