According to the Leadership Traits Questionnaire fourteen leadership traits are outlined as follows: articulate, perceptive, self-confident, self-assured, persistent, determined, trustworthy, dependable, friendly, outgoing, conscientious, diligent, sensitive, and emphatic (p. 38).
Out of the fourteen leadership traits, the ones that seemed to have the greatest weight in my opinion on what I would want a leader to have would be in no particular order, persistence, determined, trustworthy, articulate, diligent, dependable and empathetic. Some of the traits that have the least weight, again in my opinion would be friendly, outgoing, sensitive and self-assured.
After further review of the trait approach, Northouse points out not only the strengths of the trait approach but also its weaknesses. According to Northouse, “although an enormous number of studies have been conducted over the past 100 years, the findings from these studies have been ambiguous and uncertain at times (pg. 30).”
Stogdill pointed out over 50 years ago that it is difficult to isolate a set of traits without also factoring situational effects into the equation (pg. 31). Situations influence leadership because someone who may be a good leader in one situation may not be a good leader in a different situation (pg.31).
It is also noted that this approach of leadership traits are highly subjected. I think from personal experience that my boss, Jane Doe is an effective leader because she has the following leadership traits: friendly and outgoing, whereas, my coworker, Mary Smith may disagree and think that those traits are not identified as leadership traits. Mary Smith may think that her perception and empathetic traits are what make her a good leader and contribute to her effectiveness.
Another criticism is that Peter Northouse (pg. 31) states, “Trait research does not provide data on whether leaders who might have high intelligence and strong integrity have better results than leaders without these traits.” According to this, the trait approach is weak in how leaders’ traits affect outcomes of groups in organizational settings (pg. 31).
I took a leadership traits questionnaire and according to the directions took it myself and gave it to five people who know me to complete. I found it interesting to see how I view myself as a leader and how others view me as a leader. In areas that I saw myself as being weaker, most who took the survey indicated higher ratings in those areas.
In my opinion, I think that organizations who use the leadership trait questionnaire when considering an employee gives them a great baseline to see what traits an individual has, even if the individual may not end up in a leadership role.
In summary, I do believe that the perception of leadership may be overly or insufficiently affected by some traits. I think that because everyone has different opinions of what makes an effective leader and what traits correlate into an “effective leader” for that particular person in a specific situation is obviously going to be different not only to each situation but also for each individual as well. I believe that the trait approach is a good guideline for someone wanting to be in a leadership position. But I think it is just that, a guideline.
References:
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice, Sixth Ed. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.