ABSTRACT
This chapter offers transformational leadership principles and practices, and represents how one can overcome the challenges of transforming the disaster response system. Transformative leadership is a form of leadership that deals directly with effectuating fundamental change. Its application to the disaster response system could be useful. In essence, transformative leadership seeks to imbue an organization with a sense of vision and mission for the purpose of the organization. Transformational leadership requires that leaders begin to see other organizational members as being competent and capable of action. It is important that the governments and organizations involved understand that transforming the disaster response system is not something that is ever completed. The relationship between federal and state government can be conflictual, cooperative, or collaborative, depending upon the degree to which the two governments want to interact. National response framework and national incident management system hold promise as valuable instruments of collaboration.
