Has someone ever been in a situation where a supervisor subjects them to work for many hours and days and yet the people feel recharged and energized?

This supervisor might be what the contemporary management thinkers call a transformational leader.That is a kind of leadership that some of the African intellectuals, academics and politicians , think could be more useful to addressing a number of developmental challenges facing African governments.

Speaking at the opening of the 2011 United Nations and Africa Public service forum that took place in Dar es Salaam last week, the premier reiterated the need for quality public leadership as a requisite to promote socio-economic development in Africa,

"The current state of the world is characterized by serious endemic maladies and flaws. These are consequences of poor leadership and ineffective systems of Public Administration in both the public and the private sector," remarked the premier. Mr Pinda called upon the governments and non-state actors to refrain from 'transactional' leadership approach and on the contrary, embrace 'transformational leadership' for the sustainable development of the continent.

"It is a fact that responsible and accountable governments are not God-given and they do not come by chance. But they are products of transformative and committed political leadership and effective public administration systems," he said. The transactional leadership style was first described by a management thinker known as Max Weber in 1947 and again by Bernard M. Bass in 1981.

Transactional leaders are on the opposite leadership theory spectrum relative to transformational leaders. The former depends on a system of rewards and punishments, while the latter takes advantage of internal motivations.

It is also important to note that the transactional leadership theory, developed by Weber and Bass later, became part of a three style model: Transformational, transactional and laissez faire. At organizational level, for example, a transactional leader is the one who heavily relies on standard forms of inducement, reward, punishment and sanctions to control followers. In most cases, such kinds of leaders provide scant room for people's participation in decision making.

The concept of transformational leadership was initially introduced by leadership expert and presidential biographer James MacGregor Burns. According to Burns, transformational leadership can be seen when "leaders and followers help each other to advance to a higher level of moral and motivation." Through the strength of their vision and personality, transformational leaders are able to inspire followers to change expectations, perceptions, behaviours and motivate them to work towards common goals.

Experts say the transformational leadership is the administration style that leads to positive changes in those who follow. Transformational leaders are generally energetic, enthusiastic and passionate. Not only are these leaders concerned and involved in the process; they are also focused on helping every member of the group succeed as well.

Writing on transformative leadership Bernard M. Bass stated "A transformative leader recognizes and exploits an existing need or demand of a potential follower (and) looks for potential motives in followers, seeks to satisfy higher needs and engages the full person of the follower." The leader who recognizes the transactional needs in potential followers "but tends to go further, seeking to arouse and satisfy higher needs, engage the full person of the follower to a higher level of need according to Maslow's hierarchy of needs."

As explained by Bass: "the transactional leaders work within the organizational culture as it exists and they are capable of changing the organizational culture for betterment. According to one author, Kendra Cherry transformational leadership is a type of leadership style that leads to positive changes in those who follow. "Transformational leaders are generally energetic, enthusiastic and passionate. Not only are these leaders concerned and involved in the process; they are also focused on helping every member of the group succeed as well," says the author.

Researcher Bernard Bass expanded upon Burns original ideas to develop what is today referred to as Bass' Transformational Leadership theory. According to Bass, transformational leadership can be defined based on the impact that it has on followers. Transformational leaders, Bass suggested, garner trust, respect and admiration from their followers.

Bass also suggested four different components of transformational leadership. These include, intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, inspirational motivation and idealized influence. Intellectual stimulation refer to leaders not only to challenge the status quo; they also encourage creativity among followers. The leader encourages followers to explore new ways of doing things and new opportunities to learn. Inspirational motivation refers to leaders who have a clear vision on what they are able to articulate to followers. These leaders are also capable of helping followers experience the same passion and motivation to fulfil their goals.

Steven Covey, the author of 'Seven Habits of Highly Successful People' wrote regarding the concept and practices associated with transformational leadership as "The goal of transformational leadership is to transform people and organizations in literal sense, change them in mind and heart, enlarge vision, insight and understanding, clarify purposes, make behaviour congruent with beliefs, principles or values and bring about changes that are permanent, self perpetuating and momentum building."

The Chairperson of Africa ministers of Public service Dalmas Otieno Anyango observed during the meeting that the most important principle for transformational leadership is for leaders to demonstrate genuine concern and care for their subordinates and treat them as unique, valuable individuals, "This caring is unconditional and bestowed without regard to whether people deserve or desire it.

Every person in the organization is valued for his or her uniqueness, is accorded respect and dignity and given the opportunity to make a contribution-no matter how small," says Mr Anyango. Prime Minister Pinda says that the discourse on leadership has been around for thousands of years and continues to evolve.

"As you grapple with the deliberations on transformative leadership for responsive and efficacious public administration through innovations in governance, you need to understand there are convergences in interpretative criteria of transformational leadership style," he noted.

The criteria, he cited include, among other things, the need for leaders to provide a clear vision and communicate it to the followers (citizens or organizational members), empower people and pay attention to the socio-economic development of the entire population. Mr Pinda is of the opinion that nobody is born with required traits and competencies required of a transformational leader and what happens is, "Potential transformational leaders are identified and groomed, they are continuously trained, empowered and nurtured," he added.

Mr Anyango says that transformational leaders require equally transformed and modernized systems and processes in public service administration in order to make any significant improvement to people's lives in respective areas.

"If we can create a streamlined, efficient public sector that delivers better service with fewer direct resources, we could slice billions of dollars of public spending and add significant value to our economies," he added.