Leadership traits refer to personal qualities that define effective leaders. Here are the major leadership qualities that can make someone a good leader. Five key traits that are common in leaders can be learned and sharpened with time.
From a theoretical viewpoint, there are many reasons to believe that intelligence is related to leadership. On the basis of a comprehensive review, Schmidt and Hunter (1998) reported that intelligence is one of the best predictors of general job performance and the intelligence–performance relationship is stronger for complex jobs. Locke (1991) argued that cognitive ability “is an asset to leaders because leaders must gather, integrate, and interpret enormous amounts of information”. Leaders are responsible for such tasks as developing strategies, solving problems, motivating employees, and monitoring the environment and these are intellectual functions, and having strong verbal ability, perceptual ability, and reasoning appears to make one a better leader. Intelligence and creativity although different from one another, yet found to be related as not only are intelligent leaders better problem solvers, but they are likely to be more creative and foster the creativity of their followers.
Intelligence also may cause a leader to appear as leader-like because when individuals believe that leaders are endowed with certain characteristics and when they observe these characteristics in others, they infer leadership or leadership potential to exist. Intelligence is an exemplary characteristic of leaders. There is a strong statistical link between intelligence and general job performance and studies have demonstrated that intelligence had the strongest correlation with leadership among traits investigated.
Self-confidence is another trait that helps one to be a leader and is the fundamental basis from which leadership grows. Self-confidence includes a sense of self-esteem and self-assurance and the belief that one can make a difference. It’s a combination of the ability to deliver vocally, be influential, possess a sense of presence, and deliver decisions with conviction.
Leadership involves influencing others and is about having the confidence to make decisions. Self-confidence enables the leader to feel assured, commit to his decisions, empower others and be self-assurant of the fact that his or her attempts are appropriate and right. On one hand, confidence allows the leader to make the tough decisions that people expect from a strong leader and on the other hand provides reassurance to the employees as the greater they perceive the force of will of leader, the more faith they have in the mission and decisions of the leader. Hence it allows the leader to lead meetings with authority, to accept candor and open communication.
Determination is the desire to get the job done and includes characteristics such as initiative, persistence, dominance, and drive. A strong vision and the willingness to see it through is one of the most important characterizes of leadership. A good leader must have the determination and the strong work ethic to push forward with things even when they seem impossible. The leader who believes in the mission and works toward it will be an inspiration and a resource to their followers, who is willing to assert them, is proactive, and have the capacity to persevere in the face of obstacles, can show dominance at times and direct followers when required, possess determination as a trait.
Integrity is another of the important leadership traits. Integrity is the quality of honesty and trustworthiness. It is a concept of consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations and outcomes. It connotes a deep commitment to do the right thing for the right reason, regardless of the circumstances. Integrity is closely associated with character and such leaders are loyal, dependable, and not deceptive and walk the talk. People who adhere to a strong set of principles and take responsibility for their actions are exhibiting integrity. Leaders must act with integrity at all times because subordinates are constantly observing the lead figure and leading with integrity inspires confidence in others because followers can trust the leader to do what s/he say.
Sociability traits are characteristics people possess that encourage effective relationships. Sociability depicts friendliness, outgoing nature, and courteous behavior along with tactful and diplomatic ability. Sociability can be defined as the quality or state of being sociable and also the act or an instance of being sociable. Northouse (2007, p.20) describes sociability as the leader's inclination to seek out pleasant social relationships. Social leaders have good interpersonal skills and create cooperative relationships with their followers. Sociability in the workplace helps improve employee interactions because these traits help effectively manage and resolve conflicts, find common ground during workplace disputes or disagreements and encourages workers to get along through compromise and cooperation. Employees who have these traits work within the group culture to achieve goals in the most efficient manner possible.
It was Daniel Goleman who first brought the term “emotional intelligence” to a wide audience with his 1995 book on Emotional Intelligence. Creating a legitimate rapport with your staff makes it less likely that personal issues and resentment can creep in and derail the group. When your team knows that you are empathetic to their concerns, they will be more likely to work with you and share in your vision, rather than foster negative feelings. Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to understand and manage both your own emotions, and those of the people around you. People with a high degree of emotional intelligence usually know what they're feeling, what this means, and how their emotions can affect other people. According to the book there are five main elements of emotional intelligence; Self-awareness, Self-regulation, Motivation, Empathy and Social skills.
Although in the above discussion of leadership traits we have focused only on six major traits, this list is not all-inclusive and other leadership traits listed in the previous article are also associated with effective leadership, we found these traits to be widely accepted to contribute significantly to one being a successful leader.
Humanistic theories of Leadership
Humanistic leadership is an ethical philosophic approach that recognizes the dignity and worth of each and every group or team member. This approach is based on building a leadership culture of trust, ethics, and empathy. Humanistic leadership is a set of principles founded on humanism with vision, mission, values, and expected behaviors. It is value-driven leadership based on principles such as humility, accountability, positivity, and love.
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”.
The Fiedler Model of leadership is a contingency theory and states that a leader's effectiveness is based on the situation. There is no one best style of leadership and the effectiveness of a leader in an organization depends on matching the leader to the situation. Leaders should determine the natural leadership style and assess the situation to flex the style.
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.
Certain generally accepted truths or principles of communication are important to consider when communicating with others. These principles hold true for all people in every culture. By understanding these principles, you will experience greater communication effectiveness. An effective communication system is one that achieved its objectives. Communication is effective where there are no barriers to communication.
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.
The Systemic Approach to Leadership
The systemic approach to leadership looks at the organization as a whole and focuses on the understanding of the organization as a system. Moving to systems thinking demand managers to view organizations as organic systems. Leaders are also part of this complex system which is constantly undergoing change and evolving. The leaders need to manage the relations and networks within these systems by acting with systemic awareness.
The four theory of leadership was formulated after studying hundreds of leaders and the model includes four basic dimensions of effective leadership - support; interaction; facilitation; goal emphasis, and work facilitation. This model was tested as a predictor of an organization's effectiveness.
In this study of power, Raven identified five bases of power as coercive, reward, legitimate, referent, and expert. The 5 Types of Power can help you decide when it is appropriate to use a particular type of power in important situations. Leadership involves authority and it is very important for leaders to understand what type of power they're using.
The skills approach to leadership suggests that certain skills are important for effective leadership. Skills are what leaders can learn and develop, whereas traits are innate characteristics. The main skills needed for leadership, according to one such theory, are technical, human, and conceptual.
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