Taken from Dr. Joseph Riggio's website at http://www.josephriggio.com/what_we_do/leadership-transformation/

Transformational leadership

This is not where we’re looking for incremental improvement as the measure of success ... instead we are looking for radical transformation. Of course we’re not looking for transformation for the sake of change, but rather transformation in regard to radical performance enhancement.

From our point of view performance is a function of matching intended outcomes to the actions and resources necessary to creating the specific outcomes intended. While the functional equation may be simple, i.e.: (f)Performance: Outcome ? Action + Resources Creating the intended outcome requires impeccable implementation and execution.

So we could say that the correct functional formula could be rewritten as:
(f)Performance: Intended Outcome ? Impeccable Action + Proper Resources

For a leader to act with impeccability requires that they are remarkably focused and clear within themselves. In our twenty plus years of working with senior executives we’ve found that this is as much a function of their ability to be self-reflexive and self-aware as any other single factor impacting their performance as leaders.

Leadership Timeframes

One of the unique aspects of leadership that we’ve uncovered in our proprietary research with elite leaders is the timeframes they work within.

Line supervisors are responsible for the immediate production of organizational results and therefore work in the immediate present, i.e.: what’s happening right now. Middle managers have a longer timeframe that extends out by quarters to a full year. They are responsible for producing the organizational results against a budget and may have P&L responsibility as well. Senior leaders are responsible for setting the organizational strategy and must organize their work in the future, sometimes decades out from where they are setting the organizational vision.

This unique requirement of senior leaders, i.e: to work in terms of a future that they may not be present to see unfold, is what we refer to as stepping into a position of “legacy leadership.” Transformational Leadership prepares leaders to assume a legacy position, preparing the organization for long-term success while keeping an eye on the short-term results that make their long-term planning possible.

Author's Bio: 

Dr. Joseph Riggio, is the architect and designer of the MythoSelf Process. He is the founder and president of Joseph Riggio International, and has been a trusted adviser to senior executives in Fortune 500 companies, entrepreneurs, business owners and professionals globally since 1990. Dr. Riggio holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration specializing in executivel decision-making and strategy. Joseph is a keynote speaker and author of the book “Towards A Theory of Transpersonal Decision-Making in Human Systems.” Joseph’s professional work has been referenced in numerous books, articles and professional papers. Has also held a faculty appointment as an adjunct professor in the prestigious Parsons Design + Management program at New School University in New York City. http://www.introtopower.com/