Trait, Skills, and Situational Leadership Approaches: a Comparative Examination

The Trait approach in leadership focuses exclusively on the leader, not on the followers or the situation (Northouse 2016, p 29). There are five major traits (intelligence, self-confidence,

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?

As was mentioned earlier, the trait theory contains highly subjective perspectives. It means that the perception of leadership traits is associated with the assessment of leadership. Barry et al (2003) conducted an

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

Trait Approach consists of leadership theories looking to identify what qualities great leaders possess so future leaders can be identified based on these qualities. These theories have been referred to as the “Great Man” theories because the traits were based from research of readily identifiable extraordinary leaders (Northhouse, 2016, p. 19). Researchers believed all great leaders must share certain qualities, which makes them able to distinguish themselves above all others. This seemed like a logical approach, however it became apparent determining an absolute required set of traits for leadership proved difficult. Traits which make one an effective leader may only work in certain situations or with certain followers. Intensive studies were conducted during the 20th century with several theories identifying varying sets of traits

In the research carried out by Bass (1990), they found out that trait leadership theory believes some people are born to lead because of their personal qualities, while others are not. Trait theory also suggests that leadership is only accessible to the chosen ones and not available to all. In the past researchers focused on traits that were able to measure such as physical characteristics, aspects of personality and aptitudes. The current trait research has pointed the focus to more specific traits like stress tolerance, energy level, emotional maturity, integrity and self-confidence. Reviews of the trait research have found all of the above traits to be related to managerial effectiveness Bass (1990) and Marques (2010). When looking at the results of

A skills approach takes a leader centered perspective on leadership with more emphasis on the skills and abilities that an individual can learn. Using Katz’s 1955 model, the three-skill approach suggests that effective leadership depends on three essential personal skills: technical, human, and conceptual. The technical skill is knowledge and skill in a type of work or activity while the human skill is the ability and knowledge around working with people. Human skills involve people, technical involve working with things, and conceptual skills involve working with ideas (Northouse,

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.

It’s weaknesses are: 1) the extensiveness of the Skills Approach seem to expand further than the boundaries of leadership, 2) it can not explain in specifics how skills lead to the effective performance of a leader, 3) although it claims not be a trait approach model, a huge component of it does in fact include individual attributes, 4) it may need to be proven in generalized organizations and populations because findings were constructed using only military personnel in the armed services. (Northouse, 2010).

Trait leadership theory suggests that all leaders are born with or display certain key personality characteristics. Certain characteristics are particularly suited to leadership. People who make good leaders have a sufficient combination of these character traits. Most of the time the traits are considered to be naturally part of a person’s personality. Hence, leadership trait theory tends to assume that people are born as leaders or not as leaders. However, according to Shead (2007), the idea that leadership traits are inborn and unchangeable appears to be incorrect. He posits that it is true that many of our dispositions and tendencies are influenced by our personalities, but most people will acknowledge that it is possible for someone to change their character traits for the worse. Someone typically known for being honest can learn to be deceitful. Stogdill (1974) identified the following traits and skills as critical to leaders.

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

In today’s world, leaders are not defined by age, race or gender. They can be a high school basketball coach, the shift supervisor at the local coffee shop, or even the President of the United States of America. In as many ways that leaders can vary by appearance and responsibility, there is also a variance in the ways that they lead. This case study aims to compare three of the more popular theories of leadership. These leadership theories are situational leadership, trait theory and transformational leadership.

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.

Over the years, scholars and management theorists have cultivated several leadership styles that they have encouraged people to apply and try to implement. However, most of these theories have shown various short comings. Typically, none of these styles has proven to work best in diverse situations. In the late 1960’s, the Situational Leadership Model was developed. In this paper, I will discuss the details about the situational leadership model. In detail, the paper begins with a defined introduction of what the situational leadership model is about and an interpretation of its origination. An outline of the model will follow after which a discussion about the benefits and drawbacks of this model will shortly follow.

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.