The Transformational Leadership Model: How to Make Change Stick
The kick-off went well. The sponsor spoke with real conviction, and nobody pushed back. Six weeks later, three of your eleven teams are using the new process. The rest are still working the way they always have.
When that happens, the advice you hear is some version of "inspire them more." Tell the story better, bring more energy. It sounds reasonable, and it comes from a well-researched leadership model. But the researchers who built that model out saw inspiration as something that works on top of a solid base: people knowing what's expected of them and what they get for delivering it.
This article walks through what the transformational leadership model says, why inspiration alone rarely makes a change stick, and how to turn the model into steps your team can see.
Key Takeaways
- The model started with Burns and was built out by Bass. James MacGregor Burns described transforming leadership in 1978. Bernard Bass later developed the four components most articles list.
- The four components describe leaders. They don't tell leaders what to do. Bass built them to rate leaders, so they need to be turned into actions before they're useful.
- Inspiration adds to the basics instead of replacing them. Bass and Bruce Avolio argued the two approaches build on each other.
- Trust decides whether inspiration helps. Gartner's research found the inspirational approach works only when people already trust their organization to handle change well.
- Four questions show whether the basics are in place, and The Shift Method turns each one into something you can do this week.
Where the Model Comes From
Most articles list the four components and move on. Knowing where they came from explains why "be more inspiring" is such hard advice to follow.
Political scientist James MacGregor Burns introduced the idea in his 1978 book Leadership. He described two kinds of leaders. Transactional leaders work through exchange: people do the work, and they get something they value in return. Transformational leaders raise people's motivation and sense of purpose, and their own along with it. Burns wrote about political leaders, and his idea hadn't yet been tested in organizations.
Bernard M. Bass took the idea into organizations in Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectations (1985). The four components you've probably seen come from Bass's research: Idealized Influence, Inspirational Motivation, Intellectual Stimulation and Individualized Consideration. If you'd like to trace the history, this review of the Burns and Bass research lays it out.
Why the Four Are Hard to Act On
Bass and his colleagues measured these components with the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, a survey that rates leaders on each component. They were designed to describe how a leader comes across.
That's why feedback that uses their language can be frustrating. If someone tells you to "show more Inspirational Motivation," you know the goal but not the next step. The rest of this article turns each one into something you can do on Monday.
Your one small shift this week: Think about the last feedback you got on leading a change, such as "communicate more" or "get people to buy in." Write down one thing you would do differently in your next meeting if you followed that feedback.
Inspiration Works Best on Top of the Basics
Transformational leadership is often presented as the better alternative to transactional leadership. In that version, transactional leaders manage with rewards and deadlines, and transformational leaders inspire.
Bass saw it differently. A leader who is clear about what's expected and how it will be measured, and who also inspires people, should get more from a team than a leader who only sets expectations.
That changes the question to ask yourself. Instead of wondering whether you're inspiring enough, ask whether people know exactly what you're asking them to do.
What Trust Has to Do With It
Gartner's research adds a condition. In its July 2025 findings, Gartner reported that the inspirational approach works only when employees already trust their organization to handle change well. When people's trust in change is low, Gartner's model predicts healthy adoption for only one in four changes led by inspirational leaders. (Gartner, July 8, 2025)
So when trust is low, start with what people can count on: what's expected of them, by when, and who owns it. Then inspiration has something to build on.
In my 18 years as Senior Director of Learning and Development at a Fortune 500 company, I ran national rollouts that impacted thousands of employees and customers. I remember a national rollout for a regulatory change that had more leadership support than I'd ever seen, yet some groups still struggled to adopt it. We eventually realized that the change affected their work differently, and we hadn't clearly explained how to apply what we were teaching to what they actually needed to do day to day.
Four Questions to Answer Before You Inspire Anyone
Write a one-sentence answer to each question for the change you're leading:
- What will people do differently? Describe the work, not the goal. What do they stop doing, and what do they do instead?
- By when? Give a date. If you don't know it yet, give the date when you will.
- Who owns it? Name one person.
- How will we know it's working? Agree on the measure before launch, so everyone judges progress the same way.
If you can't answer all four yet, a more inspiring message won't make up for it. Start with the answers.
Your one small shift this week: Answer the four questions for one change you're leading. Share the answers you're sure of with your team, and tell them when you'll have the rest.
Turning the Four Components Into Steps With The Shift Method
Once the basics are in place, The Shift Method helps you put each component into practice. Its five steps are Identify, Question, Reframe, Vision and Act. Pick one change you're leading and work through the table, starting with the step that feels hardest.
| Shift Method step | What you're doing | Component it draws on | What to try |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identify | Find the belief that keeps the old way going | Individualized Consideration | Ask one team member, "What does the old way give you that the new way doesn't yet?" Write down the answer in their words. |
| Question | Check whether that belief still holds | Intellectual Stimulation | Bring it to the team as a real question: "Some of you have said the new process adds a step. Does it add one in your work?" Be ready for the answer to be yes. |
| Reframe | Turn the concern into something the plan can solve | Intellectual Stimulation | Treat the objection as a requirement, and tell people what you'll change to meet it. |
| Vision | Help people picture the change in an ordinary day | Inspirational Motivation | Describe a normal Tuesday after the change: what someone works on first, who they talk to, and what they no longer have to do. |
| Act | Follow through where people can see it | Idealized Influence | End each conversation with an owner and a date. Then do what you said you'd do, when you said you'd do it. |
Idealized Influence is paired with Act because, in Bass's model, it describes a leader people trust and want to follow. Day to day, you earn that by making your actions match your words, week after week.
Keeping the Change Going After the Launch
The real test of a change comes weeks later, when a deadline is close and the old way would be faster.
Two things keep it going. The first is practice inside the regular work, so people use the new way on real deadlines.
The second is time. In one study, volunteers each chose a simple daily habit around eating, drinking, or exercise and repeated it for 12 weeks. The people whose progress researchers could track closely, it took a median of 66 days for the habit to become about as automatic, (Lally et al., 2010, European Journal of Social Psychology). Changing how a team works is rarely that simple, so plan to support the change for months. Keep checking in, even after it starts to feel repetitive.
Where to Start
You don't need to become a different kind of leader. Start with the four questions, beginning with the one you're least sure how to answer. If that's the measure of success, agree on it now and share it with your team, even if you've already launched.
If you'd like help doing this across your organization, Feed Your Brain | Consulting works with leadership teams on changes like yours. For one practical idea each week, read The Rewire.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who created the transformational leadership model?
James MacGregor Burns introduced the idea of transforming leadership in his 1978 book Leadership. Bernard M. Bass developed it for organizations, starting with Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectations in 1985, and continued the work with Bruce Avolio. The four components come from Bass's work. The name "the Four I's" comes from a 1991 article by Bruce Avolio, David Waldman and Francis Yammarino.
What are the four components of transformational leadership?
Idealized Influence, Inspirational Motivation, Intellectual Stimulation and Individualized Consideration. Bass used them to rate leaders, so they describe good leadership rather than tell you what to do. The table in this article turns each one into an action.
Is transformational leadership better than transactional leadership?
Bass and Avolio argued the two build on each other. Knowing what's expected and how it will be measured gives people a stable base, and inspiration builds on it. For more on how running the work and leading people fit together, see Leadership vs. Management.
Why do changes stall even when the leader is inspiring?
Gartner's 2025 research offers one explanation: the inspirational approach works only when people already trust their organization to handle change well. When that trust is low, start with the basics. Make sure people know what's changing, by when, who owns it and how progress will be measured.
Is transformational leadership a personality trait?
It's mostly behavior you can practice. You show Idealized Influence when your actions match your words. You show Individualized Consideration when you ask one person a specific question and use what they tell you. Neither depends on being a natural speaker.
How long before a team's new way of working becomes automatic?
It varies. In one study of simple daily habits, the median was 66 days, and individual results ranged from 18 to 254 days. Changing how a team works is usually more involved than that, so plan to support the change for months.
About this article. Tiffany Whitney is a NeuroLeadership-trained brain-based coach with 18 years of Fortune 500 Learning & Development leadership, and Amazon bestselling co-author of Strength with Kathy Ireland. Statistics are cited to primary sources; where a figure comes from an organization's internal data rather than independent research, that is noted in the text. This article is for educational purposes and is not medical, psychological, or clinical advice.
