Transformational Leadership
Transformational leadership is about being a role model and inspiring employees to take on new challenges in their work that align well with their strengths. A transformational style of leadership is a shift away from the transactional style that many leaders and employees have experienced.
Below you will find various learning activities to help you improve your transformational leadership skills, which are organized into the following themes:
- Introduction to transformational leadership
- Support and foster your employees' success
- Lead your team through change
- The qualities of a strategic leader
- The qualities of an inspiring leader
- Additional resources
Many of the following learning activities are informal, so don't forget to take credit for your learning by manually adding your activity to your learning history (DOCX, 91 KB) in Saba.
Introduction to transformational leadership
Short Videos
Transformational Leadership (English only)
This short video by MindTools will introduce you to the key characteristics of a transformational leader and the competencies and abilities that you need to become one.
- Duration:
- 3 minutes
- Methodology:
- video
- Course ID:
- n/a
Leadership Transformationnel – series of 4 short videos (French only)
This series of 4 short videos by Gilles Dufour will introduce you to the key characteristics of a transformational leader, and the competencies and abilities that you need to become one.
C'est quoi un Leader transformationnel (What is a transformational leader)
- Duration:
- 1 minute
- Methodology:
- video
- Course ID:
- n/a
Le leadership Transformationnel 1, c'est d'abord renforcer son charisme, et cela s'apprend! (Transformational leadership 1: it starts with strong charisma, and you can learn it!)
- Duration:
- 3 minutes
- Methodology:
- video
- Course ID:
- n/a
Le leader transformationnel 2, développez sa capacité à se challenger et à se remettre en cause! (Transformational leadership 2: develop your ability to challenge and doubt yourself!)
- Duration:
- 4 minutes
- Methodology:
- video
- Course ID:
- n/a
Le leadership Transformationnel 3, c'est renforcer sa bienveillance (Transformational leadership 3 : reinforce your goodwill)
- Duration:
- 3 minutes
- Methodology:
- video
- Course ID:
- n/a
Transformation Bites : Short lessons on Becoming a Digital Government
Going digital isn't just about digitalizing information and services. In this series, entrepreneur Alistair Croll will explain how digital is actually all about customization and simplification, the characteristics of the ideal innovation project team and the uncertainty and experimentation to expect in digital projects.
Transformation Bites: Easy is the key
- Duration:
- 5 minutes
- Methodology:
- video
- Course ID:
- 00053980
Transformation Bites: Hacker, hustler, designer, analyst
- Duration:
- 5 minutes
- Methodology:
- video
- Course ID:
- 00053982
Transformation Bites: MVPs, experiments, and the one metric that matters
- Duration:
- 5 minutes
- Methodology:
- video
- Course ID:
- 00053983
Transformational and Conscious Leadership
More than ever, in order to lead effectively, we need to think and act from a more conscious and systemic perspective.
In this course, you'll learn about:
- The definition of transformational leadership
- How to make fundamental shifts in how you think
- Duration:
- 90 minutes
- Methodology:
- Web-based
- Course ID:
- 00013339
Support and foster your employees' success
Recognition and Reward
This short video explains the psychological hazards of Recognition and Reward. It puts forward suggestions of conversation topics and methods for promoting a psychologically safe workplace.
- Duration:
- 3 minutes
- Methodology:
- Web-based
- Course ID:
- n/a
Motivating Your Employees
As a leader, your capacity for motivating is a key element in the success of your organization.
In this course, you'll learn about:
- Why motivating strategies are important to you as a leader
- Practical techniques for boosting motivation among employees in your organization
- Duration:
- 30 minutes
- Methodology:
- Web-based
- Class ID:
- G022
Gauging Your Organization's High-performing Potential
High-performance organizations are defined by a competitive edge but facilitating such an environment requires the right skillset.
In this course, you'll learn about:
- Assessing your organization's potential for high performance
- Applying performance measurement methods to your organization's strategies
- Duration:
- 30 minutes
- Methodology:
- Web-based
- Course ID:
- G016
Register Gauging Your Organization's High-performing Potential
Unleashing Personal and Team Creativity
With the right approach and techniques, leaders can participate in creating a safe space that allows everyone to share and contribute their ideas.
In this course, you'll learn about:
- Personal barriers to creativity and how to overcome them
- Key strategies to improve creativity at work
- Techniques to foster creativity in your team
- Duration:
- 30 minutes
- Methodology:
- Web-based
- Course ID:
- G027
Fostering Performance Through Work Engagement
Employee recognition can drive the achievement of our goals and sometimes it is the smallest forms of recognition that are the most meaningful to your employees.
In this course, you'll learn about:
- Challenges of employee recognition
- Winning strategies to recognizing your employees
- Duration:
- 1.5 hours
- Methodology:
- Web-based
- Course ID:
- 00063100
Mental Health: Building Meaningful Relationships with Your Employees to Promote Psychological Health
This conference will help managers develop good and adequate relationships with employees as a means to promote well-being.
In this course, you'll learn about:
- The benefits of a good relationship for employees, the team and themselves
- How to create an environment that helps maintain a good mental health
- How to maintain their own mental health
- How to give support to their employees while maintaining their professional relationships
- How to respond to mental health issues
- How to make mental health a common goal
- Duration:
- 90 minutes
- Methodology:
- Web-based
- Course ID:
- 10001041
Register for Building Meaningful Relationships with Your Employees to Promote Psychological Health
Coaching for Excellence
This online course helps supervisors, managers and functional specialists develop their leadership capacity through coaching.
In this course, you'll learn about:
- Key concepts of performance-based coaching
- Related tips and techniques
- Duration:
- 4 hours
- Methodology:
- Web-based
- Course ID:
- G406
Employee Engagement Through Transformational Leadership
A work environment that fosters engagement creates more efficiency when going through changes. This course uses a reflective and experiential approach.
In this course, you'll learn about:
- How to analyze and adjust your leadership style
- How transformational leadership can bring about positive changes in your organization
- A method to create a personal action plan
- Duration:
- 7.5 hours
- Methodology:
- Classroom – instructor led
- Course ID:
- G308
Register for Employee Engagement Through Transformational Leadership
Leading with Employees in Mind
Public service managers must learn new best practices in people management to lead with employees in mind.
In this course, you'll learn about:
- The idea of the "servant leader" and its application
- Communication and team building techniques
- Finding the right balance between your leadership responsibilities and your obligation to achieving results
- Duration:
- 15 hours
- Methodology:
- Classroom – instructor led
- Course ID:
- G306
Lead your team through change
As you learn more about specific training that will support you in being a transformational leader, you may be interested in developing your change management skills as well.
Leading Your Team Through Change
Change is not an event; it's a process. It's important to recognize that your role is to support individuals through the transition and remove obstacles that can hinder a smooth transition from one process to another.
In this course, you'll learn about:
- Types of resistance and obstacles to change and how to overcome them
- How to overcome barriers to introducing change at your organization.
- Effective approaches for communicating change.
- Duration:
- 30 minutes
- Methodology:
- Web-based
- Class ID:
- G021
Leading Through the Challenge of Change
Whether changes come in the form of personnel, organizational hierarchy, or processes, it is inevitable in the workplace. Leading change requires successful leaders to have a process for managing change, whatever its source.
In this course, you'll learn about:
- How to prepare for change
- The steps to follow through changes
- How to lead people through this process
- Duration:
- 70 minutes
- Methodology:
- Web-based
- Class ID:
- X165
Managing Change in Complex Times – for managers
As government works in an increasingly complex context, it is critical that public service managers develop the knowledge and competency to effectively implement transformations.
In this course, you'll learn about:
- Why complex environments are subject to change
- Key fundamental principles of managing change
- Key psychological levers for managing change
- The responsibility of public service managers to be an active advocate of change
- Duration:
- 15 hours
- Methodology:
- Classroom
- Class ID:
- E301
Register for Managing Change in Complex Times – for managers
The qualities of a strategic leader
As you progress in your transformational leadership training, you may be interested in developing your strategic thinking and service excellence skills.
The New Recipe for Transformational Projects: Replacing Risk Aversion with Continuous Learning
Citizens bring expectations from the private sector to each interaction they have with all levels of government. Alistair Croll – entrepreneur, Harvard lecturer and best-selling author – discusses how the public service's methods can and must adapt to this new reality.
In this course, you'll learn about:
- The digital shift surrounding you
- How you can move from inflexible plans to lean, iterative approaches
- How you can focus on the right metrics
- Duration:
- 90 minutes
- Methodology:
- Web-based
- Class ID:
- 00038872
Aligning Unit Goals and Imperatives
Getting your priorities straight, no matter your position within the organization, is about keeping a focus on your goals. It requires you to think about the bigger picture to ensure your department's work effectively supports the strategic objectives of your organization.
In this course, you'll learn about:
- the importance of setting strategic, tactical and operational goals
- how to create effective unit goals and align them with company goals
- how to identify imperatives for action that keep you focused on meeting your objectives
- Duration:
- 30 minutes
- Methodology:
- Web-based
- Class ID:
- G007
Communicating Vision to Your Employees
Leaders should strive to communicate vision with a sense of integrity, building trust as individuals and as leaders.
In this course, you'll learn about:
- A general introduction to vision communication
- Numerous techniques and methods used by leaders
- Making the organization's vision that of the employee
- Duration:
- 30 minutes
- Methodology:
- Web-based
- Class ID:
- C047
Leadership Advantage: Developing a Business Execution Culture 3.0
Developing a business execution culture challenges leaders.
In this course, you'll learn about:
- Developing a sound strategy for moving into the future
- Making sure the team around them is equipped to execute the strategy
- Creating an operating plan for people to follow
- Duration:
- 2 hours
- Methodology:
- Web-based
- Class ID:
- X015
Register for Leadership Advantage: Developing a Business Execution Culture 3.0
The qualities of an inspiring leader
Overcoming Your Own Unconscious Biases
We all have unconscious biases. Once you've accepted them, you can take steps to overcome them and embrace workplace diversity more fully.
In this course, you'll learn about:
- How to recognize and observe your own biases
- How to move past them and keep them in the past
- Duration:
- 30 minutes
- Methodology:
- Web-based
- Class ID:
- W006
Leading Through Positive Influence
An effective leader recognizes that organizational politics can provide positive ways to influence others to accomplish goals.
In this course, you'll learn about:
- Numerous methods and strategies for effectively influencing a team to accept your ideas.
- The importance of political awareness
- The essential skills involved in using positive politics and avoiding negative politics when persuading others.
- Methods for influencing effectively and ethically.
- Duration:
- 30 minutes
- Methodology:
- Web-based
- Class ID:
- G020
Becoming an Inspirational Leader
People are inspired when they trust their leaders and are mobilized by common goals. When you strive for inspirational leadership, you demonstrate credibility and create a community with a shared vision.
In this course, you'll learn about:
- The characteristics people look for in an inspiring leader
- Traits and behaviours that inspirational leaders exemplify
- The role of clear, credible, and persuasive messages in inspirational leadership
- Duration:
- 30 minutes
- Methodology:
- Web-based
- Class ID:
- G010
Developing Successful Coaching Relationships
Employees' success comes from solid coaching and leadership practices. Leaders must foster a culture conducive to coaching and be capable themselves of stepping into a coaching role when it's called for.
In this course, you'll learn about:
- Coaching techniques for building dynamic and purposeful relationships
- Duration:
- 1 hour
- Methodology:
- Web-based
- Class ID:
- X168
Additional Resources
Corporate Subscriptions
The Mouvement québécois de la qualité (MQQ) and Gartner are platforms to support leaders in their strategic functions through advice, research and tools. ESDC has a corporate subscription to these two platforms that allows you access to a host of articles, discussions and events. All you have to do is:
- Create an account (DOCX, 33 KB)
- Search their catalogue with the keywords "leadership", "engagement" and "vision".
The Mouvement québécois de la qualité is available in French only and Gartner provides resources primarily in English.
Be sure to browse the College@ESDC's complete offering on competencies that support transformation such as strategic thinking, change management, service excellence, and risk management.
If you have questions about these offerings, contact your Learning Coordinator (NCR) or your Learning Centre (regions).