Transformational leadership is a much used and widely misunderstood term. James MacGregor Burns, a respected scholar and authority on leadership, used it in 1978 to describe leaders who “engage with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality.” Together they shape a common purpose and use their respective power to achieve it. As they work towards this shared vision those involved discover and employ a more highly developed self. Many mis-use the term transformational leader to describe those who lead and achieve change although not necessarily on behalf of a higher moral purpose or in a way that lifts both leader and follower to a better self.

A leader’s ability to use the power of emotions is key to his/her success. Research on leadership shows that highly successful leaders have greater emotional competence than their less outstanding peers. Empathy – the ability to know and feel what others experience – is the foundation of emotional intelligence. Companies ranging from health care to high tech are realizing benefits to their bottom line by creating cultures that promote emotional intelligence in interactions with customers and employees.

Empowerment is a way to involve teams and team members as business partners in determining the degree of success that the company achieves. It makes more resources available to the company because it taps the knowledge, skills, experience, motivation and commitment of each person and of the team as a whole. Empowerment takes place in a context, most of which is set by the company’s senior leaders.

Leaders are challenged to guide their organizations towards what seems an unpredictable future in a rapidly changing global environment. The forces and patterns that create that future, however are emerging now and can be discerned. Leaders can avoid being victims of what is to come and instead exert more influence over it if when they use a systematic approach to strategic planning.

By supplementing the standard 360 process with the Triple Feedback Loop, it provides you with deeper and richer understanding of who you are as a leader, why people respond to you in certain ways, and what you need to do to be more effective.