From Transformational Leadership to Leadership Trans-Formations: A Critical Dialogic Perspective

Abstract

Noting overlaps between leadership and transformation processes, I outline a critical digital perspective that shifts focus from transformational leadership behaviors to how leadership “trans-formations” occur. Specifically, this article avers that naming particular identities, processes, and concepts by leaders and change participants enacts transformation. These three domains are “co-named” by leaders and participants in ongoing communicative sequences of acting/re-acting, attuned to the discursive flows and material conditions/actants shaping various contexts. I illustrate this framework via the U.S.-based climate change nonprofit 350.org and its founder Bill McKibben, focusing on how leaders or participants acquire and mobilize voice, organize in different forms, and how “new” forms intersect with traditional institutions. Implications for leadership, dialogue, and practical accomplishments of transformation are discussed.

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