LEADERSHIP TRAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS

An important characteristic of leadership is using human talents to grow performance, trust and integrity in employees and the organization (Daft, 2005).  One’s personality plays a major role in the way they lead.  Personality is a combination of traits (distinguishing personal characteristics) that classifies an individual’s behavior.  Personality affects conduct as well as insight and attitudes.  Knowing personalities helps explain and forecast others’ behavior and job performance (Lussier & Achua, 2004).  The Big Five Model of Personality assesses whether a person is stronger in surgency, agreeableness, adjustment, conscientiousness, or openness to experience. 

Surgency includes leadership and extraversion traits (Lussier & Achua, 2004). The need for power compares to the Big Five dimension of surgency.  People with a high need for power are depicted as wanting to control situations and enjoy competition in which they can win because they do not like to lose. 

They lean toward being ambitious and have a lower need for affiliation.  They are more concerned with influencing other people than they are with what other people think about them (Lussier & Achua,). 

Extraversion is the extent that a person is outgoing, sociable, talkative, and relaxed in meeting and talking with new people.   A person with high marks in surgency wants to be in charge and have influence over others (Daft, 2005).  Influencing is the ability of the leader to communicate ideas effectively to employees so employees will not only accept these ideas but motivate them to implement needed changes.

Agreeableness is the trait of being able to get along with other people.  Some behaviors that characterize agreeableness are being good-natured, cooperative, forgiving, and compassionate, understanding and trusting (Daft, 2005).  The need for affiliation compares to the Big Five dimension of agreeableness.  They are socially motivated and seek close relationships whether in a group setting or with personal friends.  They are more concerned with what other people think about them than influencing other people (Lussier & Achua, 2004). 

Adjustment is commonly referred to as emotional stability.  This trait shows the level that people are well-adjusted, calm and secure (Daft, 2005).

Conscientiousness includes traits related to achievement (Lussier & Achua, 2004).  People with a high need for achievement take responsibility for solving problems, are goal oriented, seek challenges, strive for excellence, desire concrete feedback on their performance and work hard.  They perform well in non-routine, challenging, and competitive situations (Lussier & Achua).  Conscientiousness also shows how well a person is responsible, dependable, and persistent. 

This trait is more concerned with tasks to be completed rather than relationships (Daft, 2005). 

Openness to experience relates to a person being willing to change, try new things, imaginative, creative and having a broader range of interests (Daft, 2005). 

Kouzes & Posner (2007) described how credibility is the foundation of leadership:

Everyone wants to be fully confident in their leaders, and to be fully confident they have to believe that their leaders are individuals of strong character and solid integrity. 

To be credible in action, leaders must be clear about their beliefs; they must know what they stand for.  Then they must put what they say into practice:  they must act on their beliefs and “do”.    

A leader can not model the way nor enable others to act if they are not seen as being honest and trustworthy (Kouzes & Posner).  Honesty is seen as the utmost important characteristic between leaders and employees.  Being proud of where one works, perceived as a team member, valuing the values of the organization, having a sense of belongingness and ownership are benefits of a credible leader.  Unmotivated or motivated only for money, low production, criticizing the organization, looking for another job and having a feeling of being unappreciated are characteristics of a leader that has lost credibility (Kouzes & Posner).  If a leader is found to be dishonest, they lose respect among the employees which leads to a loss of motivation and over time the employee loses self-respect (Kouzes & Posner).