chapter 2, traits, motives and characteristics of leadership

Chapter 2

Traits, Motives, and Characteristics of Leaders

Personality Traits of Effective Leaders

Observations by managers and human resource specialists, as well as dozen of research studies, indicated that leaders have certain personality traits.

Leaders’ personality traits can be divided into two groups:

1. General Personality Traits

2. Task-related Traits

General Personality Traits


General Personality Traits

General personality trait is defined as a trait that is observable both within and outside the context of work.

That is, the same general traits are related to success and satisfaction in both work and professional life.


General Personality Traits (Continued)

Such traits are listed below:

Self Confidence Trustworthiness Dominance Extroversion Assertiveness Emotional Stability Enthusiasm Sense of Humor Warmth High tolerance for Frustration Self-awareness and Self-objectivity



Self-confidence

A leader who is self-assured without being bombastic or overbearing instills confidence in team members.

It is akin to being cool under pressure.

The leader must project his/her self-confidence to the group he/she leads.

He/She can do so by using unequivocal wording, maintaining good posture and maintaining appropriate gestures such as pointing an index finger outward.



Trustworthiness

Group members consistently believe that leaders must display honesty, integrity, and credibility thus engendering trust.

The importance of honesty also emerged in a study by the Center for Creative Leadership.

Research showed that managers who become executive leaders are like to espouse the following formula:

“I will do exactly what I say I will do what I say I will do it. If I changed my mind, I will tell you in advance so you will not be harmed by my action.”



Dominance

A dominant person imposes his or her will on others.

As a consequence a dominant leader is often seen as domineering or bossy.

Extroversion

Extroversion is helpful for leaders to be gregarious and outgoing in most situations.

Also, extroverts are more likely to want to assume a leadership role and participate in group activities.

Even though it is logical think that extroversion is related to leadership, many effective leaders are laid-back and even introverted.



Assertiveness

Assertiveness refers to being forthright in expressing demands, opinions, feelings, and attitudes.

Assertiveness helps leaders perform many tasks and achieve goals.

Among them are confronting group members about their mistakes, demanding higher performance, setting high expectations, and making legitimate demands on higher management.



Assertiveness (Continued)

To be assertive differs significantly from being aggressive or passive.

Aggressive people express their demands in an overly pushy, obnoxious, and abrasive manner.

Passive people suppress their own ideas, attitudes, feelings, and thoughts as if they were likely to be perceived as controversial.

As a result of being passive, a person might not be recommended for large salary increases, good assignments, and promotion.



Emotional Stability

Emotional stability refers to the ability to control emotions to the point that ones emotional responses are appropriate to the occasion.

One study found that executive leaders who are emotionally unstable and lack composure are more likely to handle pressure poorly and give in to moodiness, outbursts of anger and inconsistent behavior.

In contrast, effective leaders are generally calm, confident, and predictable during a crisis.



Enthusiasm

For an effective leaders, it is desirable to be enthusiastic in almost all the leadership situations.

Enthusiasm builds good relationship between a leaders and his subordinates.

Group members tend to respond positively to enthusiasm, partly because enthusiasm may be perceived as a reward to constructive behavior.



Sense of Humor

Effective use of humor is considered an important part pf a leader’s role.

It serves such functions in the workplace as relieving tension and boredom and defusing hostility and helps him/her exert power over the group.



Warmth

Being a warm person and projecting that warmth contributes to leadership effectiveness in several ways:

First, warmth facilitates the establishment of rapport with group members.

Second, the projection of warmth is a key component of charisma.

Third, warmth is trait that facilitates providing emotional support to group members.



High Tolerance for Frustration

This trait is important because a leaders encounters great frustrations.

For example, a manager might invest a year in developing a strategic plan and then be informed that top management does not want the plan implemented.



Self-awareness and Self-objectivity

Effective leaders are aware of their strengths and limitations.

This awareness enables them to capitalize on their strengths and develop their weaknesses.

Task-Related Personality Traits


Task-Related Personality Traits

Certain personality traits of effective leaders are closely associated with accomplishment even though they still seem to fall more accurately in trait category rather than the behavior category.

Following are the task-related personality traits:

Initiative Sensitivity to Others and Empathy Flexibility and Adaptability Internal Locus of Control Courage Resiliency


Task-Related Personality Traits (Continued)

Initiative

Exercising initiative, or being a self-starter, refers to take action without support and stimulation from others.

Initiative refers to the proactive side of leadership.

Rather than reacting to events, effective leaders make choices and take actions that leads to change.



Sensitivity to Others and Empathy

Achieving sensitivity to others requires empathy, the ability to place oneself in other person’s shoes.

This type of sensitivity to others means understanding who the group members are, what their position on issues is, and how to best communicate with and influence them.

The lack of sensitivity to others is to risk becoming a failed leader.

Sensitive leaders can “read” the other side more accurately thus doing a better job in the negotiator role.



Flexibility and Adaptability

A leader is someone who facilitates change.

It therefore follows that a leader must be flexible enough to cope with such changes as technological advances, downsizings, a shifting customer base and a changing workforce.

Leaders who are flexible are able to adjust the demands of different situations.



Internal Locus of Control

People with internal locus of control believe that they are prime mover behind events.

Thus, an internal locus of control helps a leader in the role of a take-charge person because the leader believes fundamentally in his or her innate capacity to take charge.

An internal locus of control is closely related to self-confidence because the person perceives that he or she can control circumstances enough to perform well.



Courage

Leaders need courage to face challenges of taking prudent risks and taking initiative in general.

It takes courage for a leader to suggest a new undertaking because if the undertaking fails, the leader is often seen as having failed.



Resiliency

An important observation about effective leaders is that they are resilient—they bounce back quickly from setbacks such as budget cuts, demotions, and being fired.

A study of effective leaders revealed that they don’t even think about failure; in fact they don’t even use the word.

Instead, they rely on synonyms such as mistake, glitch, bungle, and setback.

In practice, this means that the leaders sets an example for team members by not crumbling when something when something goes wrong.

Instead, leader tries to conduct business as usual.

Leadership Motives

Leadership Motives

Effective leaders have frequently been distinguished by their motives and needs.

In general leaders have an intense desire to occupy a position of responsibility for others and to control them.

There are four motives that motivate them to lead. All four of them can be considered task-related:

1. The Power Motive

2. Socialized Power Motive

3. Drive and Achievement Motivation

4. Strong Work Ethic

Leadership Motives

The Power Motive

Effective leaders have strong need to control resources.

Leaders with high power motives have three dominant characteristics:

1. They act with vigor and determination to exert their power.

2. They invest much time in thinking about ways to alter behavior and thinking of others; and

3. They care about their personal standing with those around them.

Leadership Motives

Personalized Power Motive

Leaders with a personalized power motive seek power mostly to further their own interest.

They crave the trappings of power, such as status symbols, luxury, and money.

Their need for dominance can lead submissive subordinates who are frequently sycophants and yes persons.

Leadership Motives

Socialized Power Motive

Leaders with a socialized power motive use power primarily to achieve organizational goal or vision.

In this context the term socialized means that the leader uses power primarily to help others.

As a result he or she is likely to provide more effective leadership.

Leaders with socialized power motives, in contrast to leaders with personalized power motives, tend to be more emotionally mature.

Leaders with socialized power motive are less defensive, and are more willing to accept expert advice. They have longer-range perspective.

Leadership Motives

Drive and Achievement Motivation

Leaders are known for the strong effect they invest in achieving work goals.

Drive refers to a propensity to put forth high energy into achieving goals and to have a persistence in applying the energy.

Drive also includes achievement motivation, finding joy in accomplishment for its own sake.

Entrepreneurs and high-level corporate managers usually have strong achievement motivation.

Leadership Motives

Strong Work Ethic

Effective leaders typically have a strong work ethic, a firm believe in the dignity of work.

People with strong work ethic are well motivated because they value hard work; not to work hard clashes with their values.

Strong work ethic helps organizational leader believe that the group task is worthwhile.

Cognitive Factors

and

Leadership

Cognitive Factors and Leadership

Mental ability as well as personality is important for leadership success.

To inspire people, bring about constructive change, and solve problems creatively, leaders need to mentally sharp.

Another mental requirement for leader is the ability to sort out essential information from the less essential and then store the most important in memory.

Problem solving and intellectual skills referred to collectively as cognitive factors.

The term cognition refers to the mental process or faculty by which knowledge is gathered


Mental Ability and the Cognitive Resource Theory

A current theory of leadership supports what has been known for many years: Effective leaders have good problem solving ability.

Cognitive resource theory is based on two key assumption:

1. Intelligent and competent leaders make more effective plans, decisions, and strategies than do leaders with less intelligence or competence.

2. Leaders of task groups communicate their plans, decisions, and actions strategies primarily in the form of directive behavior.

Strong problem-solving ability is an asset to leaders, who must collect, integrate, and interpret enormous amounts of data.


Knowledge of the Business

Intellectual ability is closely related to having knowledge of the business.

An effective leaders has to be technically or professionally competent in some discipline, particularly when leading a group of specialists.

It is difficult for the leader to establish rapport with group members when he or she does not know what they are doing and when the group does not respect the leader’s technical skills.

The importance of knowledge of the business is increasingly being organized as an attribute of executive leadership.


Creativity

Many effective leaders are creative in the sense that they arrive at imaginative and original solutions to complex problems.

Creative ability lies on a continuum, with some leaders being more creative than others.

At one end of the creative continuum are business leaders who think of innovative products and services.

At the middle of the creative continuum are leaders who explore imaginative—but not breakthrough—solutions to business problems.

At the low end of the creative continuum are leaders who inspires group members to push forward with standard solutions to organizational problems.


Insight into People and Situations

Another important cognitive trait of effective leaders is insight, a depth of understanding that requires considerable intuition and common sense.

A manager with keen insight is able to make wise choices in selecting people for key assignments.

Another major advantage of being insightful is that the leader cab size up the situation and adapt his or her leadership approach accordingly.

Insight is also closely linked to perceiving trends in the environment. Leader must be able to process many different types of information, and use their perceptions to predict the direction of environmental forces.


Farsightedness

To develop vision and corporate strategy, a leader needs farsightedness, the ability to understand the long-range implications of actions and policies.

Ray J. Friant, Jr., recommends that to develop as future business leaders, junior executives should be given long-term assignment in long-range planning and implementation.

At the same time they should go through their usual developmental rotations such as intermediate-term assignments in marketing and manufacturing.


Openness to Experience

Yet another important cognitive characteristic of leaders is their openness to experience, or their positive orientation toward learning.

People who have great deal of openness to experience have well-developed intellects.

Traits commonly associated with the dimension of the intellect include being imaginative, cultured, curious, original, broad-minded, intelligent and artistically sensitive.

END OF CHAPTER

chapter 2, traits, motives and characteristics of leadership

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