How do you develop transformational leadership in your managers?

Most L&D teams have been asked for it at some point: “we want our managers to be more transformational”. It’s a reasonable ask. The model is well researched and widely respected. The hard part is turning four abstract components into something a manager does differently next week, and then knowing whether they did.

Can transformational leadership be taught?

Yes. There is good field evidence, with real managers, that it can.

In a field experiment by Barling, Weber and Kelloway, 20 managers were randomly assigned to training or to a control group. The training was a one-day group session followed by four monthly one-to-one booster sessions. Afterwards, the people who worked for the trained managers saw them as more transformational, especially in how they encouraged new thinking, and reported higher commitment. Some of the branches’ financial results improved too. The sample was very small, so treat it as a strong signal rather than a guarantee.

Two later studies point the same way. Kelloway, Barling and Helleur found that both training and feedback raised how transformational staff saw their leader. Dvir and colleagues ran a randomised experiment with 54 military leaders: those given transformational leadership training had a more positive effect on their followers’ development and performance than those given other leadership training.

Notice who did the judging. In each case it was the people being led, not the managers themselves.

Why do one-off leadership workshops struggle?

Because the training that works is rarely a single event.

The Barling study didn’t rely on the workshop day. It added four months of individual follow-up. A meta-analysis of 335 leadership training samples by Lacerenza and colleagues found programmes were more effective when they included practice, feedback and sessions spaced over time, and were delivered on site.

A workshop can explain the four I’s in a morning. What it can’t do is be there the next time a team member brings an idea the manager doesn’t like. That moment is where the model either happens or doesn’t.

What should managers practise for each of the four I’s?

One behaviour at a time, chosen from the component that matters most for one working relationship. These are the behaviours that strengthen trust which line up with each component.

Inspirational motivation also needs something before any behaviour: a purpose the manager has actually worked out. Trust Leader puts it this way: purpose is the anchor, the Trust Map is the application, and practice builds the evidence. The accidental manager: what do you stand for? explains the Manifesto, a one-page statement of what a leader wants to achieve and how they intend to act.

Why does trust come into it? In one large study, transformational behaviours affected the extra effort people gave indirectly, through their trust in the leader. What is transformational leadership, and why does trust matter to it? covers that evidence.

What does a four-week practice plan look like?

Here is a plan a manager could start on Monday. It practises one behaviour with one person, and keeps the model as the reason.

Week 1: choose. Write one line on what you’re aiming for as a leader and why. Pick one person whose confidence matters to that aim. Decide which of the four I’s is weakest in how they experience you, and choose one behaviour from the table. Name three occasions in the next fortnight where you’ll use it.

Week 2: practise. Use the behaviour on the first two occasions. Straight after each one, write two lines: what you did, and what the other person did or said next.

Week 3: keep going. Use it on the third occasion and wherever else it applies with that person. Look back at your notes. Is anything in their response starting to change?

Week 4: review. Talk it through with whoever supports your development. Then ask the other person one direct question about the area you chose, such as “when you bring me an idea, do you feel it gets a fair hearing?” Keep the behaviour or choose the next one.

Using one behaviour is Trust Leader’s approach rather than a research finding. The reason is practical: with one change, you can tell afterwards what your part was.

How can L&D tell whether it’s working?

Be honest about what each kind of evidence can show.

What the leader writes down is the most available evidence and the weakest. Self-ratings, notes and reflections are the leader’s own view. They are dated and specific, which is far better than nothing, but they don’t show that anyone else noticed.

Better evidence comes from other people, which is what the field studies above relied on:

• Ratings from the people the manager leads, taken before the programme and again a few months after, on the components you are developing.
• A comparison group of managers who haven’t been through the programme yet, so you can tell the change apart from everything else going on.
• A colleague or the manager’s own line manager watching for the specific behaviour in real meetings.
• Business measures, used cautiously and alongside the people measures, because many things move them.

You won’t always manage all four. Even one second view, gathered before and after, turns a claim into something you can test.

Where does the Trust Leader Hub fit?

As the practice layer between your sessions, not a replacement for your programme.

The Self-Assessment asks how often, over the last 30 days, a leader did each of the 20 behaviours. It is a starting point in the leader’s own view. Three Purpose playlists take a leader through the questions behind their Manifesto. Each leader then uses a Trust Map to choose one relationship and one behaviour, works through short activities from a Behaviour Playlist, has at least two days to practise at work, and records a Reflection.

All of that is the leader’s own account. It gives you a dated record to bring into the next conversation, and the second view still comes from you. How it works shows the full journey, and Trust Leader for L&D teams explains how it fits around a programme.