You want to make your favorite dish, lasagna, but you have never attempted it before. You have two options, wing it or follow a recipe. If you just take a stab at it and you happen to be a natural cook it might turn out just fine. However, if you want to be sure the final product is exactly what you intended, you might want to follow a recipe. The recipe provides all of the necessary ingredients, the proportion of each ingredient and the instructions to follow to successfully complete the dish. If you forget one of the ingredients or change the amount it might still end up tasting delicious, however, if you are missing too many ingredients or completely change the proportions, it is highly unlikely you will end up with a great tasting lasagna. Making a successful leader is no different than making a successful lasagna. Sometimes leaders are naturals and sometimes they need to follow the recipe for success.
What are the ingredients of a good leader? They are a set of traits frequently found in individuals who are extremely successful in the leadership role. These traits include intelligence, self-confidence, determination, sociability and integrity (Northouse, 2016).
Intelligence: Possessing solid verbal abilities is a key aspect of intelligence, therefore it is important for leaders to know how to communicate on the same level as their followers (Northouse, 2016). As John C. Maxwell stated, “Good leaders must communicate vision clearly, creatively, and continually. However, the vision doesn’t come alive until the leader models it.” Furthermore, individuals who excel at problem-solving and social judgement are generally more effective leaders (Northouse, 2016).
Self-Confidence: When we trust in ourselves and in our abilities we are better able to influence those around us. Imagine sending a group of soldiers into battle with a leader who does not believe in his or her own abilities. If they don’t have confidence in their own abilities it will be hard for others to have confidence in them. This could cause some individuals to question their leader’s orders which could ultimately mean losing the battle.
Determination: Mario Andretti once said “Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s the determination and commitment to unrelenting pursuit of your goal – a commitment to excellence – that will enable you to attain the success you seek.” Andretti couldn’t have been more right. If you are determined enough that you refuse to give up regardless of the obstacles encountered along the way, others will follow (Northouse, 2016). Two years ago I decided I was going to run a 5K. I started practicing and the obstacles soon followed, however, I was determined to achieve my goal. In the process, others started coming running with me and we began motivating and encouraging each another. In the end we ran the race!
Sociability: Think about the best boss you ever had. More than likely they were friendly, courteous, caring and compassionate. Leaders who are easily approachable make those around them feel comfortable and at ease. Although it is important, sociability is probably the least critical of the five traits.
Integrity: If people believe you are dishonest and lack trustworthiness, why would they want to follow you? I can honestly say I would not want to work for someone who isn’t going to have my back if I make a single mistake or who isn’t going to fight to get me a raise if they say I deserve one. But just how important is integrity in our recipe? As stated by Zig Ziglar, “It is true that integrity alone won’t make you a leader, but without integrity you will never be one.”
Determining which traits require the highest level of proficiency may vary to some degree depending on the group of followers. However, individuals who possess these five traits in adequate proportions would likely have all of the ingredients necessary to fulfill the recipe for successful leadership.
References
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2016). PSYCH 485 Lesson 02: Trait Approach.
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Samantha Cenna says
I found your post quite strong in both its support and content. I thought the recipe analogy made a ton of sense, in that every leader is different in their strengths and weaknesses and in which proportions they carry these traits. To devil’s advocate, I would like to point out that the trait approach is interesting because it focuses on the leaders personality, but it does not focus on what the leaders do and how they act. The style approach does this in that in takes into consideration the leader themselves, the situation and their followers (PSU, WC, L5, P4). The followers were not discussed at all in the other approaches that we’ve looked at so far. Another downfall of the trait approach is the lack of observable behaviors. Personality is not observable so it makes the approach much more difficult, whereas focusing on the behaviors of a leader is much easier to analyze as seen in the style approach (PSU, EC, L5 P5). The style approach allows you to be able to see a change in a leader’s ability, when the trait approach relies more on the leader’s patterns in behavior (PSU, EC, L5 P5). This again supports the idea that the behaviors are more easily observable than the more abstract ideas such as a leader’s traits. So instead of someone showing a pattern in honesty and integrity which would be very difficult to gage, you could look at the behavior that a leader shows towards their employees. You could see how the relationships develop between the leader and followers, which are observable; or you could look at their task behavior in what gets accomplished by both the leaders and their followers. In no way do I think the trait approach is wrong, its view is just narrow. When taking the style approach into consideration you might find that you get more information from its broader view.
Pennsylvania State University World Campus. (2016). Lesson 5: Style Approach. PSYCH485: Leadership in work settings.