The Great Man Theory of leadership may well have its origins with Aristotle. The famous philosopher is quoted as saying, “Men are marked out from the moment of birth to rule or be ruled.” (Levin & Turner, 2009). Heavily influenced by Galton’s study of the hereditary background of great men, the theory supports the notion that humans cannot develop talents that they do not have. It further suggests that no matter how much effort individuals exert in learning, they will not be successful, in their efforts to lead if they were not born with certain talents that could be nurtured and developed (Watson & Rosser, n.d.). Essays by Carlyle reinforced this belief that a leader was an individual who was born with certain unique qualities that allowed him to capture the imagination of the masses. This philosophy automatically excluded women and African Americans from leadership contention (Watson & Rosser, n.d.).
Transformational Leadership, on the other hand, is based on the assumption that people will follow a person who has passion and who can inspire them by creating a shared vision. Transformational leaders provide intellectual stimulation to the team and individualized support to staff, act as a symbol of practices and values that are viewed as professional, exemplify high performance expectations and create structures that foster collaboration in decision-making (Leithwood & Jantzi, 2006). Achieving these objectives can be as a result of developing a vision, selling the vision, finding the way forward and leading the charge (Levin & Turner, 2009). Each of these skills can be taught.
Employees who follow the “Great Man” may well be waiting for the “leader” to solve all problems, and answer all questions. Since the theory asserts that “Men are marked out from the moment of birth to rule or be ruled,” “Great Man” leaders tend to create a top-down environment, where those ruled wait for the ruler to dictate what needs to be done.
One approach to making the case for transformational leadership and to explain the expectations could be to share some of the successes of this approach. Transformational leadership creates cadres of leaders, thus empowering a larger percentage of the organization to make decisions and answer questions (Christie & Lingard, 2001). A study of schools in South Africa found that resilient schools were the ones where leadership moved beyond a single individual to a model where there was shared responsibility, and students and staff were influenced to support the work of the school. The study further found that this model did not diminish the role of the leader (Christie & Lingard, 2001).
