The Trait Theory Of Leadership

19). Still a part of the Great Man Leadership era, these trait theories just went a step further in attempting to pinpoint exactly which traits of these “great men” were consistently associated with the leaders, in an effort to more clearly define what a great leader was. This was again a further attempt to be able to identify a leader early on and predict which individuals were born to become leaders. It is thought that a major flaw with these theories was the failure to account for external factors, such as the environment in which the individuals were brought up in, as well as the situations they experienced (Horner, 2007, p. 270). Still today we do continue to study the characteristics of leaders in order to better define and understand what makes someone a good leader.

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 theory of leadership supports the claim that some people are endowed with certain characteristics that make them more capable of being a good leader than others (Zaccaro, 2007). Trait theory can be defined as the range of qualities that can consistently differentiate a non-leader from someone who is an effective leader (Zaccaro, 2007). The difference between someone who is a great leader and someone who is a good leader is the possession of certain qualities that help establish strong leadership. One of the greatest leaders known in the sports world is John Wooden, a basketball player, and coach of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Bruins. Wooden led his team to ten national championships, seven of which were in

The critique with the most supporting evidence to suggest that trait theory is flawed is possibly the Style approach to leadership. The style approach was developed in the 1940’s and is centralised around the idea that it is not what traits and characteristics the leader possesses, but rather the in the behaviours they exhibit (Roberts, 2013). This argument analyses the types of behaviours, which the leader has, and they ways in which they carry out their business, as opposed to the trait they may have been born with.

The limitations of trait theory led to significant change in the leadership Approach. In this theory full focus was on the actual behavior and action of leaders instead of their Personal qualities or traits. This theory emphasize on, what the leaders do and how they behave to become effective leaders. According to this theory leadership can be learned oppose to the Great Man and ‘Trait’ theory whereas leadership was believed to be born and inherited. Several attempts have been made to identify the dimensions of leaders behavior. But the most systematic and comprehensive studies in this direction were conducted in U.S.A at ‘ Ohio State University’ and, the University of Michigan during 1945-1947. These are considered to be the most important behavioral studies.

The trait approach was the first attempt by researchers to study the characteristics of leaders. However, it resulted in much controversy owing to the lack of a universal definition for the word trait. The trait approach laid an emphasis on the attributes that made people great leaders. The focus of this research was on the characteristics that great leaders were born with. It was believed that only leaders possessed such traits, which set them apart from their

On leader’s traits, scholars assert leaders’ personal characteristics can affect the success of organisation. Lord, De Vader, Alliger (1986) and Mann (1959) both consider the characteristic of leader should include intelligence, extrovert, dominance, masculinity, conservatism and adjustability. Moreover, Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991) and Zaccaro, Kemp and Bader (2004) both consider leader should also have motivation and cognitive ability in their characteristics.

One constant need of all communities, organizations, states and nations is that of quality leadership. Northouse (2007) describes school leadership by stating that it is “a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal” (p. 3). Northouse defines a “process” as a collection of systems in which the leadership and member of the school share in the development and delivery by joining behavior, policies and focus. In this many way an effective leader must embody certain competencies and behaviors.

The trait approach (Theory of Leadership) is the view that people are born with the traits of leadership and that these traits are inherited. This means that leadership theory has evolved from an emphasis on traits and behavioral styles (Germain, 2012). According to Northouse (2013) trait approach does not actually provide a definitive set of traits, but rather it provides direction regarding which traits are good to have if one aspires to a leadership position. This means that leadership traits are not transferred. In the past, attention was put in identifying these traits by studying other successful leaders. However, the focus then was not finding ways to teach these “skills” to people so that they develop to become leaders, but was

The term leader is defined as an individual who can lead and influence a group of individuals to achieve a common goal (Grint, 2010). Being an effective leader takes time, experience, and lots of maturity. What traits do effective leaders possess? How is the vision of the organization implemented by the leader into the team? How can a leader build and manage a team? This paper will talk about all these points in detail.

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.

Having effective leadership in an organization directly impacts the employees and business. A leader is a person who can bring a group of people together in an effective manner to complete a specific task and or goal. I feel that good leadership is that backbone of an organization. In my professional life I have worked with a variety of mangers that were very different in there approach in management. With the different styles of leading a group or individual it can at times be effective and others not received well. A good leader is one who can accomplish the goals and respect those he or she is leading. In this paper I will further discuss the different styles of leaderships that can be found within organizations.

Fiedler and Garcla (1987) stated that leader is defined as a person who is “appointed, elected, or informally chosen to direct and co-ordinate the work of others in a group”. According to trait theories, effective leaders share a number of common characteristics or ‘traits’. The first studies have tried to identify the qualities that distinguish the great leaders in the history of the masses. Researchers believe that the leaders had some unique set of stable traits, which do not change as time pass. For this reason, scientists have tried to define leadership qualities, learn to measure and use them to identify the leaders. This approach is based on the belief that leaders are born, not made. For example, Smith and Foti

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.

Research on leadership began with a search for inherited characteristics that differentiated leaders from non-leaders and