It is often seen that though organizations expend enormous resources into change initiatives, these seldom yield the desired returns. As succinctly put by Schaffer and Thompson (1992), “Most improvement efforts have as much impact on company performance as a rain dance has on the weather!” The most critical ingredient in any change effort is leadership, and managing change is fundamentally a people issue. Several leaders failed because they attempted to create change through intellect alone, without moving people emotionally (Goleman et al., 2002). This paper explores how a leader can overlay the four fundamental principles of transformational leadership as defined by Bass (1985), to the four stages of an individual’s experience during change as postulated by Janssen’s ‘Four-Room Apartment’ Model of Change. The paper discusses these stages in terms of the challenges that individuals face to their values and identity (Ethos), to their intellect (Logos) and their emotions (Pathos), and puts forward a suggested road map of behaviors and ideals that leaders must demonstrate to address each of these in order to bring about a successful change. A transformational style of leadership that is empathetic to the dynamic human mind must connect to the individual at a very personal and emotional level, appealing not only to his intellect, but also his emotions at the psychological level to initiate and sustain successful change in organizations.

In most cases, it is seen that though organizations expend enormous energies and resources into change initiatives, seldom do organizations yield the kind of returns from these change initiatives as was envisaged.

The most critical ingredient in any change effort is leadership, and managing change is fundamentally a people issue (Kotter, 1995; and Beer and Nohria, 2000; and Senge et al., 2004). Successful and effective leaders understand that organizations are complex systems involving human beings and hence any intervention needs are to be handled with human sensitivity apart from creating the required support systems and organizational infrastructure.

This paper attempts to overlay the essentials of Bass’s transformational leadership concepts with the milestones of the change process as described in Janssen’s ‘ Four- Room Apartment’ Model of Change. It attempts to give a route plan to a leader who wishes to create lasting transformational change in his team/organization. It aims to do so by helping him/her to trace the emotional, mental and existential journey taken by individuals during a change event, understand the essence of transformational leadership and then appropriately choose the actions that he must demonstrate at the different stages of change in order to facilitate the change process for individuals. The study of change and how it happens identifies ‘the source’ of the change, i.e.,.

Soft Skills Journal, Managing, Dimensions of Ethos, Pathos, Logos, Through Transformational, Leadership, values and identity (Ethos), Individualized Consideration (IC), Intellectual Stimulation (IS), Inspirational Motivation (IM), Idealized Influence (II)..