Examining Personality Traits for Effective Leadership

Choosing a reliable and effective employee to manage staff can be a difficult task. Those who choose leaders have many methods they use to determine which workers among their organization's members will turn out to be leaders. Learning to explain leadership traits so a company can pick them out and hire good leadership is an important part of good hiring practices. One popular method of determining leadership roles is trait theory, a system that determines the best leaders based on a set of personality traits and behaviors.

Defining Leadership Traits

Leadership traits are repeated behaviors exhibited in a worker's personality which can be indicators for a good managerial choice. Traits differ from behaviors because they are thought to be a part of the person's basic personality rather than trained behaviors. Though a person can learn good leadership techniques, a person exhibiting these behaviors as a natural trait might have an advantage performing in a leadership position.

How to explain types of leadership traits common in successful leaders varies depending on the type of business, but include a social nature, motivation and charismatic self-confidence. According to "Traits That Define Leadership" by Ben Pimentel at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, one of the most important traits a leader can have is focus on the goals of the group.

Though trait leadership is not a concrete science, choosing managers carefully can help save the company money in training new employees if a manager pick does not work out. One opposing method to choosing managers based on leadership traits is behavior theory, which asserts that managers can be trained to behave as good managers.

Encouraging Actionability

Though leadership-friendly personality traits that benefit leadership positions can give a leader a head start, according to "Leadership: Do Traits Matter?" by Shelley A. Kirkpatrick and Edwin A. Locke of the University of Maryland, the most important trait in a leader is the ability to use leadership traits and acquire new leadership techniques.

Explain Leadership Traits to Ambitious Leaders

A worker with the ability to learn and improve may turn out to be a better long-term choice than a staff member with born leadership abilities but no ambition to improve. Sometimes, taking a moment to explain leadership traits to an ambitious but inexperienced potential leader can help them focus on behaviors that breed good leadership habits and learn to exhibit those traits.

References:

Stanford Graduate School of Business: Traits That Define Leadership
Texas Christian University: Leadership - Do Traits Matter?