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Leadership TraitsLeadership Traits

“Rule 13: When put into a position of command, take charge.”

~Norman Schwarzkopf

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Great Man TheoryGreat Man Theory

The Great Man Theory attempted to prove that leaders and followers are fundamentally different.

Conclusions of the research:Leaders were not qualitatively different than

followers.Characteristics, such as intelligence, initiative,

stress tolerance, responsibility, friendliness, and dominance, were modestly related to leadership success.

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Personality Traits and LeadershipPersonality Traits and Leadership

Personality is: The impression a person makes on others. The underlying, unseen structures and processes inside a

person that explain why we behave the way we do.

Traits refer to recurring regularities or trends in a person’s behavior.

The trait approach to personality maintains that people behave the way they do because of the strengths of the traits they possess.

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Personality Traits and Leadership (continued)

Personality Traits and Leadership (continued)

Personality traits are useful concepts for explaining why people act fairly consistently from one situation to the next.

Knowing how two people differ on a particular personality trait can help us predict more accurately how they will tend to act in a variety of situations.

A leader’s behavior reflects an interaction between his or her personality traits and various situational factors: Weak situations Strong situations

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The Five Factor Model of PersonalityThe Five Factor Model of Personality

The five major dimensions of the Five Factor Model of Personality include:SurgencyDependabilityAgreeablenessAdjustmentIntelligence

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Implications of the Five Factor ModelImplications of the Five Factor Model

People tend to describe others using traitlike terms, and personality traits can be reliably categorized into the five major dimensions of the FFM.

Personality traits can be reliably assessed, and these assessments can be used to make predictions about how people will typically behave at work.

There is an overwhelming body of research that shows that all five of the FFM dimensions are related to leadership success across different cultures.

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Implications of the Five Factor Model (continued)

Implications of the Five Factor Model (continued)

Personality traits tend to be difficult to change – people are “hard wired” to exhibit those behaviors associated with their personality traits.

All behavior is under conscious control.Having insight into one’s personality traits can give

people information about their potential leadership strengths and development needs and how much effort they will have to put forth to overcome these needs.

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Why Do Some Leaders Fail?Why Do Some Leaders Fail?

Approximately 50% of the persons in leadership positions may be incompetent.

Reasons for high level of incompetence:Invalid selection and succession planning

systemsIll-defined performance expectationsPoorly designed leadership development

programs

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Dark-Side Personality TraitsDark-Side Personality Traits

The eleven dark-side personality traits are: Excitable Skeptical Cautious Reserved Leisurely Bold Mischievous Colorful Imaginative Diligent Dutiful

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Dark-Side Personality TraitsDark-Side Personality Traits

Everyone has at least one dark-side personality trait. Dark-side traits have bigger influence on performance for

people in leadership versus followership roles. The dark-side traits are usually only apparent when leaders

are not attending to their public image. Dark-side traits co-vary with social skills and are difficult to

detect in interviews, assessment centers, or with bright-side personality inventories.

The behaviors associated with dark-side personality traits can occur at any leadership level, and many times organizations tolerate these behaviors because the leader is smart, experienced, or possesses unique skills.

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Intelligence and LeadershipIntelligence and Leadership

Research provides overwhelming evidence to support the notion that general intelligence plays a substantial role in human affairs.

Intelligence is a person’s all-around effectiveness in activities directed by thought.

Intelligent leaders: Are faster learners. Make better assumptions, deductions, and inferences. Are better at creating a compelling vision and developing

strategies to make their vision a reality. Can develop better solutions to problems. Can see more of the primary and secondary implications of

their decisions. Are quicker on their feet than leaders who are less intelligent.

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The Triarchic Theory of IntelligenceThe Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

The Triarchic Theory of Intelligence consists of:Analytic intelligencePractical intelligenceCreative intelligence

Divergent thinking Convergent thinking

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The Components of Creative IntelligenceThe Components of Creative Intelligence

Research suggests that creativity appears to be made up of seven components:Synthetic abilityAnalytic intelligencePractical intelligenceThinking stylePersonality factorsIntrinsic motivationEnvironmental factors

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Implications of the Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

Implications of the Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

Leadership effectiveness or emergence is positively correlated with analytic intelligence.

Leadership situations that are relatively routine, unchanging, or require specific in-depth product or process knowledge may place more importance on practical intelligence than analytic intelligence.

Leaders revert to well-practiced behaviors under periods of high stress and change, and leaders with high levels of practical intelligence have a relatively broad set of coping and problem-solving behaviors to draw upon in these situations.

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Organizational CreativityOrganizational Creativity

Leaders should remember that their primary role is not so much to be creative themselves as to build an environment where others can be creative.

Research has shown that people tend to generate more creative solutions when they are told to focus on their intrinsic motivation for doing so rather than on the extrinsic motivation.

Leaders may want to hold off on evaluating new ideas until they are all on the table, and should also encourage their followers to do the same.

Leaders who need to develop new products and services should try to minimize the level of turnover in their teams and provide them with clear goals.

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Intelligence and Stress: Cognitive Resources Theory

Intelligence and Stress: Cognitive Resources Theory

Recent research suggests that stress plays a key role in determining just how a leader’s intelligence affects his or her effectiveness.

The Cognitive Resources Theory consists of several key concepts:IntelligenceExperienceStressGroup Performance

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Cognitive Resources TheoryCognitive Resources Theory

Leaders with greater experience but lower intelligence are hypothesized to have higher-performing groups under conditions of high stress.

Leaders with high levels of experience will have a tendency to misapply old solutions to problems when creative solutions are called for.

It is not the most intelligent but the most experienced members of organizations who are selected to be leaders.

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Cognitive Resource Theory ConcernsCognitive Resource Theory Concerns

The apparent dichotomy between intelligence and experience: Research showed not only that many leaders were both

intelligent and experienced, but also that they would fall back on their experience in stressful situations and use their intelligence to solve group problems in less-stressful situations.

The leader’s ability to tolerate stress: Leaders may do well in high-stress situations even when they

lack experience because of their inherent ability to handle stress.

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Implications of the Cognitive Resource Theory

Implications of the Cognitive Resource Theory

The best leaders are often smart and experienced.

Leaders may not be aware of the degree to which they are causing stress in their followers.

The level of stress inherent in the position needs to be understood before selection of leaders.

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Emotional Intelligence and LeadershipEmotional Intelligence and Leadership

Emotional Intelligence is: A group of mental abilities that help people to recognize

their own feelings and those of others. Another way of measuring human effectiveness and a set

of abilities necessary to cope with daily situations and get along in the world.

The degree to which thoughts, feelings, and actions are aligned.

Two models of Emotional Intelligence: Ability model Mixed model

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Implications of Emotional IntelligenceImplications of Emotional Intelligence

People can be extremely ineffective when their thoughts, feelings, and actions are misaligned.

Leaders who are thinking or feeling one thing and actually doing something else are less effective in their ability to influence groups toward the accomplishment of their goals.

When recognized and leveraged properly emotions can be the motivational fuel that help individuals and groups to accomplish their goals.

Some researchers believe that emotional intelligence is more important than intelligence when it comes to leadership success.

It appears that EQ attributes would be difficult to change as a result of training intervention.

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SummarySummaryThe situation will dictate which personality

traits, components of intelligence, or emotional attributes will positively affect a leader’s ability to influence a group.

The Five Factor Model comprises the bright side of personality, but there are a number of traits that also contribute the dark side of personality.

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Summary (continued)Summary (continued)The most recent theory for understanding

intelligence divides it into three related components: Analytic intelligence Practical intelligence Creative intelligence

Leaders who can better align their thoughts and feelings with their actions may be more effective than leaders who think and feel one way about something but then do something different about it.

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