Leadership

Chapter 2 - Trait Approach

Northouse, 4th edition

 Overview
 Great Person Theories
 Historical Shifts in Trait Perspective
 What Traits Differentiate Leaders
From Nonleaders?
 How Does the Trait Approach Work?
 Great Person Theories
Trait Approach: one of the first systematic
attempts to study leadership

• “Great Man” Theories

(early 1900s)
– Focused on identifying
innate qualities and
characteristics possessed by
great social, political, &
military leaders
 Historical Shifts in Trait Perspective
Early 1900s 1930-50s 1970’s - Early 90s Today

Traits Interacting Revival of Critical Role of 5 Major

Great Man
With Situational Traits in Leader Leadership
Theories
Demands on Leaders Effectiveness Traits

• Research • Landmark Stogdill (1948) • Stogdill (1974) • Intelligence

focused study - analyzed and - Analyzed 163 new • Self-Confidence
on individual synthesized 124 trait studies studies • Determination
characteristics - Leadership with 1948 study findings • Integrity
that universally reconceptualized - Validated original study • Sociability
differentiated as a relationship between - 10 characteristics
leaders people in a social situation positively identified with
from nonleaders leadership
• Mann (1959) reviewed 1,400
Innate Qualities findings of personality and • Lord, DeVader, &
leadership in small groups Alliger (1986) meta-analysis
- Less emphasis on situations - Personality traits can be
- Suggested personality traits used to differentiate
could be used to discriminate leaders/nonleaders
leaders from nonleaders
• Kirkpatrick & Locke (1991)
- 6 traits make up the
Situations “Right Stuff” for leaders
Personality / Behaviors
 Leadership Traits
Studies of Leadership Traits and Characteristics
 Major Leadership Traits
Traits to possess or cultivate if one seeks to be
perceived by others as a leader:

• Intelligence – Intellectual ability including

verbal, perceptual, and reasoning capabilities
• Self-Confidence – Ability to be certain about
one’s competencies and skills
• Determination – The desire to get the job done
(i.e., initiative, persistence, dominance, drive)
 Major Leadership Traits
Traits to possess or cultivate if one seeks to be
perceived by others as a leader:

• Integrity – The quality of honesty and

trustworthiness
• Sociability – Leader’s inclination to seek out
pleasant social relationships
5-Factor Personality Model &
Leadership
Big Five Personality Factors
 5-Factor Personality Model & Leadership
Big Five & Leadership
Study using meta-analysis (Judge et al, 2002)
Results – a strong relationship between personality
traits and leadership
• Extraversion – factor most strongly associated with
leadership
– Most important trait of of effective leaders
• Conscientiousness – 2nd most related factor
• Neuroticism & Openness – next most related
– Neuroticism negatively associated to leadership
• Agreeableness – only weakly related to leadership
 Emotional Intelligence &
Leadership
Definition Underlying Premise
 Ability to perceive and:
– apply emotions to life’s • people who are
tasks more sensitive to
– reason/understand
their emotions &
emotions
– express emotions their impact on
– use emotions to others will be
facilitate thinking more effective
– manage emotions leaders
within oneself &
relationships
 How Does the Trait
Approach Work?

 Focus of Trait Approach

 Strengths
 Criticisms
 Application
 Focus of Trait Approach
Personality
Leader
Assessments
• Focuses exclusively • Organizations use personality
on leader assessments to find “Right”
– What traits leaders people
– Assumption - will increase
exhibit
organizational effectiveness
– Who has these – Specify characteristics/traits for
traits specific positions
• Personality assessment measures
for “fit”
• Instruments: LTQ, Myers Briggs
 Strengths
• Intuitively appealing
• Highlights leadership
– Perception that leaders
are different in that they component in the
possess special traits leadership process
– People “need” to view – Deeper level
leaders as gifted understanding of how
leader/personality related
• Credibility due to a
to leadership process
century of research
• Provides benchmarks for
support
what to look for in a
leader
 Criticisms
• Fails to delimit a • List of most important
definitive list of leadership traits is highly
leadership traits subjective
– Endless lists have – Much subjective experience &
emerged observations serve as basis for
identified leadership traits
• Doesn’t take into
account situational • Research fails to look at
effects traits in relationship to
– Leaders in one situation leadership outcomes
may not be leaders in • Not useful for training &
another situation
development
 Application
• Provides direction as to which traits are good
Leadership
to have if one aspires to a leadership position Traits
• Through various tests and questionnaires, • Intelligence
individuals can determine whether they have • Self-Confidence
the select leadership traits and can pinpoint • Determination
• Integrity
their strengths and weaknesses • Sociability
• Can be used by managers to assess where
they stand within their organization and what
is needed to strengthen their position