The Trait-Theory Approach

Understanding the importance of different core personality traits can help organizations select leaders.


LEARNING OBJECTIVE

  • Explain the relevance of the trait approach in defining and promoting useful leadership development in the workplace

KEY POINTS

  • According to trait leadership theory, certain integrated patterns of personal characteristics nurture consistent leader effectiveness in a group of people.
  • Trait leadership tries to identify inherent attributes and acquired abilities that differentiate leaders from non-leaders.
  • The traits of effective leaders can be organized into three groups: demographic, task competence, and interpersonal.
  • These leadership traits motivate leaders to perform and achieve goals for the organizations they represent.

TERM

  • Trait Leadership

    Integrated patterns of personal characteristics that nurture the ability to lead a group of people effectively.

Trait leadership also takes into account the distinction between proximal and distal character traits. Proximal characteristics are traits that are malleable and can be developed over time. These include interpersonal skills, problem-solving skills, and communication skills. Distal characteristics are more dispositional; that is, people are born with them. These include traits such as self-confidence, creativity, and charisma. Hoffman and others (2011) found that both types of characteristics are correlated with leader effectiveness, implying that while leaders can be born, they can also be made.

 

Trait Integration in Effective Leaders

Zaccoro and others (2004) introduced a model of leadership that categorized and specified six types of traits that influence leader effectiveness. The model rests on two basic premises about leadership traits. The first premise states that effective leadership derives not from any one trait, but from an integrated set of cognitive abilities, social capabilities, and dispositional tendencies, with each set of traits adding to the influence of the other. The second premise maintains that the traits differ in how directly they influence leadership. The premise suggests that distal attributes (such as dispositional attributes, cognitive abilities, and motives/values) come first and then lead to the development of proximal characteristics. This model contends the following traits are correlated with strong leadership potential: extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, neuroticism, honesty, charisma, intelligence, creativity, achievement motivation, need for power, communication skills, interpersonal skills, problem-solving skills, decision-making skills, technical knowledge, and management skills.

Source: Boundless
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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