I have to write about Lance Armstrong- a fallen public figure. We all looked at his wins and scratched our heads and thought how on earth has he won 7 Tour de France races?! With his winning streak the USPS cycling team looks to him as their leader. Also the was an advocate for people to persevere through and survive cancer with his LIVESTRONG organization.
What traits DID Lance show that made him such a strong leader ? If we look at the five factor model (FFM) of personality, as discussed in lesson 2, Conscientiousness (Dependability), Agreeableness, Neuroticism (Emotional Stability/Adjustment), Openness to Experience (Intellectance), Extraversion (Surgency). (PSU, L2,p4) We can say that he has the traits of leadership.Training a cycling team takes a incredible about of dedication and dependability. As a leader he showed up every day for training, coached them, pushed them physically and mentally to be the best. He could also show empathy for he for his fellow teammates and for cancer pstients. There were not stories of Lance on the news losing his temper. However he motivated his cycling team and countless cancer patients to beat their goals. Livestrong was dedicated to bringing awareness to cancer in second class countries that needed the publicity of a world class cyclist to bring attention to their epidemic. As for the trait of extraversion, “leaders’ decisiveness, competitiveness, and self-confidence can affect their ability to successfully influence a group” (PSU,L2,p4), Lance was all of these!
Over all Lance’s leadership could have been described as: Mental toughness, commitment, focus, and competitive. This was the view that I also held of Lance Armstrong, even down to sporting one of his iconic yellow bracelets. I believed in him as a leader. My Stepmother beat breast cancer then battled ovarian cancer- she could not say enough good things about LIVESTRONG and their leader Lance Armstrong. USA News described Lance Armstrong as a leader in two disparate fields who led by example. (Hobson, 2008)
As in most good and evil tales, this bright (good) leader had a Dark side. Lance Armstrong has admitted to doping- they have pulled all his wins of the tour de france, taken his bronze medal from the olympics, and LIVESTRONG is trying to distance themselves from him. What traits could have been a warning to this darkside? Back in 2004 when the allegations started against Lance Armstrong he started to demonstrate key dark side personality traits. As described in lesson 2 there are 6 dark-side personality traits, Argumentative, Interpersonal Insensitivity, Narcissim, fear of failure, perfectionism and Impulsivity. (PSU,L.2, p6)
Lance’s public image went from cancer beating, Ultra human, who seemed like there was not a thing that could take him down, falling to a man who has no integrity. The only thing that brought Lance Armstorng down was himself. I guess you can really be your own worst enemy- and lance Armstrong is the perfect picture of that.
References:
Hobson, K. (2008, November 19). America. Retrieved from http://www.usnews.com/news/best-leaders/articles/2008/11/19/americas-best-leaders-lance-armstrong-cyclist-and-advocate
Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2013). PSYCH 485: Leadership in Work Settings Retrieved from
https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/sp13/psych485/002/content/02_lesson/printlesson.html
GREGORY JAMES TAYLOR says
I thought this was a great choice for a blog post because it ties in directly with concepts from lesson 2 on trait theory of leadership and it is also very relevant in the news today. According to trait theory, Armstrong was definitely considered a leader. According to Northouse’s (2013) five major leadership traits in table 2.2, determination, self confidence, and intelligence are among the most important traits. Armstrong was definitely a model of these traits, along with many other traits studied in psychology over the past century including achievement, persistence, dominance, drive, task knowledge, etc (Northouse, 2013).
Some of the weaknesses of trait theory, however, are that there is not one definitive list of leadership traits that apply to all leaders across all situations. This means that someone could possess many leadership traits, like Lance Armstrong, but than lack certain other traits, such as integrity, that could inhibit successful leadership in certain situations. For example, many considered Lance Armstrong a leader last year but in light of recent allegations and confessions, many people would not think so highly of him today. This may have to do with certain “dark side” traits that you mentioned. It appears that Armstrong’s desire for dominance and achievement overshadowed his values of integrity, which ended up ruining his career and public image. The dark side traits from lesson 2 that this is most representative of are narcissism, fear of failure, and perfectionism (PSU WC, L2).
References:
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice (6th edition). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.
Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2013). PSYCH 485 Lesson 2: Trait Approach. Retrieved on January 15, 2013, from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa12/psych485/002/content/02_lesson/01_page.html