The Trait Theory Of Leadership

What is leadership? In fact, it is a very simple and common question these days but answering it is not that easy. There is no exact definition for this concept. Each person can describe it in the way he perceives it. So out of many definitions, this one has been chosen:

“Leadership is the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal.”

However, most of them agreed on certain skills that a leader must have: Intelligence, Decisiveness, Accountability, Awareness, Focus, Confidence, Empathy, Optimism, Inspiration and Honesty.

When talking about business, leaders must provide guidance for employees, motivate them, initiate actions with a clear plan and an efficient use of scare resources, build morale and create

Trait theories:

As the authors Arthur Shriberg and David Shriberg explained in their 2011 text Practicing Leadership Principles and Applications, these theories have become popular since the 2nd half of the 20th century. The trait theory of leadership specifically, is considered to be the first modern theory of leadership. Although the criticism, people are still referring to it.

These theories focus on personality and other characteristics; like social and intellectual traits. They differentiate between leaders and non-leaders by comparing the traits and behavior of people across different situations.

According to the trait theory of leadership, leaders have certain innate characteristics in common. However, there are some characteristics; like sociability, intelligence and self-confidence, that may vary.

They are similar to the previous theory is some ways but they suggest a systematic analysis of the leaders.

Here is a graph that shows the personality traits, the abilities and the motivators that make a good

Here came the notion of mentorship and how people get close to their mentors (leaders) and try to learn from their experiences and advice. This will help them also enhance their methods of giving and taking feedback.

“It 's better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you 'll drift in that direction.” Warren Buffett.

Leaders are scientists rather than artists. They try new techniques, invent new ones, learn from their mistakes and try to enhance their work. In fact, it is not about the talent, it is about learning by doing; which means doing the things hundred times and failing but in the one hundred and one time they succeed because they learnt from their mistakes.

The concept of learning from old mistakes and failure was actually mentioned in “Geeks and Geezers”; a book by Warren Bennis and Rober Thomas. They have called the trials and the lessons; leaders use to improve himself in the future, “crucibles”. They thought that failures do not exist; instead there are motivators to create something better in the