What Makes A Great Leader?

Leadership is, and always has been, a vital aspect of social and economic constructs. It is essential to the survival of societies, industries, organizations, and virtually any group of individuals that come together for a common purpose. However, leadership is difficult to define in a single, definitive sense. As such, theories of leadership, what constitutes a great leader, and how leaders are made have evolved constantly throughout history, and still continue to change today in hopes of improving upon our understanding of leadership, its importance, and how it can be most effective in modern organizational cultures.

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.

Leaders are those influential people who carry with themselves the responsibility to inspire others to attain a vision. A leader does not puts greatness into people, rather recognises the greatness that they already have. A leader can have endless attributes to be considered but what matters is the attributes that shine within him and makes him a good leader. History witnesses a dictionary of leaders and their own philosophies. Followers make the leader learn more about their own development of skills. Leader-follower fit just right is a challenge to be achieved. Though I truly believe that

This theory is based on the idea that a person is not born a leader, but that a person becomes a leader through self-development and learning. It focuses not on mental qualities or internal states, but on the actions and behaviors of leaders. According to this theory, people can learn to become leaders through teaching and observation (Wheeler, 2000).  One can conclude that it is the converse of the Great Man theory.

In the early 20th century, leadership traits were studied to determine what made certain people great leaders. Researchers were looking to see if distinct leaders were born with special traits. The theories that were developed are called “great man” theories because they focused on identifying the innate qualities and characteristics possessed by great political, social, and military leaders. During this time, research concentrated on determining the specific traits that clearly differentiated leaders from followers (Bass, 1990; Jago, 1982).

Robbins and Judge (2017) concluded that individuals, who possess traits, by themselves, does not guarantee that these individuals will be great leaders; however, presence of certain traits can help to predict the leadership potential of an individual (p. 385). Robbins and Judge (2017) defined leadership as, “the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or set of goals” (p. 382). Explaining how leadership happens cannot be answered by trait theories (Robbins & Judge, 2017, p. 384).

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

The Great Man theory assumes that the traits of leadership are instinct; this simply translates to the idea that great leaders are born not made (Greenleaf, 1977). Trait Theory of Leadership focused on analyzing mental, physical and social characteristic in order to gain more understanding of what characteristic or the combination of characteristics leaders had in common. The Contingency Leadership theory argues that there is no single way of leading (Greenleaf, 1977). The situations specific needs will require a particular leadership style. Transactional Theories is characterized by interactions made between the leader and the followers; valuing the positive and mutually beneficial relationship, or in laments terms punishment and reward systems (Greenleaf, 1977).

According to the trait-based theory of leadership, certain integrated patterns of personal characteristics develop the ability to lead a group of people effectively. (Zaccaro 2007). Here the word ‘trait ' is defined as "The distinguishing personal characteristics of a leader, such as intelligence, honesty, self-confidence and even appearance" (pg 612, Samson & Daft 2014). Trait-based leadership is based on the idea that people born with certain qualities and characteristics are more suitable for leadership. It was achieved by identifying the traits of many leaders, both successful and unsuccessful, and looking into their physical, emotional, and cognitive traits that made them who they were. (Derue, D. S., Nahrgang, J. D., Wellman, N., & Humphrey, S. E. 2011). By studying the likes of leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr, Gandhi and even controversial leaders like Hitler, researchers interpreted

The Great Man Theory suggests leaders are born with the qualities to lead; man cannot learn the traits (Malos, 2012). Turak (2013) explains the Great Man theory represents the “inside-out” model of human psychology where superior heads create their destiny instead of wait for it to happen. The method is gender specific because great leaders were thought to have masculine traits to their style in the 19th century; for example, assertiveness, toughness, and decisiveness (Malos, 2012; Nelson & Quick, 2011). In the 19th and early 20th centuries, leaders who were studied were either born into

Hoffman, Woehr, Maldagen-Younjohn, and Lyons (2011) set out to answer the question ‘What characteristics differentiate effective from ineffective leaders?’ One of their main focuses was on the distinction between trait-like and state-like individual differences, and how those correlate to effective leadership. Much of their research started with references to the ‘Great Man’ approach to leadership. The ‘Great Man’ approach is simply implying that there are traits that are heritable and they distinguish leaders from non-leaders. This would mean that leaders are born, not made. Hoffman et al. (2011) defined trait-like individual differences as having a very indirect effect on leader efficiency, whereas state-like individual differences had a more direct effect on performance. They used Locke’s (1991) individual difference framework to compare proximal (knowledge and skills) and distal (motives, traits, and ability) individual differences and also used his framework when selecting individual differences to review.

Leadership has been conceived of in a multitude of different ways varying from Great man theory (Borgatta, Bales and Couch, 1954; Cawthon, 1996), trait theories (), and style theories (). More recent conceptualizations of leadership include contingency theory (), and transformational leadership (). Each of these theoretical models has a contribution to make in forming a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between leadership and

According to (Benis, 2014) the most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born—that there is a genetic factor to leadership. Author (John F. Kennedy) observed that Leadership learning is indispensable to each other, leader learning how to become leaders and they are continuing to learn in their own role as leaders. In fact, there are several theoretical approaches have been conducted to determine the impact of the leadership. In this essay the impact of these approaches and understanding of their main tasks will be discussed. In the end of this essay Leadership Questionnaire (Donald Clark) will be

Great man theory leadership born, not made to widely accepted. Every individual possesses different type of intelligence, energy and moral force. Great man abilities connected with situational forces. Leadership is core to be focused for success of a great man.it is to be explored more to lay great foundation to great man theory. Anyone can do anything but great man have desires to learn and unless they possess certain talent, will be successful in their attempts

Trait theory of Leadership is founded on the principle that leaders are born and not made and that they poses inherent characteristics not found in non-leaders. Research early in the twentieth century examined leaders who had achieved a level of greatness and hence became known as the Great Man approach (Daft, 2015). Honesty, adaptability, sociability, initiative, self-confidence, and mentoring are traits of a leader according to the proponents of trait theory, (Northouse, 2010) and (Van Wart, (2011). It emphasizes the importance of