Transformative Leadership and the Unapologetic Leader

My poem, I Want an Unapologetic Leader, indicates a few of the qualities that I associate with transformative leaders–namely, open-mindedness, emotional intelligence, and integrity. Perhaps a transformative leader doesn’t need to like art, but some enthusiasm for confusion is necessary. In this age of increasing complexity and uncertainty, a leader must be flexible, ask questions, seek diverse viewpoints, and take risks to respond creatively in changeable circumstances (Montuori, 2010; Giulioni and Hendel-Giller, 2018). The ending of the poem explains the title, but it also speaks to an exceptional quality found in transformative leaders–the courage to change one’s mind.