Personality Traits as Sufficient Measurements of Leadership

Is the “traits” approach to the study of leadership valid? If so, in what ways? How does recent research on the links between personality and individual behavior contribute to our understanding of leadership?

Throughout time the question of “ Are leaders born or made?” continues to be debated. This question has been part of several myths that try to explain what makes a person a leader. According to the trait approach theory, it sets a benchmark for what certain traits an individual must possess in order to make them a leader. Before leadership traits were considered innate. However, as time has progressed research has indicated that situations differentiate leaders from non-leaders. Therefore, an individual does not possess certain traits, rather it is the relationship between the person and its society that make him/her leader. All leaders must have a set of skills that help them lead subordinates to reach an overall vision. A vision must originate from both the leader and its followers, and it is the leader's job to articulate the vision. Furthermore, leaders demonstrate the capacity to lead their followers and

As a growing debate, the question at hand is whether great leaders are born with specific leadership traits, or if one can be taught certain traits over time. According to (Wikipedia.com) the approach of listing leadership qualities, often termed "trait theory of leadership", assumes certain traits or characteristics will tend to lead to effective leadership. I believe that leadership traits such as honest, competent, initiative, inspiring, hardworking, intelligent, and the ability to lead the masses, are some of the leadership traits one should possess. Within this paper, I will examine the overall concept of leadership traits, while observing the traits that were, or can be associated with successful leaders.

When judging the qualities of leadership, there is a tendency to think of the gifted, or natural leader, involving some expectation that leadership is an inherent personality quality that some have, and

One of the aspects of the personality theory is the Big Five Personality traits. Those traits are: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness. Each of these traits have been studied by many experts and defined based on the behaviors and attitudes that are attributed to most people. There are no absolutes meaning that just because most people who display a certain characteristic are effective leaders, does not mean that everybody who has that trait is an effective leader (Dziak, 2017). This paper will break down each of the Big Five traits and talk about their role in leadership.

After completing the Assessment for Leadership and Personality on pages 16-19 of the Bell (2009) text, comment on the following: What roles of leadership did you find surprising and why? After reading your profile, what tasks of leadership do you think you will find easier? What will you find more difficult? Why?

The Trait Approach was the 1st systematic attempt to study leadership. In the 20th century it was known as the “great man” theory. This approach takes a look at the leaders personal attributes such as but not limited to: motivation, energy, intuition, creativity, persuasiveness and foresight. Some of the traits that are essential to this list include: intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity and sociability. Thus it focuses mainly on the leader and not on the followers or situations. The strengths of the Trait Approach includes: 1) it is intuitively appealing, 2) it has research to back it’s theory, 3) it highlights the leader, 4) it identifies what the traits of a leader should have and whether the traits we do

There are many leadership styles and is important to know which style you are. There are many ways one can learn their leadership style, for example, through assessments. Knowing your leadership style will help you become a better leader. Although there are many leadership assessments our text discussed four assessments that can give insights into building blocks of personality most commonly identified by peers, subordinate employees, and supervisors (Ledlow, et al, 2014). These assessments include: Hemisphere Dominance assessments; Jungian assessments; Vark test; Struder Group; Price Group; and many

While many are inclined to believe that a leader's innate leadership traits account for a small portion of his or her success, some leaders actually exploit their abilities to a full extent and manage to demonstrate that such traits can play an essential role in distinguishing between someone who is well-acquainted with what it means to be a leader.

In the other words, leaders are born. Their personality makes them become leaders naturally. These theories also figure out the differences between leaders and non – leaders as well as effective leaders and ineffective ones in order to measure the leadership within organizations. As a result, leaders are considered as more intelligent, physically filter, more extroverted, more self – confident than non – leaders. Furthermore, effective leadership studies show that effective leadership usually depends on how well the leader’s traits fit context’s requirements. Although the trait theories have limitations, they still suggest scholars to consider the personality traits as core component of a leadership. Evidently, while people can learn from leadership theory to improve their leadership skills, the world still faces a shortage of outstanding leaders. Tim Cook are well trained and inherits the Apple’s achievements under Steave Jobs’ leadership, he is still not guaranteed to lead Apple to success in the next stages

From mid-nineteenth century to the decade of 1940, the research on leadership was dominated by efforts to show that there are characteristics or qualities that leaders have that set them from followers. The research shows that leadership abilities are that of an effective and successful leader. Studies have focused on the measurement of leadership traits and the relationship that is between criteria and traits of leader

This theory is based on the premise that there are certain personality characteristics that are essential for a person to possess in order to be a leader. The main emphasis is on what the person is in terms of a constellation of personality traits. This theory searches for that set of universal leadership traits that will assure success. Numerous traits have been suggested: courage, integrity, loyalty, charisma, ambition, intelligence, honesty, clairvoyance, persistence, arrogance, health, political skill, confidence and vision.

The world of business and politics uses leader traits and behaviors, and takes a first step toward an integrative theory of how leader traits and behaviors influence leadership effectiveness. There are processes to accomplish this, which are followed by a three-stage process. First, based on a narrative review of the literature, a conceptual model is developed that organizes the current literature and models how leader traits and behaviors affect leadership effectiveness. Second, the relative validity is tested of select leader traits and behaviors using a combination of previously published meta-analytic data and new meta-analyses. Third, an investigation is done with an exemplary set of relationships from our conceptual model to see if

Personality is defined as, “the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts and interacts with others” and personality traits are defined as, “enduring characteristics that describe an individual’s behavior.”(Robbins and Judge, 2009) Describing an individual’s behavior can be tricky and trying to change an individual’s personality is near impossible. Business managers have the task of implementing a leadership style that thrives in their perspective business. However, in order for their particular style of leadership to be a success they need to understand the role personalities play in business organizations. Team members personalities may dictate what style a leader ultimately decides to implement, just as, employers will look to hire individuals with personalities similar to that of the company. Hiring managers need to be in tune with personalities and how they may help benefit their bottom line. This process is accomplished by the use of personality tests, which have been around since the early 1900’s.

The personality traits of a person are really important factors that have considerable influence on the organizational culture and collective targets of the organization.