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Trait Approach

Chapter 2

Northouse, Leadership 8e. © SAGE Publications, 2019.

Overview

Great Person Theories

Historical Shifts in Trait Perspective

What Traits Differentiate Leaders From Nonleaders?

How Does the Trait Approach Work?

Northouse, Leadership 8e. © SAGE Publications, 2019.

Great Person Theories

“Great Man” Theories (early 1900s)

Focused on identifying innate qualities and characteristics possessed by great social, political, and military leaders

Northouse, Leadership 8e. © SAGE Publications, 2019.

Trait Approach: One of the first systematic

attempts to study leadership

Great Man Theories

Early 1900s

Research focused

on individual

characteristics

that universally

differentiated

leaders

from nonleaders

Traits Interacting With

Situational Demands on Leaders

1930-50s

Landmark Stogdill (1948)

study - analyzed and

synthesized 124 trait studies

- Leadership

reconceptualized

as a relationship between

people in a social situation

Mann (1959) reviewed 1,400

findings of personality and

leadership in small groups

- Less emphasis on situations

- Suggested personality traits

could be used to discriminate

leaders from nonleaders

Revival of Critical Role of

Traits in Leader Effectiveness

Stogdill (1974)

- Analyzed 163 new studies

with 1948 study findings

- Validated original study

- 10 characteristics

positively identified with

leadership

Lord, DeVader, & Alliger

(1986) meta-analysis

- Personality traits can be

used to differentiate

leaders/nonleaders

Kirkpatrick & Locke (1991)

- 6 traits make up the

“Right Stuff” for leaders

Historical Shifts in Trait Perspective

Northouse, Leadership 8e. © SAGE Publications, 2019.

1970s - Early 90s

Innate Qualities

Situations

Personality / Behaviors

Today

Intelligence

Self-Confidence

Determination

Integrity

Sociability

5 Major

Leadership Traits

Major Leadership Traits

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

Northouse, Leadership 8e. © SAGE Publications, 2019.

Traits to possess or cultivate if one seeks to be

perceived by others as a leader:

Major Leadership Traits

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

Northouse, Leadership 8e. © SAGE Publications, 2019.

Traits to possess or cultivate if one seeks to be

perceived by others as a leader:

Five-Factor Personality Model and Leadership

Northouse, Leadership 8e. © SAGE Publications, 2019.

Five-Factor Personality Model and Leadership

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

Northouse, Leadership 8e. © SAGE Publications, 2019.

Big Five and Leadership Study Using Meta-Analysis

(Judge et al, 2002)

Strengths and Leadership

Strengths are 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)

Northouse, Leadership 8e. © SAGE Publications, 2019.

Emotional Intelligence and Leadership

people who are more sensitive to their emotions and their impact on others will be more effective leaders

Northouse, Leadership 8e. © SAGE Publications, 2019.

Ability to perceive and:

apply emotions to life’s tasks

reason/understand emotions

express emotions

use emotions to facilitate thinking

manage emotions within oneself and relationships

Definition

Underlying Premise

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

Focuses exclusively on leader

What traits leaders exhibit

Who has these traits

Organizations use personality assessments to find the “right” people

Assumption--will increase organizational effectiveness

Specify characteristics/traits for specific positions

Personality assessment measures for “fit”

Instruments: LTQ, Myers Briggs

Leader

Personality Assessments

Strengths

Intuitively appealing

Perception that leaders are different in that they possess special traits

People “need” to view leaders as gifted

Credibility due to a century of research support

Highlights leadership component in the leadership process

Deeper level understanding of how leader/personality related to leadership process

Provides benchmarks for what to look for in a leader

Fails to delimit a definitive list of leadership traits

Endless lists have emerged

Doesn’t take into account situational effects

Leaders in one situation may not be leaders in another situation

List of most important leadership traits is highly subjective

Much subjective experience and observations serve as basis for identified leadership traits

Research fails to look at traits in relationship to leadership outcomes

Not useful for training and development

Criticisms

Application

Can be used by managers to assess where they stand within their organization and what is needed to strengthen their position

Provides direction as to which traits are good to have if one aspires to a

leadership position

Through various tests and questionnaires, individuals can determine whether they have the select leadership traits and can pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses

Leadership Traits

Intelligence

Self-confidence

Determination

Integrity

Sociability