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Blog 02:
What is an effective leader?: Distinguishing leader types & approaches
Brad Colpitts
October 21, 2025
As part of an ongoing effort to communicate my research with a broader audience, and highlight the importance of educational leadership and scholarship on this topic, I am continuing to post semi-regular blogs. For an introduction to leadership theory, see my previous post: 01 A Leadership Primer.
Transformational and Transactional Leaders
When comparing disparate styles of leadership, the prevailing dichotomy is that of transformational and transactional approaches. Transformational leadership describes an approach whereby leaders inspire their teams - in academia, their faculty - to work towards a common goal (Amanchukwu et al., 2015). Conversely, transactional leadership implies the exchange of rewards or punishment for good or poor performance (Mahdinezhad et al., 2013).
Think of the last time you worked under a hands-off supervisor — did that motivate you? Most of us can recall leaders from our workplaces, communities, or the public sphere. This may be particularly relevant in an era of hyper partisanship, where rhetoric and hyperbole often trump sound leadership principles. A coherent framework allows us to compare and contrast different types of leaders and better understand the implications of differing leadership approaches.
The single most prominent framework for contrasting leadership is Bernard Bass’s (1985) Full Range Leadership Model. This model is not limited to the transformational-transactional dyad. While this contrast is foundational, Bass’s work extends the conversation by situating these styles along a continuum of engagement and effectiveness. In fact, transactional leadership is viewed more favorably in Bass’ model when contrasted with laissez-faire approaches. I found Kirkbride’s (2006) visualization of this model particularly beneficial, as reproduced in my own doctoral research. Many of the participants noted the framework helped them better articulate their ideas about in/effective leadership.
(Colpitts, 2022, p. 37, in case you’re interested):*1
The model ranges from passive, avoidant leadership (laissez-faire) to active, inspirational leadership (transformational), with several gradations in between. As we can see, the diagram suggests that a more active approach to leadership results in greater efficacy, from the perspective of Bass’ (extensive) research and expertise on the topic. While a management by exception (active) leader only takes action in advance of a problem, a management by exception (passive) leader acts after a problem has occurred. A laissez-faire approach to leadership reflects a leader who is largely absent from their duties and avoids interacting with groups within their organization (Hirtz et al., 2015).
I can think of a variety of leaders I have worked with throughout my academic career and beyond who have exemplified these various leadership typologies. I can say anecdotally Bass’ ideas align with my own career experience. However, my research also confirmed this model can be adopted, adapted and applied successfully in various contexts.
So what is the best approach to leadership?
There are myriad terms used to describe effective leadership approaches (adaptive, servant, authentic, organic, etc) championed by a countless number of different authors, academics and leadership consultants. However, I believe Bass’ framework is the simplest and clearest way to understand effective leadership approaches. In fact, there is an empirical argument that many of these conceptualizations of leadership are simple rebrandings of the original “transformational leadership” concept (Banks et al., 2016). There exists a tendency in the social sciences to overcomplicate sound frameworks by introducing new terminology to address a perceived dearth that wasn’t there to begin with.
Despite my earlier insistence that transformational leadership is most effective, leaders need to be able to use the full-range of styles to deal with a given situation. There may be instances when its best that a leader adopt a transactional approach or even more hands-off approach. The key to enable leaders to perform effectively is to provide them with the resources they need to succeed in these roles in the form of training, education, and mentorship. This will be particularly important as leaders in higher education (and other sectors) continue to face unprecedented challenges. In a future post, I will discuss systems leadership thinking and how leadership theory is evolving beyond the approaches of an individual towards how leaders enable systems and organizations (such as universities) to maximize their potential.
References
Amanchukwu, R. N., Stanley, G. J., & Ololube, N. P. (2015). A review of leadership theories, principles and styles and their relevance to educational management. Management, 5(1), 6-14. https://doi.org/10.5923/j.mm.20150501.02
Banks, G. C., McCauley, K. D., Gardner, W. L., & Guler, C. E. (2016). A meta-analytic review of authentic and transformational leadership: A test for redundancy. The Leadership Quarterly, 27(4), 634–652. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2016.02.006
Bass, B. M. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectations. Free Press.
Colpitts, B. D. (2023). Exploring the role of leadership in facilitating higher education internationalization in Japan: a mixed methods study. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2023.2267008
Colpitts, B. D. F. (2021). Leadership models for internationalising higher education institutions in Japan [Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary]. PRISM Repository. https://prism.ucalgary.ca. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/114080
Hirtz, P. D., Murray, S. L., & Riordan, C. A. (2015). The effects of leadership on quality. Engineering Management Journal, 19(1), 22-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/10429247.2007.11431718
Kirkbride, P. (2006). Developing transformational leaders: The Full Range Leadership Model in action. Industrial and Commercial Training, 38(1), 23-32. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197850610646016
Mahdinezhad, M., Bin Suandi, T., Bin Silong, A. D., & Binti Omar, Z. (2013). Transformational, transactional leadership styles and job performance of academic leaders. International Education Studies, 6(11), 29-34. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v6n11p29
Wang, A. (2025, October 17). Universities at a turning point in an era of AI insecurity. University World News. https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20251017122450925
Footnotes
From “Developing transformational leaders: The Full Range Leadership model in action” by F. Kirkbride, 2006,Industrial and Commercial Training, 38, 25. Copyright (2006) by Emerald Insight. Reprinted with permission.
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