LEADERSHIP
NORTHOUSE
Trait Approach
Chapter 2
Overview
Great Person Theories
Historical Shifts in Trait Perspective
What Traits Differentiate Leaders From Non-leaders?
How Does the Trait Approach Work?
Ohio State Studies
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, and military leaders
Historical Shifts in Trait Perspective
Early 1900s 1930-50s 1970s - Early 90s Today
Traits Interacting With Revival of Critical Role of 5 Major
Great Man Theories
Situational Demands on Leaders Traits in Leader Effectiveness Leadership Traits
•Research focused • Landmark Stogdill (1948) • Stogdill (1974) • Intelligence
on individual study - analyzed and - Analyzed 163 new studies • Self-Confidence
characteristics synthesized 124 trait studies with 1948 study findings • Determination
that universally - Leadership - Validated original study • Integrity
differentiated reconceptualized - 10 characteristics • Sociability
leaders as a relationship between positively identified with
from nonleaders people in a social situation leadership
• Mann (1959) reviewed 1,400 • Lord, DeVader, & Alliger
Innate Qualities findings of personality and (1986) meta-analysis
leadership in small groups - Personality traits can be
- Less emphasis on situations used to differentiate
- Suggested personality traits leaders/nonleaders
could be used to discriminate • Kirkpatrick & Locke (1991)
leaders from nonleaders
- 6 traits make up the
“Right Stuff” for leaders
Situations Personality / Behaviors
5
Major Leadership Traits
Traits to possess or cultivate if one seeks to be perceived by others as a
leader:
Intelligence--Verbal, perceptual, and reasoning capabilities. For example, Steve Jobs
Self-Confidence--Certainty about one’s competencies and skills. For example, Steve
Jobs
Determination--Desire to get the job done (i.e., initiative, persistence, drive). For
example, Dr. Paul Farmer
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. For example, Character
Counts! program
Sociability--Leader’s inclination to seek out pleasant social relationships. For
example, Michael Hughes, university president
Five-Factor Personality Model and Leadership
Five-Factor Personality Model and Leadership
Big Five and 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 effective leaders
Conscientiousness--Second most related factor with leadership; but highest
correlation with overall job performance (Sacket & Walmsley, 2014)
Openness--next most related
Low Neuroticism
Agreeableness--only weakly related to leadership
Strengths and Leadership
Strengthsare the ability to consistently demonstrate exceptional work.
(Buckingham & Clifton, 2001; Rath, 2007)
Strengths come from having certain talents and then further
developing those talents by gaining additional knowledge, skills, and
practice.
Leadership capability is enhanced when we are able to discover
our fully utilized strengths, underutilized strengths, and weaknesses.
(MacKie , 2016)
Emotional Intelligence and Leadership
Definition Underlying Premise
Ability to perceive and: people who are more sensitive to their emotions
apply emotions to life’s tasks and their impact on others will be more effective
reason/understand emotions leaders
express emotions
use emotions to facilitate thinking
manage emotions within oneself
and relationships
Different Ways to Measure EQ
MSCEIT (2000): EQ as a set of mental abilities
to perceive, facilitate, understand, and manage emotion
Goleman (1995, 1998): EQ as a set of personal and social competencies
self-awareness, confidence, self-regulation, conscientiousness, and motivation
Shankman and Allen (2015): EQ as awareness of three aspects of leadership
context, self, and others
How Does the Trait Approach Work?
Focus of trait approach
Strengths
Criticisms
Application
Focus of Trait Approach
Personality
Leader Assessments
Focuses exclusively on leader
Organizations use personality assessments to find the
“right” people
What traits leaders exhibit
Assumption--will increase organizational effectiveness
Who has these traits
Specify characteristics/traits for specific positions
Personality assessment measures for “fit”
Instruments: LTQ, Myers Briggs
Strengths
Intuitively appealing Highlights leadership component in the
Perception that leaders are different leadership process
in that they possess special traits
Deeper level understanding of how
People “need” to view leaders as
gifted
leader/personality related to leadership
process
Credibility due to a century of
Provides benchmarks for what to look
research support
for in a leader
Criticisms
Fails to delimit a definitive list of
List of most important leadership traits is highly
leadership traits subjective
Endless lists have emerged Much subjective experience and observations serve
as basis for identified leadership traits
Doesn’t take into account situational
effects
Research fails to look at traits in relationship to
Leaders in one situation may not be
leadership outcomes
leaders in another situation
Not useful for training and development
Application
Provides direction as to which traits are good to have
if one aspires to a
Leadership Traits
leadership position • Intelligence
• Self-confidence
Through various tests and questionnaires, individuals
• Determination
can determine whether they have the select
• Integrity
leadership traits and can pinpoint 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
CONCLUSION