Trait theories of leadership explain the leadership traits that have been studied to determine what makes certain people great leaders. The practical application of the theory is looking at how the leader‟s behavior affects their subjects.
The trait approach is very different from the other leadership approaches as it concentrates on the leader and not on the situation or the followers or other circumstances or factors. This approach emphasizes that having a leader with a certain set of traits is critical for a leader to be effective.
We have already discussed some shortcomings of the trait theory of leadership in the previous article. In spite of these limitations, the trait theories provides valuable information about leadership and can be practically applied by professionals at all levels and in all types of organizations to perform a self-assessment and compare you traits with those who are successful in a specific career. Most of the assessment devices that result from trait theory are self-report type tests. The person being tested responds to questions and these responses may or may not be accurate.
A great deal of research has gone into the determination of traits that are helpful in specific types of jobs and there exists many career type assessment measures that look at personality traits and compare your traits with those who are successful in a specific career. The rationale behind these tests is the assumption that if most successful and happy professionals possess specific traits (example are conscientious, agreeable, understanding) and based on the assessment you conclude that you also have these same traits, one could conclude that you are likely to succeed as a professional in same career field.
If you look at the assumptions and theoretical conclusions that were made under the Trait Theories of Leadership, you may start to notice some commonalities. Please refer to the Trait Theory Development Timeline in one of the previous article where in the table we have listed various traits by various researchers as they evolved over the timeline. Many different researchers, from different schools of thought have studied the aspects of personality and traits and they concluded that there exists several interesting similarities. While different theorists may use different terminology, some common factors or personality traits have shown up in a rather consistent pattern.
Given below is the list of some practical applications of the trait theory of leadership:
Various organizations use a various types of questionnaires to measure individuals’ personality characteristics or traits. Given below are some commonly used standard personality measures that are used to gather valuable information about individual’s unique attributes for leadership roles and to analyze the best fit for individual in the organization.
We have created a small quiz as an example that can be used to assess your personal leadership characteristics. This quiz measures an individual’s traits and points the individual to the areas in which that individual may have special strengths or weaknesses. By taking this quiz you can gain a quick understanding of how trait measures are used for leadership assessment. This quiz will also give you a flavor of personality tests that are used by employers to measure/judge leadership traits of the potential hires.
Robert Katz identified three leadership skills called - technical skills, human skills, and conceptual skills as the basic personal skills essential for leadership. Leaders must possess these three skills that assist them in optimizing a leader's performance. Technical skills are related to the field, human skills are related to communicating with people and conceptual skills related to setting the vision.
Continuum of leadership is a leadership theory based on the relationship between the level of freedom given to the team and the level of authority used by the manager. The chosen leadership style will depend on multiple factors, including the leader's personality.
Leadership Participation Inventory (LPI)
Kouzes and Posner introduced the Leadership Participation Inventory model of Transformational leadership. This model is also known as Kouzes and Posner's Leadership Challenge Model. They identified five practices of exemplary leadership - Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enabling Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart.
Neo-Emergent Leadership theory supports that leadership is created through the emergence of information. Leaders can only be recognized after a goal is met. Follower’s perception of leaders is influenced by the ways these goals were accomplished.
Five Factors Model (FFM) also known as Five-Factor Personality Model is based on five broad personality traits which are extraversion, neuroticism, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness represented by acronym OCEAN, these traits are often referred to as the “Big Five”.
Transformational Theories of Leadership
Transformational leadership theories focus on the leadership approach where the leader encourages, inspires employees to innovate and create positive and valuable organizational change. A transformational leader works towards “transforming” the culture to one that cultivates trust, mutual admiration, loyalty, and respect with the end goal of developing followers into leaders. Transformational leaders are known to be visionary, inspiring, daring, risk-takers, and thoughtful.
Role theory is a concept in sociology and the role theory of leadership borrows these concepts to explain how people adapt to specific organizational and leadership roles. How the leaders and followers in an organizational context define their own roles, define the roles of others, how people act in their roles and how people expect people to act in their roles within the organization.
Management theories are the recommended management strategies that enable us to better understand and approach management. Many management frameworks and guidelines were developed during the last four decades.
Participative Leadership Theories
Participative leadership theories rely on the involvement of different participants and suggest that the ideal leadership style is one that takes the inputs of others into account. Participative leaders encourage participation and contributions from group members and involve them in the decision-making process. Participative leadership tries to achieve through people, teamwork and collaboration.
The multiple linkage model states that leadership effectiveness is based on six variables. Multiple variables of a leader's behavior and situation have a linkage to the performance of the individual follower and work unit performance. The theory is based on the notion of the link between the organization process and managerial influence.
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