Leadership Traits: What matters the most?
The phenomenon of leadership is one of the most wildly studied and most interesting facets of our human makeup. One of the main questions revolving around the subject of leadership is what “makes” a leader. Can leaders be trained, or are leaders born with certain traits, or characteristics, that make them “natural” leaders? If leaders are in-fact born with specific leadership traits, which of these traits are most important, and are these traits consistently displayed across those considered to be leaders? Will a natural “born leader” be effective in every situation? I suggest that leadership is both a combination of inherited traits for the emergence of leadership, and the application of effective leadership practices for the sustainability and effectiveness of leaders.
In my personal experience, I feel that leadership occurs in phases. The first phase is the emergence of a leader. “Leader emergence is defined as both an individual’s completion of leader-like work duties and occupying positions of leadership or authority either within or outside of the work domain” (Reichard et al, 2011). Leadership emergence can happen naturally, such as a player on a soccer field taking control of the on-the-field play. Conversely, leadership can also occur mechanically, such as in the cases of a workplace promotion. In both cases, there is the initial recognition by a group of “followers” that a leader has emerged. Certain traits have been found to correlate with the natural emergence of leadership, such as what are known as the “Big Five Personality Factors”. These five factors are: low neuroticism, high extraversion, and positive tendencies towards openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness (Northouse, 2016). Meta-analysis supports that leadership emergence positively correlates with extraversion, openness to experience, and conscientiousness as predictors of emergence (Judge et al, 2002). Extraversion is the factor most positively associated with leadership (Northouse, 2016). Witnessing leaders emerging happens to us throughout our lives, however this instance of emergence has nothing to do with whether or not the leader will be ultimately successful. “Leader emergence, rather than effectiveness, is often a product of others’ perceptions of an individual’s abilities” (Reichard et al, 2011). Emergence does not equal effectiveness. Leadership effectiveness does not merely exist through titles or rank, it is a continuous cycle between leaders and followers of expectations and performance. Naturally, leadership effectiveness will be ultimately judged by those in the position of followers. An ineffective leader can fade as quickly in the minds of their followers just as quickly as they’d previously emerged.
Though leaders may possess the traits to emerge, they may not always be successful. Situational factors may exist that may support or limit the effectiveness of leaders. Northouse (2016) notes that “people who possess certain traits that make them leaders in one situation may not be leaders in another situation. Some people may have the traits that help them emerge as leaders but not the traits that allow them to maintain their leadership over time” (p. 30). Once leadership emerges, certain other traits must take precedence for a leader to transition into effectiveness. Once in the leadership position, “followers” are looking towards the leader to demonstrate additional capacities which can help further their interests greater than they can perform alone. While the emergent leadership traits are still important for effectiveness, other leadership traits such as intelligence start to come into play. I believe that it is important when considering intelligence to note that there is a difference between emotional intelligence and rational intelligence. Rational intelligence is useful for learning skills of a specific job. Recent studies suggest that emotional intelligence, or being “sensitive to their emotions and to the impact of their emotions on others” is a predictor of leadership effectiveness (Northouse, 2016, p. 39). In my own experience, rational intelligence can predict the effectiveness of a supervisor or manager, where understanding technical aspects of a job are important for effectiveness in that role. Managers, however, are not always “leaders”. In the video Personality Development Skills – Leadership Skills (2010), it is noted “to be a good leader it is critical to distinguish between the ability to perform and the ability to lead a performance”. Leaders possess the emotional intelligence to be able to understand the emotions of their teams, know what motivates them to perform, and wrest their team’s maximum performance.
The big five personality traits are important in the emergence of leadership, and other leadership traits come into play for the sustainability of effective leadership. However, the lack of or absence of any one of the big five personality traits does not necessarily mean that a person cannot be an effective leader. Though extroversion is a high predictor of leadership emergence and effectiveness, I have known many introverts that are effective leaders of their teams. While traits are important factors for leaders to study and understand, there’s no single list of traits that will ultimately predict the effectiveness of a leader, and definitions on these traits themselves is often controversial (Northouse, 2016). Situational factors are important conditions which will ultimately determine the effectiveness of a leader, and different situations call for different leadership traits.
References:
Judge, T. A., Heller, D., and Mount, M. K., (2002). Five-factor model of personality and job satisfaction: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(3), 530-541.
[Learn English with Let’s Talk]. (2010, July 12). Personality Development Skills Chapter 02 – Leadership Skills. [Video File]. Retrieved January 15th, 2018 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-jEQs_FeGc
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications
Reichard, R. J., Riggio, R. E., Guerin, D.W., Oliver, P. H., Gottfried, A. W., Gottfried, A. E. (2011). A longitudinal analysis of relationships between adolescent personality and intelligence with adult leader emergence and transformational leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 22(3), 471-481.
czm95 says
Kirk,
Great points concerning leadership traits and the application of such. I agree that an effective leader would likely have a complex combination of both. This reminds me of the nature/nurture debate. I look at my 4 year old daughter, whom by all accounts is a “born leader”. An extroverted, determined, rational as well as emotionally intelligent little girl and I wonder how I can help her hone in on these traits in her pursuit of world domination. Your point regarding perception really had me thinking though. We were at a baseball game last summer, and 3 year old Bianca approached a group of older boys, around 7 or 8 years old. She confidently walked up and stood in front of the circle they were sitting in and commanded their attention. They all looked at her in surprised silence as she proceeded to inform them of how many “My Little Ponies” she had in her collection. I’m reminded of the way that her realm of influence was instantly reduced and the potential emergence of leadership was pushed to another day. Little did she know, that there were a few little girls that had been quietly following behind her as she made her way over to the group just minutes before, and it seemed that her following was growing stronger at the sound of “My Little Pony”. The perception of the initial group of girls actually helped Bianca emerge as a leader in the context of little girls playgroups at the baseball game even though she had not been a successful influence with the boys and as Northouse (2016) put it, an affective leader in one situation may not be effective in another situation. Further, your explanation of Northouse’s point about someone having a trait that allows for emergence but not possessing the traits to sustain the position were also interesting. Again, this got me thinking about my daughter, as she grows, will she maintain that extroversion and self-confidence it took to approach those boys? Her extrovertedness will likely stick as it is innate but how many times will her confidence take a hit before she becomes dejected and how can I help her maintain her drive to lead? It is a parent’s task to nurture the positive innate traits, I just hope that the perception of leadership emergence is enough to help facilitate the traits that can be diminished.
Reference
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadershio: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.
czm95 says
Kirk,
Great points concerning leadership traits and the application of such. I agree that an effective leader would likely have a complex combination of both. This reminds me of the nature/nurture debate. I look at my 4 year old daughter, whom by all accounts is a “born leader”. An extroverted, determined, rational as well as emotionally intelligent little girl and I wonder how I can help her hone in on these traits in her pursuit of world domination. Your point regarding perception really had me thinking though. We were at a baseball game last summer, and 3 year old Bianca approached a group of older boys, around 7 or 8 years old. She confidently walked up and stood in front of the circle they were sitting in and commanded their attention. They all looked at her in surprised silence as she proceeded to inform them of how many “My Little Ponies” she had in her collection. I’m reminded of the way that her realm of influence was instantly reduced and the potential emergence of leadership was pushed to another day. Little did she know, that there were a few little girls that had been quietly following behind her as she made her way over to the group just minutes before, and it seemed that her following was growing stronger at the sound of “My Little Pony”. The perception of the initial group of girls actually helped Bianca emerge as a leader in the context of little girls playgroups at the baseball game even though she had not been a successful influence with the boys and as Northouse (2016) put it, an affective leader in one situation may not be effective in another situation. Further, your explanation of Northouse’s point about someone having a trait that allows for emergence but not possessing the traits to sustain the position were also interesting. Again, this got me thinking about my daughter, as she grows, will she maintain that extroversion and self-confidence it took to approach those boys? Her extrovertedness will likely stick as it is innate but how many times will her confidence take a hit before she becomes dejected and how can I help her maintain her drive to lead? It is a parent’s task to nurture the positive innate traits, I just hope that the perception of leadership emergence is enough to help facilitate the traits that can be diminished.
cdl5 says
Hi Kirk,
I concur that leadership is a combination of inherited traits and the effective application of leadership practices. As you read in my blog post, I asserted that the trait approach was virtually obsolete with the abundance of theories suggesting that leadership can be developed, but the distinction you made between leadership emergence and leadership effectiveness had me thinking about how extroversion and introversion can demonstrate effective leadership based on the situation.
If we accept some aspects of the trait approach, such that certain traits are innate and can contribute to effective or ineffective leadership, perhaps those traits can vary in effectiveness. Dool, Kuofie, and Stephens (2015) assert that “employees’ perceptions of introverted leaders may initially be more positive due to expectations but can decline based on future actions” (p. 100). As you mentioned on my blog post, emergence does not equal effectiveness. Traits in and of themselves cannot determine the effectiveness of a leader because those traits must be consistently applied in one’s actions. An individual may consider him or herself to be a leader because they value integrity and honesty, but if they’re discovered to be lying—even just once—their trustworthiness as a leader significantly declines. Dool et al. further describe how many people demonstrate both extroversion and introversion but tend to have a preference for one over the other. This research supports the assertion that traits can be applied in various situations, in contrast to the trait approach to leadership that suggests you are born with traits, you do not acquire them. Dool et al. (2015) explain that “a preference does not mean an absence of functioning or inability to take on the other, less preferred traits” (p. 95).
In your comment on my blog post, you wrote that you often felt like you weren’t good enough or as effective as a leader because of your tendency toward introversion. Reading through the studies of leadership traits and characteristics, Mann (1959) and Zaccaro, Kemp and Bader (2004) noted extraversion as leadership traits (Northouse, 2016, p. 22). However, several of these studies are growing to be outdated as new research reveals that introversion and extroversion are more or less effective depending on the situation. You should take solace in your ability to analyze and consider information before making important decisions, because it is a quality that is becoming increasingly important in the 21st century.
References:
Dool, R., Kuofie, M., & Stephens-Craig, D. (2015). An overview perception of introverted leaders. International Journal of Global Business, 8, 93-103.
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.