Leader characteristics

What makes an effective leader?

Andy Weeger

Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences

February 14, 2024

Introduction

What was the most interesting finding in reading Judge et al. (2002)?

Leadership depends on the personal qualities of the leader. Trait theory

Height?

Figure 1: Dilbert comic strip on leadership

The Big Five

Neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.

The Big Five traits have been found to be relevant to many aspects of life, such as subjective well-being (e.g., DeNeve & Cooper, 1998) and even longevity (Friedman et al., 1995). They also provide a valuable taxonomy for the study of leadership (Judge et al., 2002).

• Neuroticism refers to the tendency to experience the world as stressful, threatening and uncertain.
• Extraversion refers to the tendency to be sociable, assertive, active, and to experience positive affects, such as energy and zeal.
• Openness to Experience is the disposition to be imaginative, nonconforming, unconventional, and autonomous.
• Agreeableness refers to the tendency to be trusting, compliant, caring, and gentle.
• Conscientiousness refers to the tendency to be responsible, organized, hard-working, goal-directed, and to adhere to norms and rules.

Dicussion

What traits distinguish leaders from other people?

Relation to leadership

Figure 2: Regression of Leadership on Big Five Traits according to the meta study of Judge et al. (2002)

Leadership effectiveness refers to a leader’s performance in influencing and guiding the activities of his or her unit toward achievement of its goals (Stogdill, 1950).

Leadership emergence refers to whether (or to what degree) an individual is viewed as a leader by others, who typically have only limited information about that individual’s performance (Hogan et al., 1994).

Leadership effectiveness and emergence represent two levels of analysis. Leadership emergence is a within-group phenomenon. In contrast, leadership effectiveness represents a between-groups phenomenon.

Regarding these two constructs and personality trais, the meta-analysis of Judge et al. (2002) shows that:

• The Big Five typology is a fruitful basis for examining the dispositional predictors of leadership.
• Extraversion is the most important trait of leaders and effective leadership.
• Extraversion is more strongly related to leader emergence than to leader effectiveness.
• Extraversion, Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience were the strongest and most consistent correlates of leadership.
• Conscientiousness ist more strongly related to leader emergence than to leadership effectiveness.
• Agreeableness was the least relevant trait.
• Neuroticism failed to emerge as a significant predictor of leadership.
• Overall, the traits are better predictors in situations in which individuals have only limited opportunity to observe leadership behaviors (i.e., student samples).

However, the results may simply indicate a close correspondence between the way we see peoples personalities and our stereotypical conceptions of the characteristics of leaders.

Dicussion

Which of the traits seems to be important for the digital era?

Dicussion

But, how do traits emerge?

Emergence of traits

Traits have a genetic source and are the result of adaptive processes Judge et al. (2009).

• Compared to differences in genes, differences in environment appear to play a smaller role in the variability of socially desirable (e.g., exercise, altruism) and undesirable (e.g., drug use, crime) behaviors
• “Leaders are born”, as identical twins raised apart show striking similarities in the emergence of leadership personalities
• 50% of personality is heritable (that doesn’t mean 50% is environmental)

“Asking how much a particular individual’s attitudes or traits are due to heredity versus the environment is nonsensical, just like asking whether a leaky basement is caused more by the crack in the foundation or the water outside.” Olson et al. (2001, pp. pp. 845–846)

The Leader Trait Emergence Effectiveness (LTEE) model

The Leader Trait Emergence Effectiveness (LTEE) model (Judge et al., 2009)

 

 

 

 

Figure 3: The Leader Trait Emergence Effectiveness (LTEE) model (Judge et al., 2009)

Socioanalytic theory holds that individuals possess three primary motives:

• getting along (communion, cooperation),
• getting ahead (agency, competing), and
• providing meaning (transformational, purpose).

The motives are closely linked to personality, such that agreeable individuals are motivated to get along with others, and conscientious and extraverted individuals are motivated to get ahead.

However, whether traits are related to leader emergence and leadership effectiveness may depend on the context and the adaptive processes. As adaptive and coordination problems increase, so does the importance of leadership. There is little need for prudent, courageous and flexible leadership when the collective faces little conflict from within or without.

Dicussion

Could it be that personality traits lead to an advantage under certain conditions, while another situation they become a serious disadvantage?

Trait paradoxes

Trait	Bride Side	Dark Side
Extraversion	Greater leadership emergence; higher job and life satisfaction	More impulsive (deviant) behaviors; more accidents
Agreeableness	Higher subjective well-being; lower interpersonal conflict; lower turnover	Lower career success; less capable of conflict; more lenient in giving ratings
Conscientiousness	Stronger job performance; higher leadership effectiveness; lower deviance	Reduced adaptability; lower learning in initial stages of skill acquisition
Emotional stability	High job/life satisfaction; better job performance; effective leadership; retention	Poorer ability to detect risks and danger; more risky behaviors
Openness	Higher creativity; greater leadership effectiveness; greater adaptability	More accidents and counterproductive; rebelliousness; lower commitment

Table 1: Trait paradoxes as identified by Judge et al. (2009) (more paradoxes in the paper)

Dicussion

Any new, surprising insights for you?

Emotional intelligence

Intelligence is the most “successful” trait in social and applied psychology (Judge et al., 2009).

Goleman (2004) argues that it is not IQ (intelligence, a trait), but emotional intelligence that sets apart great leaders.

Emotional intelligence is a group of five skills that enable the best leaders to maximize their own and their followers’ performance:

• Self-awareness—knowing one’s strenghts, weaknesses, drives, values, and impact on others
• Self-regulation—controlling or redirecting disruptive impulses and moods
• Motivation—relishing achievements for its own sake
• Empathy—understanding other people’s emotional makeup and treating them according to their emotional reactions
• Social skill—building rapport with others to move them in decired directions

Group work

Read Goleman (2004) and summarize the characteristics of one skill.

Find an example, discuss its importance as well as pathways to strengthen it.

Also discuss if the skill is gaining importance in the digital era and why (not).

Conclusion

It is fortunate, then, that emotional intelligence can be learned. Goleman (2004)

Learning might mean here being able to deal efficiently with our personality traits that have a genetic source.

Q&A

Homework

Read Lavine (2014) and answer following questions:

• What is ambidexterity, what is behavioral complexity?
• Why does a complex world require behavioral complexity?
• Which leadership paradoxes are identified by the CVF? Can you give specific examples for each?
• How do the paradoxes relate to the specifics of the digital era?

Literature

DeNeve, K. M., & Cooper, H. (1998). The happy personality: A meta-analysis of 137 personality traits and subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 124(2), 197.

Friedman, H. S., Tucker, J. S., Schwartz, J. E., Martin, L. R., Tomlinson-Keasey, C., Wingard, D. L., & Criqui, M. H. (1995). Childhood conscientiousness and longevity: Health behaviors and cause of death. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68(4), 696.

Goleman, D. (2004). What makes a leader? Harvard Business Review, 82(1), 82–91.

Hogan, R., Curphy, G. J., & Hogan, J. (1994). What we know about leadership: Effectiveness and personality. American Psychologist, 49(6), 493.

Judge, T. A., Bono, J. E., Ilies, R., & Gerhardt, M. W. (2002). Personality and leadership: A qualitative and quantitative review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(4), 765.

Judge, T. A., Piccolo, R. F., & Kosalka, T. (2009). The bright and dark sides of leader traits: A review and theoretical extension of the leader trait paradigm. The Leadership Quarterly, 20(6), 855–875.

Lavine, M. (2014). Paradoxical leadership and the competing values framework. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 50(2), 189–205.

Olson, J. M., Vernon, P. A., Harris, J. A., & Jang, K. L. (2001). The heritability of attitudes: A study of twins. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80(6), 845.

Stogdill, R. M. (1950). Leadership, membership and organization. Psychological Bulletin, 47(1), 1.