James McGregor Burns was responsible for introducing the concept of transformational leadership in 1978 (Alkahtani, 2015) . McGregor was of the idea that transformational leadership as an activity where " leaders and their followers raise one another to higher levels of morality and motivation " (Alkahtani, 2015) . Transformational leaders do not dictate their team members instead they motivate the team to work towards a similar organizational goal as well as inspire them to do better. Transformational leadership is better than other forms of leadership since the leaders using this style retain customers and employees of an organization as supported by (Yahaya & Ebrahim, 2016) . This is because the leaders put the organizations needs first before their personal needs. This way, the employees feel motivated and part of the company. Transformational leaders are able to implement and manage change in an organization since this style enables them to explain to the team the vision which the organization is introducing and why it is important (Yahaya & Ebrahim, 2016) . They are able to explain how the changes will bring improvements since they already trust the process. Additionally, transformational leaders are enthusiastic which motivates the morale of the team hence creating higher organizational productivity.
Transformational leadership supports continuous learning and growth (Yahaya & Ebrahim, 2016) . Transformational leaders always have a goal in attaining greater efficiency levels for their team and themselves. The leadership style enables them to be fully engage people in the process of learning and development. The leaders are able to create a positive organizational culture, prompt the employees’ intellect and offer individual support for leaning which in the end increases the performance of the team (Yahaya & Ebrahim, 2016) . This style of leadership does not involve use of coercion in that the leaders do not control their followers rather they use inspiration and motivation. They use peoples’ way of life to make change to the organizational culture which makes it easier for members to adopt the ethics and morals in their daily lives.
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Skills, Knowledge, Competencies and Traits of transformational leaders
A transformation leader needs to have a comprehensive vision of the goal to be achieved as explained by (Ali, Jangga, Ismail, Kamal & Ali, 2015) . He needs to possess good communication skills since the vision and how to achieve the goal needs to be explained to every member of the organization. A transformational leader needs to be self-motivated thus should develop their passion within themselves. Self-motivation and enthusiasm motivates other people in the organization. They need to have enough courage to take new risks, handle challenges and good decision making to achieve the desired vision. They are required to set standards for the organization that everyone should follow and communicate on how the standards are supposed to be performed in the entire organization (Ali, Jangga, Ismail, Kamal & Ali, 2015) .
A transformational leader should have the knowledge of the people in the organization through individual interactions. This makes people feel valued and will see the need to participate in achieving the company’s goal. It is important to know each team member on an individual level as supported by (Ali, Jangga, Ismail, Kamal & Ali, 2015) . They need to have wide range knowledge of the market and the industry that the company operates in so as to encourage innovations. A transformational leader is also required to have an understanding of what the organization offers so as to identify what needs to be improved or changed.
A transformational leader needs to keep their ego in check. This is because when people are given authority, most of them let their ego control them. Leaders using this style put the needs of the company before their personal needs. They should be ready to listen and agree to new ideas from team members. Transformational leaders create time to listen to their followers’ ideas and opinions of certain things and are able to take action based on their insights. Transformational leadership style requires a proactive leader when it comes to making decisions and taking risks that are essential to the growth of the organization. Generally, the leaders need to role models to the members in that they conduct themselves in accordance to the ethics of the organization as demonstrated by (Ali, Jangga, Ismail, Kamal & Ali, 2015) . The members are able to emulate the behavior of the leader whether positive or negative.
References
Alkahtani, A. (2015). The Influence of Leadership Styles on Organizational Commitment: The Moderating Effect of Emotional Intelligence. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.11114/bms.v2i1.1091
Ali, N., Jangga, R., Ismail, M., Kamal, S., & Ali, M. (2015). Influence of Leadership Styles in Creating Quality Work Culture. Procedia Economics And Finance , 31 , 161-169. doi: 10.1016/s2212-5671(15)01143-0
Yahaya, R., & Ebrahim, F. (2016). Leadership styles and organizational commitment: literature review. Journal Of Management Development , 35 (2), 190-216. doi: 10.1108/jmd-01-2015-0004 .
