Lesson 7- LeadershipTraits

LtCol J. D. Fleming30 Sept 2014

Leadership is understanding people and involving them to help you do a job. That takes all of the good characteristics, like integrity, dedication of purpose, selflessness, knowledge, skill, implacability, as well as determination not to accept failure.

~Admiral Arleigh A. Burke

Leadership Traits

Personality ◦ The impression a person makes on others which includes a

person’s social reputation◦ The underlying, unseen structures and processes inside a

person that explain an individual’s behavior

Traits: Refer to recurring regularities or trends in a person’s behavior

The trait approach addresses the relationship between personality and leadership success.◦ Theory maintains that people behave the way they do

because of the strengths of the traits they possess.

Personality Traits and Leadership

Personality traits are useful for explaining why people act fairly consistently in different situations.

Knowing differences in personality traits can help predict more accurately how people will tend to act in different situations.

Leader behavior reflects an interaction between personality traits and various situational factors:◦ Weak situations- unfamiliar, ambiguous ◦ Strong situations- governed by specified rules, demands,

or policies

Trait Approach

Surgency- Referred to as dominance, self-confidence, the need for power◦ Involves behavior patterns exhibited in group settings and with

getting ahead in life◦ Those high in surgency come across as outgoing, decisive, and

impactful◦ Willing to take risks and make decisions

Agreeableness- Known as empathy, friendliness, interpersonal sensitivity, and the need for affiliation◦ Concerned with how one gets along with others◦ Those high in agreeableness are charming, diplomatic, warm,

empathetic, approachable, and optimistic◦ Tend to be better at building teams

Dependability-Known as conscientiousness or prudence◦ Concerns behavioral patterns related to people’s work approach◦ Those high in dependability tend to be planful, organized, earnest,

take commitments seriously, and rarely get in trouble◦ Prefer structure but are also risk averse, uncreative, somewhat

boring, and dislike change

Five Factor Model of Personality

Adjustment- Known as neuroticism, emotional stability, or self control◦ How people react to stress, failure, personal criticism◦ Those high in adjustment tend to be thick-skinned, calm,

optimistic, and hide their emotions◦ Differences in emotional volatility can affect a person’s ability

to build teams and get results Openness to experience- Known as curiosity,

inquisitiveness, and learning approach◦ How one approaches problems, learns new info, and reacts to

new experiences◦ Those high in openness tend to be imaginative, broad-

minded, curious, and big picture thinkers◦ Important leadership component for high level leaders

Five Factor Model of Personality

Five Factor Model of Personality

Big 5 (OCEAN)

Provides an explanation for leaders’ and followers’ tendencies to act in consistent ways over time.

Behavioral manifestations of personality traits are often exhibited automatically and unconsciously.

Personality:◦ Can be categorized into the five major dimensions of the FFM◦ Good measures of leadership potential for a given situation◦ Can be used to make predictions about typical behavior at work◦ Tends to be difficult to change quickly◦ Applicable to predict leadership success across cultures◦ People tend to describe others using trait like terms◦ Insight into personality traits provides useful information about

one’s leadership potential, strengths, and development needs

Implications for Five Factor Model of Personality

Reasons for high level of incompetence include:

◦ Invalid selection and succession planning systems ◦ Ill-defined performance expectations

◦ Poorly designed leadership development programs

◦ Dark-side personality traits

Why Do Some Leaders Fail?

Dark-side personality traits: Irritating, counter-productive behavioral tendencies that interfere with a leader’s ability to build cohesive teams.◦ Everyone has at least one even if not present all the time◦ Emerge during crises or high periods of stress and are coping

mechanisms◦ Bigger impact with leaders than followers◦ Difficult to detect◦ Usually only apparent when leaders are not attending to public

image◦ Tend to be related to extreme FFM scores but not always

accurate◦ Can occur at all leadership levels and tolerated unnecessarily◦ Leading cause of managerial incompetence

Dark Side Personality Traits

Darkside Personality Traits

Intelligence: A person’s all-around effectiveness in activities directed by thought.

Intelligent leaders:◦ Faster learners◦ Make better assumptions, deductions, and inferences◦ Better at creating a compelling vision and

strategizing 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

Intelligence and Leadership

The theory focuses on what a leader does when solving complex mental problems.

The Triarchic Theory of Intelligence consists of:◦ Analytic intelligence◦ Practical intelligence◦ Creative intelligence

Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

Leadership effectiveness is positively correlated with analytic intelligence.

When differences in analytic intelligence are too great, communication can be impaired.

Smart but inexperienced leaders were less effective in stressful situations than less intelligent, experienced leaders.

Systematically improving leadership skills through education and experience is important for leaders.

When members of a group judge ideas as soon as they are offered, two dysfunctional things can happen.◦ Censorship◦ Prematurely reject others’ ideas

Implications of the Triarchic Theory of Leadership

Leaders should be mindful that:◦ Incentives or rewards can have various effects on

creativity.◦ The ability to create can be hindered if ideas will be

evaluated.◦ In order to develop new products and services, the

level of turnover should be low and goals should be clear.

◦ Creeping elegance is a concept used to describe leaders not having a clear vision of what a final project should look like and results with a failure to meet customers needs or not solve original problem.

Improving Organizational Creativity

Cognitive resources theory: A conceptual scheme for explaining how leader behavior changes under stress levels to impact group performance.

Key concepts of theory include:◦ Intelligence, experience, stress, group performance.

Theory predictions include:◦ Greater experience but lower intelligence may account

for higher-performing groups in high stress conditions.◦ High levels of experience may account for usage of old

solutions when creative solutions are more apt

Intelligence and Stress

Experienced leaders overly rely on tried and true when faced with new problems.

Experience is helpful when one is under stress.

The best leaders are often smart and experienced.

Leaders may be unaware of the degree to which they are causing stress in their followers.

Level of stress demanded of the position needs to be understood before selection of leaders.

Implications of the Cognitive Resources Theory (CRT)

Emotional intelligence is described as the group of mental abilities that help people to recognize their own feelings and those of others.

The ability model of EI explains four separate but related abilities◦ Ability to accurately perceive one’s own and others’

emotions◦ Ability to generate emotions to facilitate thought and

action◦ Ability to accurately understand the causes of emotions

and the meanings they convey◦ Ability to regulate one’s emotions

Emotional Intelligence (EI)

Most researchers agree that EI can be developed. People can be extremely ineffective when their thoughts,

feelings, and actions are misaligned.

Human emotions are very important aspects of one-on-one interactions and teamwork.

Research indicates that EI moderates employees’ reactions to job insecurity and their coping ability toward job related stress.

Military leaders are expected to use EI to best lead their personnel – when it makes sense. At times, a non-EI approach may be required.

The non-military stereotype can be that the military only conducts work in a non-EI fashion.

Implications of EI

Five Factor Model of Personality includes surgency, agreeableness, dependability, adjustment, and openness to experience.

The term personality has many different meanings but we use the term to describe one’s characteristic patterns of behavior.

Must be aware of your dark-side personality traits which are irritating, counter-productive behavioral tendencies.

Analytic intelligence, practical intelligence, and creative intelligence are part of the Triarchic Theory of Intelligence and help in understanding intelligence.

Emotional intelligence in leaders will make them more effective.

Summary

Read Mr. Rogers Article Watch Mr. Rogers video Write a 1-2 page paper describing:

◦ A subject you feel strongly about ◦ Someone you would need to convince

concerning that subject’s importance◦ At least two emotional intelligence skills you

would use in the convincing process, and why you feel they would be effective on that person.

◦ **25 points towards your quiz grade** Full credit = Do it, be creative, be original

◦ Due at the beginning of class on 7 Oct.

Extra Credit

Read: ◦Leadership, Chapter 8 (Leadership

Behavior)◦AFO, Chapter 3

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