Transactional and Transformational Leadership, and High-Performance Teams: A Personal Journey Through Time

This time, I’d like to talk briefly about my own experience with the topic High-performance teams. How it all began for me, and what that has to do with Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Jenewein ↗ (external link, opens in a new tab) is involved in. I have highlighted Wolfgang on LinkedIn on several occasions and will be happy to draw on his wisdom time and again in this blog as well.

It was 2005, I was the works manager in Rutesheim, and our Coach, Dr. Gerhard Kettgen, introduced me to the The concept of high-performing teams and top-performing teams I familiarised myself with it. It was all still completely analogue back then – through one-to-one coaching, together with my team. YouTube didn’t exist yet, nor were there any major public debates on the subject. It was purely coaching work, step by step.

Ever since that moment with Kettgen’s support, my teams and I evolved towards new forms of leadership, high-performing teams and, at times, even world-class teams. And I write this quite deliberately: This is not an easy task, but a very difficult one – and at times a very emotional one – that involves working on ourselves. However, with the a clearly measurable result, that the Performance of the team whilst spending the same amount of time significantly increased will be! And all this whilst at the same time a significant increase in team members’ satisfaction. But I’ll be happy to say more about that in another post.

The next big moment was 2014, at an internal management event. There was already some video content online back then, but as for the Instance For me, at that very moment, Wolfgang Jenewein. In his presentation, he spoke – for the first time, as far as I was concerned – of transactional and transformational leadership, and suddenly I had a name for what I’d actually always been. At the time, I was plant manager in Charleston, working alongside a colleague on the management team who led in a very traditional, transactional style (which was the ‘normal’ leadership style back then), whilst I tend to be more of a transformational type. This contrast really brought home to me once again that, what I stand for: There actually was a Names for my (back then) a slightly different management style.

In the years that followed I mainly followed Wolfgang from afar, through his videos, whilst I was travelling abroad. I was enthusiastic spectator and user of what he taught, even though there was still no direct contact. As early as 2008, he had published a ‘proper’ book on the subject of high-performance teams, at a time when the term ‘high-performance team’ was still virtually unknown in German-speaking countries.

Direct contact then proved to be 2024 this led, ten years later, to my current role. That’s when I finally met Wolfgang in person, and I’ve enjoyed working with him time and again ever since.

So, when it comes to high-performing teams and leadership in German-speaking countries, in my view there’s no getting round Wolfgang Jenewein ↗ (external link, opens in a new tab) hardly at all. I once described him as the "Simon Sinek from Bavaria" is referred to as, and Simon Sinek ↗ (external link, opens in a new tab) can also confidently be described as the "American Wolfgang Jenewein".

For anyone wishing to explore these topics in greater depth, I recommend:

• His YouTube video library ↗ (external link, opens in a new tab) – there you will find well-researched and practical ideas.
• As Introduction this A 6-minute video by Wolfgang from 2013 ↗ (external link, opens in a new tab), which remains as relevant as ever.
• His A book on high-performance teams published in 2008 ↗ (external link, opens in a new tab), for anyone who wants to explore the subject in greater depth.

I look forward to our continued dialogue and our shared learning journey. Feel free to share your thoughts and comments on LinkedIn ↗ (external link, opens in a new tab).

Dr. Peter von Wartenberg (10.26)

Leading my team