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If great leadership were a paint-by-numbers exercise, great leaders would be more common
(Daniel Goleman).Introduction to inspirational leadership
What is leadership? A question that has been highly debated in the twenty-first century, yet no widely accepted definition or common consensus on how great leadership is defined has been found. In a contested discussion over the past two decades, a number of models have transpired which attempt to describe what makes a good leadership. In the following, the model of an inspirational leader is placed in context and contrasted with other leadership styles.
Bass (1990) distinguishes two different fundamental forms of leadership: transactional and transformational. Whereas transactional leadership would be based on mutual dependencies between leaders and followers, transformational leadership would rather create an atmosphere of commitment and motivation among followers (Mullins, 2006). A transformational leader would influence, motivate, stimulate and consider her/his followers through a shared vision, appealing to the followers' values (Higgs and Dulewicz, 2016). Hence, inspirational leadership is sometimes considered to be the part of transformational leadership.
Lee (2014) sees the concept of transformational leadership as ambiguous, and argues that inspirational leadership would be more effective in practical terms. Furthermore, it is called into question how the effectiveness of transformational leadership can be unambiguously explained and measured (Lee, 2014). While authentic leadership has been found to be strongly correlated with transformational leadership, Banks et al. (2016) found distinct foci in which the two concepts differ. According to Avolio (2010), a leader is authentic when he/she is transparent, self-aware, with a clear moral centre, taking fair decisions. Encouraging openness and accepting followers' input are also considered characteristics of authentic leadership (Higgs and Dulewicz, 2016), which are also attributed to an inspirational leader (Banks et al. , 2016).
The concept of charismatic leaders is less criticised, though closely linked to transformational leadership (Lee, 2014; Higgs and Dulewicz, 2016). The two dimensions of transformational leadership, idealised influence and inspirational motivation, are together considered similar to charismatic leadership (Arnold and Connelly, 2013). Others use charismatic leadership synonymously with inspirational leadership (Mullins, 2006). Avolio (2010) sees the main difference between transformational and charismatic leadership in how followers are developed to become leaders. Yukl (1999) concurs that the developing and empowering aspects of transformational leadership would make followers...