There’s no magic formula that predicts whether you’ll become president of the United

States.

But research suggests there are certain personality traits that make it a lot
more likelythat you’ll ascend to a leadership position in your company, your
government, or your school. One such piece of research is a 2002 review of studies by
the psychologist Timothy A. Judge and colleagues.

Judge looked at the prevalence of what are commonly known as “Big Five” personality
traits – openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and
neuroticism – among different types of leaders. Among his findings: Extroversion is the
strongest predictor of leadership and agreeableness is the weakest.

We should note here that we don’t recommend applying any of this research to
individuals on your own. It’s near-impossible to assess someone’s personality unless you
know them well, and unless you also happen to be a mental health professional.

We’re simply giving an overview of the personal qualities that typically show up in
leaders.

Here’s what Judge’s research found:

Extroversion was the strongest predictor of leadership emergence – who becomes a

leader – and leadership effectiveness – who’s successful in a leadership position. But it
was a better predictor of emergence than effectiveness.

What’s more, when the study authors deconstructed extroversion into distinct parts,
they found that dominance and sociability better predicted leadership than extroversion
as a whole. This makes sense, the study authors write, “as both sociable and dominant
people are more likely to assert themselves in group situations.”

Conscientiousness, or a person’s tendency to be organized and hard-working, was the

second strongest predictor of leadership.

Again, conscientiousness was more closely linked to leader emergence than to

leadership effectiveness. The authors write: “[T]he organizing activities of conscientious
individuals (e.g. note taking, facilitating processes) may allow such individuals to
quickly emerge as leaders.

In business settings, openness to experience is an important predictor of leadership.

Justin Sullivan / Getty

Openness to experience was the third strongest predictor of leadership. However,
it’s worth noting that, in business settings specifically, openness was just as strongly
linked to leadership as extroversion.

Neuroticism was not a strong predictor of leadership, meaning that highly neurotic
people are not especially likely or unlikely to become leaders.

Agreeableness, or friendliness, was the “least relevant” to leadership of all the traits
studied. Interestingly, however, when the researchers looked only at leadership
effectiveness, agreeableness was related.

The authors write: “Because agreeable individuals tend to be passive and compliant, it
makes sense they would be less likely to emerge as leaders.” However, once they reach
the top, agreeable people may be more likely to succeed than those exhibiting the other
personality types.

It’s important to note that, even if you take a psychological assessment and find that you
don’t fit the personality type of a typical leader, you can still be a great boss. Take
extroversion, for example: A growing body of research suggests that introverts can be
just as effective leaders as extroverts, if not more so.

This research is more helpful in predicting broader social trends – like who might wind
up in the C-suite or even the White House, and why.