Between Transactional Leadership and Transformational Leadership

Alexander the Great was born in Macedonia in a Greek kingdom. As a kid, he was taught a variety of subjects such as government, philosophy, and poetry from Aristotle. Learning these subjects as a young child helped Alexander conquer nations later in his life. Alexander led his military into numerous victories and never accepted defeat once. Alexander defeated the Persians even while being outnumbered after he continued his victories in Afghanistan and India. Alexander the Great had a great behavior toward leadership, he led his military to many victories with a purpose and common stake which made him “team management.” He was people focused and focused on long-term goals making him a transformation leader. He carried the situational leadership trait due to his actions. And finally, Alexander contained many different adaptive leadership traits which resulted in him being such a successful man.

Alexander was a team manager because of his success in conquering and defeating countries. He accomplished the perfect military by having committed troops. He earned his followers trust and respect by showing them that the mission was not just about himself and provided self-care to his army. He did not tolerate raping, stealing, or using violence toward one another. This didn’t only make his army respect him as a leader, but it allowed each troop to respect one another. Alexander also allowed his men to believe in their own religion and had different religious groups. This was a cause of everyone building relationships and had a beneficial outcome of respect. He also demonstrated team manager leadership characteristics by being inspiring and addressing his troops to a problem before it was yet to happen. Alexander and his military were all on the same page and knew the main purpose, which was spreading the Greek culture.

Alexander the Great, in my opinion, was in between transactional leadership and transformational leadership. I say this because he was very task focused and success was awarded, but he was also very people focused and focused on long-term goals. However, Alexander was mostly a transformational leader in the end. He was a transformation leader for many reasons, one being that he was people focused. He would take care of his troops and be sure that they were well fed and healthy. He also would not allow rape, stealing, or violence with each other. He was also very inspiring, he knew by inspiring his troops and giving them the motivation needed that they would follow him. Alexander and his military were focused on long-term goals, which was conquering the middle east and spreading the Greek culture, he was also set on contacting the west and east to increase trade and sharing ideas. Alexander was able to develop relationships with the idea of free religion. He contained many great attributes which resulted in Alexander in being a transformational leader.

Alexander was a situation leader because he focused on two main things, Task behavior and relationship behavior. He developed a relationship with his men by putting himself through the same pain everyone else was going through. As an example, they were traveling through the desert and everyone was suffering from thirst. All the troops gathered the last of the water they had and gave it to Alexander. He got the water and threw it into the sand. He did this to show his men that he was going to suffer with them and he was going to go through the same pain as everyone else. This created a strong relationship and gave them confidence. He also provided emotional support to his men. He would always address the problem to his troops beforehand or before it escalated.

Alexander contained many different adaptive leadership characteristics. He was very confident in himself and in his military. While leading his troops into Persia he knew that they were outnumbered, and the odds were against him. But because he was confident in his army they pushed forward and resulted in a surprising victory. He was also very driven, Alexander had the will to conquer and defeat many different countries and spread the Greek culture. He showed tolerance by allowing his troops to have a freedom of religion. He demonstrated self-awareness because at times he knew that his army was outnumbered, and he was lacking men, but he knew they were stronger and more proficient than any other army. He was very much a risk taker because he insisted in traveling even while him and his men were hurting of thirst and hunger, also because he battled the Persians when he could have easily lost the battle because of the lack of troops compared to Persia. He was a great communicator and made sure everyone knew the plan and what was happening. By never losing a battle and always coming out with a victorious win he showed that he was tactically and technically proficient.

After all it is easy to see how Alexander the Great was one of the best leaders in history. He was proficient in leading his armies to countless victories and never allowing defeat to cross his path. He demonstrated the leader characteristics needed to become this successful. He was also very adaptive and didn’t let obstacles become an issue that most people would. Alexander wasn’t just known for his victories in conquering countries, but also known for taking care of his men and earning respect, this is what made Alexander the Great go down in history as one of the be military leaders this world has seen.

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