LEADERSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE SIXTH EDITION

Trait Approach

Chapter 2
LEADERSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE SIXTH EDITION

Overview
 Great Person Theories

 Historical Shifts in Trait Perspective

 What Traits Differentiate Leaders From

Nonleaders?

 How Does the Trait Approach Work?

LEADERSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE SIXTH EDITION 3

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

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LEADERSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE SIXTH EDITION 4

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

focused study - analyzed and - Analyzed 163 new • Self-
on individual synthesized 124 trait studies studies Confidence
characteristics - Leadership with 1948 study findings •
that universally reconceptualized - Validated original study Determination
differentiated as a relationship between - 10 characteristics • Integrity
leaders people in a social situation positively identified with • Sociability
from nonleaders leadership
• Mann (1959) reviewed 1,400
Innate Qualities findings of personality and • Lord, DeVader, & Alliger
leadership in small groups (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
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LEADERSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE SIXTH EDITION 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. Ex. Steve Jobs
 Self-Confidence – Certainty about one’s
competencies and skills. Ex. Steve Jobs
 Determination – Desire to get the job done
(i.e., initiative, persistence, drive). Ex. Lance
Armstrong
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LEADERSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE SIXTH EDITION 6

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. Ex. Character Counts! program

 Sociability – Leader’s inclination to seek out

pleasant social relationships. Ex. Michael
Hughes, university president

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LEADERSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE SIXTH EDITION 7

5-Factor Personality Model & Leadership

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LEADERSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE SIXTH EDITION 8

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 effective leaders
 Conscientiousness – 2nd most related factor
 Openness – next most related
 Low Neuroticism
 Agreeableness – only weakly related to leadership
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LEADERSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE SIXTH EDITION 9

Emotional Intelligence & Leadership

Definition Underlying Premise
Ability to perceive and:  people who are
– apply emotions to life’s more sensitive to
tasks their emotions &
– reason/understand their impact on
emotions others will be
– express emotions more effective
– use emotions to facilitate leaders
thinking
– manage emotions within
oneself and relationships
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LEADERSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE SIXTH EDITION 10

Different Ways to Measure EQ

 MSCEIT: 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 & Allen (2002): EQ as awareness
of three aspects of leadership
 context, self, and others

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LEADERSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE SIXTH EDITION

How Does the Trait Approach Work?

 Focus of Trait Approach

 Strengths

 Criticisms

 Application
LEADERSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE SIXTH EDITION 12

Focus of Trait Approach

Personality
Leader
Assessments
 Focuses exclusively Organizations use personality
on leader assessments to find “right”
 What traits leaders people
exhibit  Assumption - will increase

 Who has these organizational effectiveness

 Specify characteristics/traits for
traits specific positions
• Personality assessment
measures for “fit”
• Instruments: LTQ, Myers Briggs

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LEADERSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE SIXTH EDITION 13

Strengths
 Intuitively appealing  Highlights leadership
 Perception that component in the
leaders are different in leadership process
that they possess  Deeper level
special traits understanding of how
 People “need” to view leader/personality
leaders as gifted related to leadership
 Credibility due to a process
century of research  Provides benchmarks for
support what to look for in a
leader

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LEADERSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE SIXTH EDITION 14

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
 Research fails to look at
account situational
effects traits in relationship to
 Leaders in one situation leadership outcomes
may not be leaders in  Not useful for training &
another situation
development
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LEADERSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE SIXTH EDITION 15

Application
Leadership Traits
 Provides direction as to which traits are • Intelligence
good to have if one aspires to a • Self-
leadership position Confidence
 Through various tests and questionnaires, • Determination

individuals can determine whether they • Integrity

have the select leadership traits and can • Sociability
pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses
 Can be used by managers to assess where they stand
within their organization and what is needed to
strengthen their position
Northouse - Leadership: Theory and Practice, Sixth Edition © 2012 SAGE Publications, Inc.