- We are going
to talk about the Traits Theory of Leadership.
This is a valuable approach but it's not without its critics
so let's get into it.
(upbeat rock music)
Hello there, friends.
I'm Alex Lyon and we have almost 200 videos
on communication and leadership on this channel.
Virtually everything I'm going to share
on this video comes from two excellent books,
Johnson and Hackman's book
on "Leadership, a Communication Perspective".
And Peter Northouse's book on, "Leadership".
I highly recommend both of these books,
and I will put those references
and links in the description below this video.
The study of leadership traits goes back
to the early 1900s.
It's the first systematic study of leadership
and it continues to this day.
The social scientific approach is a reflection
of what was happening in the field of psychology at the time
that was looking at individual's various personality traits.
A trait is a defining characteristic,
quality or enduring tendency of a person.
Or according to this research,
traits are part of how we're born,
they're woven into our DNA.
Just like eye color,
height and other physical traits,
we also have various personality traits.
The traits theory of leadership says
that leaders share a collection of distinguishing traits
that the average person does not.
Those traits make them natural born leaders.
This is what we call the great man quote
or great person theory.
Northouse lists well-known political
and military leaders such as Catherine the Great, Gandhi,
Abraham Lincoln, Joan of Arc,
Napoleon Bonaparte, as examples of born leaders.
There are certain traits that contribute
to superior leadership performance.
And the thinking goes,
everybody around these individuals recognizes
or perceives certain traits as leadership qualities.
There have been scores of these studies
and it's important to mention that each study comes up
with a different list of traits that leaders possess,
so this can get a little confusing.
So one way to overcome that is to do a meta-analysis
that looks across these different leadership studies
to determine the most common traits
that come up over and over again.
So we are going to look at this distilled list
of the five major leadership traits
that Peter Northouse presents in his book.
The first trade is intelligence.
Leaders have a higher intelligence than the average person.
It's accurate to say, for example,
that the Founding Fathers of the US,
for all their personal flaws,
were extremely intelligent leaders.
They were well educated and prolific writers.
CEOs like Steve Jobs from Apple,
Bill Gates from Microsoft and Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook
all have reputations as extraordinarily intelligent people.
Now, some people believe that extremely high levels
of intelligence like this make it a challenge
for some individuals to communicate effectively
with the average person.
Still, high levels of intelligence consistently shows up
as a trait among most leaders.
The second trait is self-confidence.
As Northouse explains,
self-confidence includes a certainty
about our competencies and skills,
high levels of self-esteem and self-assurance
in our capacity to make a difference.
Barack Obama is a great
current-day example of self-confidence.
It's clear from everything I've seen and heard
that he carries himself with a great deal
of this self-confidence.
When he walks in a room he communicates a sense
of unwavering self-assurance.
Third is determination.
This is a strong drive to move forward.
It's initiative, persistence,
perseverance to follow through despite the many obstacles.
One of the most determined leaders I know
of is Oprah Winfrey.
She was born into poverty,
started working in radio while in high school.
She overcame both racial and gender barriers
as she moved from local TV to the world of talk shows.
And she built ultimately a media empire
and she's now believed
to be the richest person in Hollywood.
Her journey demonstrates incredible determination
and the ability to overcome obstacles no matter what.
The fourth trait is integrity.
This means being honest, trustworthy,
living by a clear set of principles
and taking responsibility for our actions.
We like these leaders because they are dependable,
and we know they're going to do,
and follow through on what they say.
Two well-known leaders come to mind.
First is Martin Luther King Jr..
He is seen by many as a great example
of a leader with integrity.
He lived by a set of principles
and he held himself to a high standard.
Another example is Abraham Lincoln.
He is known as Honest Abe because people
at the time saw him and thought he had a higher level
of integrity than many of the other politicians at the time.
Fifth is sociability.
This is a tendency to engage in friendly,
courteous and pleasant social relationships.
Leaders like this are tactful,
diplomatic and sensitive to others' needs and well-being.
In other words,
they have good interpersonal skills.
These leaders both recognize the importance
of supportive communication and they are good at it.
One great example is the late Princess Diana.
Compared to the other Royals,
she had the people's touch, they say.
She communicated comfortably with people
from all backgrounds.
Another example is Warren Buffett.
He is the fourth richest person in the world,
but he has a very comfortable,
welcoming communication style and he frequently talks
about the importance of communication.
So those are the five key leadership traits.
However, as mentioned there are some important criticisms
of the traits approach to leadership.
These three criticisms represent a combination
of what I have read and what I personally think.
First, almost every study that looks
at leadership traits comes up with a different list.
So sure, we talked about a list of five distilled traits
but that doesn't explain why there's not more consistency
between and among these studies,
so how can we be sure we got it right?
Second, I'm not convinced that these researchers
are all really studying traits in the traditional sense.
We see within these studies traits like the ability
to influence others or engage in problem solving.
Some of these sound more like learnable behaviors
than traits in our DNA in the classic sense.
And third, some people say they can act as if they
have the trait,
but they're really just behaving that way,
they don't necessarily possess that trait.
I know many people who admit privately
that they're very nervous and have high anxiety,
but publicly they act like they're very self-confident.
That's one of the five key traits.
Despite these criticisms,
I'm sure that studies on leadership traits will continue.
Many people would agree
that top leaders do often seem to stand apart,
even from an early age.
Some people really do come across as born leaders.
So question of the day,
how do you line up with these five key traits?
As mentioned, it seems at least some
of these skills are learnable,
and there have been many historic
and current-day leaders who did not seem like born leaders
but work their way up and achieved great things.
So maybe it's a little more like Shakespeare said,
"Some are born great.
"Some achieve greatness
"and some have greatness thrust upon them."
Before we go,
I just recorded a related video
on the Top Five Qualities of Transformational Leaders.
And once that's posted I'll put a link
to that in the description below this video.
Until then, thanks.
God bless, and I will see you soon.