The way a child is raised effects the qualities they develop. Many times the middle child is overlooked. They are left to figure things out on their own. This allows them to develop traits, skills, and a personality to be an effective leader. An article by Lynne Griffin shows the qualities a middle child develops due to the way they are brought up. Being a middle child myself, I think the article is accurate and supported by the Trait and Skills approach. The middle child has certain traits that enable them to use skills in order to lead a group to success.

The Traits Approach explains the Five Factor Model of personality. The five factors include: conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience, and extroversion. Individuals who score high on conscientiousness are hard working, enjoy planning, and are committed. Those who have a high agreeableness score are friendly and work well in teams. In individual who is high on neuroticism can handle stress well. This individual is calm and stable. Openness to experience describes a person who enjoys trying new things. They are willing to take more risk in search for an adventure. A high score on extroversion describes an individual who is self confident and out going. These traits are typically found in successful leaders. The skills approach focuses on skills a leader can learn rather than on traits a leader is born with. The skills approach described by Katz is a three skills model. This model contains technical, human, and conceptual skills. Technical skills are those specific to the certain task at hand. If a leader is working at a software development company, the technical skills would be coding and programing. Technical skills are more important for lower level leaders such as supervisors. Human skills are what people know as people skills. Human skills are being able to recognize emotions or being able to motivate an employee. This skill is important for middle and upper management positions. Conceptual skills is the ability to have a vision and goal. It is seeing a direction and future for the organization that one is leading. This skill is important for top level management such as CEO. The combination of these traits and skills in a middle child make them great leaders.

The middle child shows agreeableness and human skills by being a social being and a great team player. This develops because they learn to relate to both the older and younger child. They become well rounded and are able to adapt to many situations, an aspect of neuroticism. 52% of Presidents in the United States have been the middle child. Being neglected growing up is an advantage for them in the long run. They are able to become independent and think outside the box expressing their openness to experience. They are not influenced easily but they are more empathetic. They are also more oriented to principles and concepts and so focus on justice. These components together show that they can be equal parts skilled in human and conceptual skills.

The middle child is not used to getting their way. In order to get what they want they need to develop skills that we see in good negotiators. They learn to compromise and find a solution that will be beneficial to all parties. Risk taking and openness to experience is also seen in a middle child. A leader with these qualities will not be afraid to try new things in order to solve problems. Many times the middle child will have low self esteem because the lack of attention at home. This is good because they do not have huge egos. High self esteem does not correlate to better grades in school or greater success in life.

It is important to realize that the qualities the middle child develops are due to the way the child is brought up. The environment of being the middle child molds who they become. The middle child becomes flexible and can adapt to many situations. They are open minded and empathetic, which enable them to relate to others. They fit well with others and avoid conflict. Taken together, the middle child becomes a well rounded individual. I believe that those qualities do prepare them to become great leaders.