Transformational Leader ProfileEssay Preview: Transformational Leader ProfileReport this essayIntroductionLeadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent (Clark, 1997). Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership attributes, such as beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and skills. Bass (1989 & 1990) theory of leadership states that there are three basic ways to explain how people become leaders. These theories are; some personality traits may lead people naturally into leadership roles. This is the Trait Theory; a crisis or important event may cause a person to rise to the occasion, which brings out extraordinary leadership qualities in an ordinary person. This is the Great Events Theory; people can choose to become leaders. People can learn leadership skills. The basis of good leadership is honorable character and selfless service to the organization. This is the Transformational Leadership Theory. It is the most widely accepted theory today and the premise on which this assignment is based.
The purpose of this paper is to profile the most important leadership role model in my life–someone I have known and have observed for years. Dave Nastase, The President of Federal Enterprise Solutions (FES), Northrop Grumman Information Technology, from my organization has been selected for this assignment. This topic will not be used for my own Research Study topic, however the research involved will narrow my search for a topic
Transformational Leader ProfileOne afternoon after lunch I was sitting in my cubicle pondering over some issues concerning our project. Surprisingly enough, I received an email that read, thank you all again for all of your outstanding contributions, signed Dave Nastase, your FES President. Right away, I became seriously relieved and jumped with amazement and shouted, “What a leader!” Dave Nastase has been with Northrop Grumman for over fifteen years and just few months ago, he was promoted to the IT Federal Enterprise Solutions (FES) President. Many employees thought some executive members who have been with the organization longer than Dave, should have been selected for the position, but to everyones amazement, Dave was selected, and why? Well, lets find out.
I was taken aback. In short, when I received the new FES President, he is an absolute professional with a huge range of managerial experience, both at Northrop and elsewhere, the experience of what I spent three years doing for the company before it took over. As a part of the job, he could provide a detailed analysis on every major decision to go through that made the decision we made possible. For instance, let me just add that he did not have an absolute understanding of the team that we needed and he, as CEO of FES, did not know what was best for our job, and if anything, I also don’t think he was aware of the fact that the entire team was working on a project for which, even as he said on our Facebook page, there was no way to implement it, so he was no longer there. When we were finally introduced to him, he gave an impassioned response and said his new position was to be a FES President. But, I guess you could say, because of his experience, it was a bit of a shock, especially coming to see that many staff didn’t come into work even just a month after he announced that he was being let go. (Yes, as a former FES CEO!)
With Dave Nastase in charge of our project, we were able to implement the core idea of making the Internet a sustainable, efficient and socially responsible thing for millions of people everywhere. Of course, this plan, however, has caused a lot of problems for others throughout the organization, like people who don’t understand how computers work, who sometimes use Windows, and many people who believe that their life is all about the Internet. For those that have not seen or heard about FES, there is very good news, and I think it reflects the success of the project as well. You are one of the few organizations that has a great work attitude toward our Internet, and I would like to thank you for your tremendous work experience and your leadership in our organization. I look forward to being able to take the next step here.
This project is our attempt to get back to work, in part because, as you put it, we are “a project unto ourselves, and nothing we can do for it shall ever come to pass unless we work hard and diligently.” How we will do that is our priority and I will not do anything else about it. What we will do is try to get to what we really believe in: innovation and we will find the answers.
As part of these efforts, while you are in your office, I would like to say thank you to all of the members of staff who helped to create a great website, so we are at a point where we can truly support something big, and that’s about it. In addition, to everyone else who has already contributed to the website, it is important to remind you that FES is not “for profit” and it does not require any money from anyone. We value our employees, friends
Personally, I have worked with Dave Nastase for four years, and his leadership style is what Weiskittel (1999) refers to as transformational which talks about his involvement in coordinating and integrating activities in the organization. As Bass (1997) proposes, regardless of culture, transformational leaders inspire followers to transcend their own self-interests for the good of the group or organization. Dave is a true leader who is always looking for any opportunities to increase production. He does not set goals for nothing; he utilizes all the resources at his disposal to reach the goals. He joined the company as a System Engineer, and right from day one, he proved to the management that he had the capabilities to be a future leader for the organization. He portrayed the behaviors of a leader full of ideas that would be useful to the organization. His leadership behaviors in the team included coaching, training, telling, demonstrating, and supporting. His hard work coupled with his leadership roles in the organization, paid off within a short time. He became Systems Engineering Manager, and was transferred to Merrifield Virginia office to continue his work on the IRS projects.
On the IRS projects, Dave continued to set great expectations; he initially mobilized all the resources available and began working towards his goal and objectives. Working in coordination with his subordinates he developed his strategies that led him to achieve all his goals within the first year of the project. He utilized the three components of Capezio and Morehouse (1997) model: action, influence and motivation. With all these three components fused together in Daves leadership role within the IRS project, he became a hero for NGIT. As Capezio and Morehouse explains, this kind of model describes self-directed leadership, self-responsible for leading and following the right decisions, listening and responding to the needs of others and building alliances to sustain the processes of action, influence and motivation. Leadership is about relationship (DePree, 1989). It is dynamic, using resources, changing with grace, and trusting and knowing what you dont know. Dave Nastase has developed his leadership skills to a degree where he now values assets and respects legacy, creating momentum and being effective and serving the members and the organization in general. Daves leadership as DePree suggests, is related to stewardship, which is watching over and guiding the health and welfare of an organization and its members.
Before this big promotion, Dave was selected to be NGITs Program Director in charge of Government contracts within the DC metro area. As far as I know Dave, he is peoples person; his transformational leadership ability is beyond description. As a transformational leader, Dave induces additional effort by further sharply increasing subordinate confidence and by elevating the value of outcomes for the subordinates (Bass 1985, p.22). He is that type of a leader who encourages subordinates, takes their work related problems as his and resolves them, he is easy to approach, and he communicates effectively, and makes sure subordinates are fully compensated. In 2002, the project I was working on was cut short for insufficient funds; I was asked to look for another job some where else. It was Daves decision that put me back on another project within the organization. He saw the enthusiasm in me and encouraged me to continue the hard work; and through his constant motivation I have survived until this day within Northrop Grumman organization. He is always present in our quarterly meetings where he shares his goals and objectives with us. He motivates by rewarding and recognizes employees with high performance. He is always there when we need him; he listens to our views and ideas and never jumps into conclusions. He is customer oriented, continuous improvement driven, and very result oriented.
Visionary, inspiring and daring are words that describe Daves transformational leadership style. He is that person who has the ability to revive failing companies. Northrop Grumman nearly lost the IRS contract to Computer Science Corporation (CSC) a few years ago. It was through Daves initiatives, hard work, persistence and use of effective strategies that put the project back on our plate. He has lofty goals and high ideals; we see him as a person with high integrity. Looking