Scripture

“Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds.” (Ephesians 4:22-23)

Thought

“Well Paul usually does what is in the best interest of Paul.”

I cringed when I heard a coworker share this comment about another leader in our organization. I cringed because here we can see in real time the effects of a transactional leader. You know the type, someone who is really just using the team or organization for their own gain. They are trying to advance their own cause or stature or income and everything else and everyone else is just in the way.

The truth is, transactional leaders make the work harder for everyone else. They become obstacles we have to work around on top of all the other obstacles on the way to our mission.

The question is, do you think they decided to be that way? Did they wake up and decide to be a transactional leader everyday? On the flip side, do transformational leaders decide everyday to be transformational? Think of a transformational leader who you admire. Do they just choose this leadership style?

I wish it were that easy. I wish we all could just declare “I decide to be transformational.” And to be honest, in the past that’s how I thought all this worked.

Now, I’m not so sure. If it were that easy, we would all decide to be transformational.

Instead, I believe whether someone is a transformational leader or a transactional leader is actually just an OVERFLOW of their lifestyle. It’s an overflow of the life we’re living, inside-out. The decisions aren’t as big as “decide what type of leader you want to be.” It’s actually made up of thousands of micro-decisions around deciding the type of life you want to live.

We don’t just get to declare what type of leader we want to be. We are the type of leader we are as a result of the lifestyle we live and the disciplines we commit to.

In our STC6 Framework we coach leaders on what we call the transformational disciplines.

1. Choose Discipline

2. Love More

3. Give Generously

We believe if a leader is implementing these practices into their life, they will lead from a more transformational posture.

If a leader chooses discipline in their physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and social parts of their life it sets the groundwork for a transformational impact.

If a leader decides to love more - both the good and the bad, the difficult parts of life and the difficult people in life they have a greater chance for transformational impact.

And if a leader decides to give generously. To lay down the organizational and career rat-race. To determine they aren’t going to jockey and compete but serve and lead instead they have a chance for transformational impact.

Everyone studying transformational leadership loves to rush to how a leader transforms a group or a culture or team. We’re all mesmerized by the end result.

At STC, we believe it starts with the decision to commit to a transformational lifestyle. We want leaders to lead the way in transformation before transforming their team or group.

It takes a great deal of courage to do this. It takes a lot of hard work and it’s much easier to just get mesmerized by the end results.

But that’s not what transformational leaders do. They decide the transformational lifestyle is worth leaping for. They know it’s worth the risk. They decide to not settle for just a “good” situation. They want the better option. They want to pursue a higher standard.