The Major Leadership Traits

1. Intelligence:

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.

2. Self-Confidence:

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.

3. Determination:

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.

4. Integrity:

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.

5. Sociability:

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.

6. Emotional Intelligence:

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.