Warren Buffett was not born as the wealthiest person in the world. But he was born with the personality traits that he used to make himself into the wealthiest person in the world and one of the most respected business leaders of today.
Warren Buffett, from an early age, displayed many of the ten traits identified by Stogdill (1974) that are associated positively with leadership. He showed drive, responsibility, and vigor while delivering newspapers and was able to influence other children to assistance him in a golf ball recovery and reselling business. Warren Buffett also showed self-confidence when he bought his first stock in City Services with his entire net worth at the time. These same traits can be seen in Buffett throughout his entire professional life.
The six traits that Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991) identified in a leader along with Five Factor Model (FFM) of Personality (Goldberg, 1990; McRae & Costa, 1987) can be seen in Warren Buffett. He has an excellent knowledge of business and is able to read finical numbers and make sense of them with little effort. Even when he was in business school, he had little trouble with his required school work, spending a lot less time than his fellow classmates needed to understand business concepts that Warren learned with ease.
Warren Buffett was known for his unquestionable honesty and integrity. He was able to use this at one time when the Salomon Bros., a company that Warren had a share in, got into trouble for illegal bond trading. It was only through Buffett’s reputation that he was able to save Salomon Bros. Buffett was able to keep cool through all of this even though he showed some signs stress when facing the press at the press conference at Salomon Bros.
An example of Buffett’s venturesomeness and originality was his purchase of the Buffalo Evening News, an evening newspaper in Buffalo. At the time he purchased the newspaper, there were two newspapers in Buffalo. The other news paper had a Sunday addition and Buffalo Evening News did not. Buffett planned to start a Sunday addition for his paper. So the other paper took legal action to stop this. But Buffett held his ground even though his paper was losing money and when the court ruled in Buffett’s favor, he kept going and the other paper when out of business, making the Buffalo Evening News a profitable business for Buffett.
Warren Buffett was even sharp enough early in his professional career to realize that one of the weaknesses he did have was the ability of public speaking. So to fix this he took the Dale Carnegie public speaking course.
Warren Buffett is one of those guys that comes along once in great while that is born to be in business. He has the ability to read and remember numbers on financial reports. Buffett has the drive and determination to make things happen and he possess an exceptional level of honesty and integrity that has served him well throughout his long professional career.
References:
Northhouse, P. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice (Sixth Edition). California. Sage. 2011049043. Ch. 2.
Penn State World campus, The Pennsylvania State University. (2015). Leadership in Work Settings. Retrieved 18 January 2015 from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/sp15/psych485/002/content/02_lesson/printlesson.html
Warren Buffett Revealed Bloomberg Game Changers (2012). Retrieved 3 April 2015 from http://documentaryheaven.com/warren-buffett-revealed/
Jill L Laster says
I also studied Warren Buffet and he is truly an amazing leader. He seems to have a raw, natural talent and as I wrote in my movie review during this semester, “Buffett’s inborn characteristics of intelligence, photographic memory, and love for numbers sparked his passion to be successful.” While part of his talent is innate, the other leadership qualities that you speak of are learned with experience, such as his drive, and responsibility. I am also very keen on his behaviors such as staying in the same house rather than spending his money and also the “pep rallies” he has for his team. He really seems like a “great guy”!!!
Terrill James Malvesti says
Warren Buffet is definitely a person who has worked his way in to wealth and has a work ethic beyond reproach. I think that his business sense is what gave him confidence early in his career and helped him develop a reputation in the business community and a leader amongst his peers. He was definitely a risk taker and I admire how a great deal of his success can be attributed to taking these calculated risks which ended up making him who he is today. What’s funny though, is he was a great risk taker but was also very frugal with his own money which is a contrast from other billionaires who live extravagant lifestyles.
I absolutely agree that he does display many of the traits associated with leadership (Stogdill, 1981). I think that we may be able to describe him as a transformational leader. Buffett his the ability to forecast changes in the financial world and make decisions based on his senses. Others in the financial world follow his lead because he has proven track record. Northouse (2013) describes transformational leadership as the process that changes and transforms people. His financial decisions not only benefit him but, also affect the business community as a whole.
References:
Northhouse, P. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice (Sixth Edition).California. Sage.
Stogdill, R. M., & Bass, B. M. (1981). Stogdill’s handbook of leadership: A survey of theory and research. New York; London: Free Press.