Ronald Reagan Leadership Analysis

There are many definitions of a leader and how their leadership skills can be described. One of the theories developed to study leadership is trait approach. Also known as great man theories, it was developed to explain how traits influenced leadership. This theory suggested that certain people were born with special traits that made them great leaders. (Bass,1990; Jago,1982). For this applied leadership mini paper I chose Ronald Reagan as my leader. Through this paper I would like to enlighten how the Trait approach theory helps me to analyze him as a successful leader.

When looking for an individual with very clear management styles as well as leadership skills that made a significant impact on both the United States and internationally, the first person that came to mind was Ronald Reagan. Not everyone can be both a manager with the ability to direct successfully and a leader with extraordinary proficiencies, but Reagan had the gift. It is not so hard to find a manager with leadership qualities or to find leaders with effective managerial skills. It takes a mix of the right ingredients to be prize-winning in both areas and this can be found in Ronald Reagan.

He has been called the most significant President of the 20th century. Ronald Reagan’s devotion to the American people and his unwavering commitment to managing both domestic and foreign affairs with sincerity, composure and efficiency provided a beacon of hope in an era that was marked by economic turmoil on the homefront and an impending threat of nuclear war. An analysis of Reagan’s life history, from a psychological standpoint, seeks to reveal the significant factors and influential events that may shed light on how he acquired the distinctive characteristics and how the interplay of how these factors subsequently shaped the extraordinary person he became.

Throughout history, there have been many influential leaders. Governors have a large leadership role in the everyday lives of people. A governor is an elected official who is the head of a state government in the United States. Much responsibility is placed on the shoulders of the governor. Many people know Ronald Reagan as the 40th president of the United States. However, a lesser known fact is that he was also the 33rd governor or California before his presidency. Before going in-depth about Ronald Reagan and his policies, the history of California will be examined.

Close your eyes for a moment, imagine that you are in the 1981. You hear people talking about the USSR and the threat of their superiority. On the television you hear a news caster talking about the Iran hostage crisis. Then you see two old men talking about loss of their jobs and how America is not what it was 20 years ago. You are standing in nation without an identity and hope. Then these word echoed thru the abyss of discontent, according to Schaller (2011) our new president declares “for us to realize that we are too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams” (p. 34). With a WHOOSH of air felt around the world, America stands up to take on its destiny. Ronald Reagan was an incredible visionary and ethical leader throughout his political career. Main Point 1, I will demonstrate this thru examples of his visionary leadership because he knew the value vision, team building, and the importance of being a transformational leader. Main Point 2, I will illustrate his ethical leadership throughout his political career by avoiding ethical traps, relaying on his ethical principles and supporting principles. Main Point 3 Lastly, I will explain how his leadership has influence me to improve my leadership qualities.

Throughout history there have been many problems and issues in the world. During certain times of crisis, one man stood out from all the rest. This man 's name was Ronald Reagan. He was elected governor of California and was in office for eight years. Ronald Reagan tried to run for president two times and was unsuccessful, but then in 1980, he won the Republican presidential nomination. Ronald Reagan was the oldest president of the United States and he gained a lot of experience as governor of California. Ronald Reagan had to deal with obstacles, especially while running for President. He never gave up and kept trying. When Ronald Reagan was shot in an assassination attempt, he had to overcome the feeling of being scared and provided reassurances to the country. Mr. Reagan stayed strong and continued to be president. He showed courage and determination to bounce back. Ronald Reagan was a president who positively altered the world 's economic, political and social issues. He tried to fix world issues, such as the conflicts in Germany, Iran and many other regions, by meeting the leaders and making agreements. Also he made people feel a lot better about how the world issues were being handled by taking with pride and strong tone.

Mr. Reagan leadership technic was to “let people do what they do best” (Kim, 2011). He was able to identify the qualities of the persons

American presidents are often faced with making decisions and implementing plans that affect the lives of so many people. America’s 40th president, Ronald Reagan, through his leadership prevented a nuclear war with the Soviet Union and avoided the loss of American lives in Libya. President Reagan was an effective visionary leader and an ethical leader when he negotiated with the Soviet Union to avoid nuclear war and prevented Americans from being harmed in Libya. I will show President Reagan displayed the characteristics of a visionary leader through transformational leadership and recognizing diversimilarity when negotiating with Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev to ending the Cold War. Next I will show President

Those of us who had the good fortune of working for President Reagan witnessed firsthand the effective management style of an unusually successful chief executive. Here are 10 lessons that I learned from observing him in action.

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.

The trait leadership theory focuses on the individual leader’s personal characteristics as the basis of its investigations. It is one of the earliest leadership theories upon whose tenets many researches on leadership have been done. Although it is not very coherent, its heuristic nature has contributed to its significance in leadership research. Zaccaro and Klimoski (2002) define traits of reference to leadership as the stable personality characteristics, which result in a consistent leadership performance pattern, given different scenarios and groups. They include individual personalities, temperament, rationale, prowess, as well as cognitive abilities. Initially, the theory explored both physical and psychological characteristics that tell apart leaders from non-leaders.

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

If we focus on the idea that people can poses different personality and characteristics can be linked to successful leadership across various situation this would be defined as the trait theory of leadership. Some researcher believe that the ability to lead was something that a person was born with and not something that could be developed or learn. Many people still believe that leaders just have an intuition that makes them good at making decision and developing

Moreover, the trait approach gives a deeper understanding of the leader element in the leadership process by emphasising exclusively on the leader, (Gore et al, 2011). The trait theory does not offer hypotheses about the role of situational variance or characteristic of the followers. Instead, this approach provide information about leaders, and about which traits cause which behaviours and that certain set of traits are central to the leadership process and play an indispensible part of effective leadership.

Trait theories assume all leaders share a number of common traits. This theory identifies traits or characteristics that are essential when being a leader. Traits like assertiveness, good decision making, empathy, integrity, and confidence are some examples of traits of successful leaders; however, there is no magic combination of traits that will guarantee someone to be a successful leader. Traits are based on our inner thoughts and beliefs. Many different studies about leadership traits agree only in the general righteous qualities needed to be a leader. Those traits are known as core traits. The core traits include