The trait model of leadership is based on the characteristics of many leaders - both successful and unsuccessful - and

is used to predict leadership effectiveness. The resulting lists of traits are then compared to those of potential leaders to
assess their likelihood of success or failure.

Scholars taking the trait approach attempted to identify physiological (appearance, height, and weight), demographic
(age, education and socioeconomic background), personality, self-confidence, and aggressiveness), intellective
(intelligence, decisiveness, judgment, and knowledge), task-related (achievement drive, initiative, and persistence), and
social characteristics (sociability and cooperativeness) with leader emergence and leader effectiveness.

Successful leaders definitely have interests, abilities, and personality traits that are different from those of the
less effective leaders. Through many researches conducted in the last three decades of the 20th century, a set of core
traits of successful leaders have been identified. These traits are not responsible solely to identify whether a person will
be a successful leader or not, but they are essentially seen as preconditions that endow people with leadership
potential.

Among the core traits identified are:

 Achievement drive: High level of effort, high levels of ambition, energy and initiative
 Leadership motivation: an intense desire to lead others to reach shared goals
 Honesty and integrity: trustworthy, reliable, and open
 Self-confidence: Belief in one’s self, ideas, and ability
 Cognitive ability: Capable of exercising good judgment, strong analytical abilities, and conceptually skilled
 Knowledge of business: Knowledge of industry and other technical matters
 Emotional Maturity: well adjusted, does not suffer from severe psychological disorders.
 Others: charisma, creativity and flexibility

Strengths/Advantages of Trait Theory

 It is naturally pleasing theory.

 It is valid as lot of research has validated the foundation and basis of the theory.
 It serves as a yardstick against which the leadership traits of an individual can be assessed.
 It gives a detailed knowledge and understanding of the leader element in the leadership process.

Limitations of The Trait Theory

 There is bound to be some subjective judgment in determining who is regarded as a ‘good’ or ‘successful’
leader
 The list of possible traits tends to be very long. More than 100 different traits of successful leaders in various
leadership positions have been identified. These descriptions are simply generalities.
 There is also a disagreement over which traits are the most important for an effective leader
 The model attempts to relate physical traits such as, height and weight, to effective leadership. Most of these
factors relate to situational factors. For example, a minimum weight and height might be necessary to perform
the tasks efficiently in a military leadership position. In business organizations, these are not the requirements
to be an effective leader.
 The theory is very complex

Implications of Trait Theory

The trait theory gives constructive information about leadership. It can be applied by people at all levels in all types of
organizations. Managers can utilize the information from the theory to evaluate their position in the organization and to
assess how their position can be made stronger in the organization. They can get an in-depth understanding of their
identity and the way they will affect others in the organization. This theory makes the manager aware of their strengths
and weaknesses and thus they get an understanding of how they can develop their leadership qualities.

Conclusion
The traits approach gives rise to questions: whether leaders are born or made; and whether leadership is an art or
science. However, these are not mutually exclusive alternatives. Leadership may be something of an art; it still requires
the application of special skills and techniques. Even if there are certain inborn qualities that make one a good leader,
these natural talents need encouragement and development. A person is not born with self-confidence. Self-confidence
is developed, honesty and integrity are a matter of personal choice, motivation to lead comes from within the individual,
and the knowledge of business can be acquired. While cognitive ability has its origin partly in genes, it still needs to be
developed. None of these ingredients are acquired overnight.
The trait theory of leadership is an early assumption that leaders are born and due to this belief, those
that possess the correct qualities and traits are better suited to leadership. This theory often
identifies behavioural characteristics that are common in leaders.

Trait theory of leadership is one of the first academic theories of leadership and attempts to answer
why some people are good leaders and others are not.

In fact the theory can be traced back to the nineteenth century, whereby a man called Thomas Carlyle
used such understanding to identify the talents, skills and characteristics of men who rose to power.

The trait theory of leadership is based on the characteristics of many leaders – both successful and
unsuccessful – and is used to predict leadership effectiveness. The resulting lists of traits are then
compared to those of potential leaders to assess their likelihood of success or failure. Once found, the
theory is that these natural leaders can then be nurtured to become great leaders.

Key Characteristics

Some of the most common leadership traits identified, are:

 Knowledge of the business

 Initiative
 Tenacity
 Energy
 Good cognitive skills and capable of using good judgement and decisions
 Flexibility
 Creativity
 Charisma
 Emotional intelligence
 Drive and motivation to succeed
 Confidence
 Honesty and integrity
Traditionally, the most ardent versions of trait theory see these “leadership characteristics” as innate,
and as such, some people are seen to be ‘born leaders’, due to their psychological makeup.

Proponents to this theory, which is now considered largely out of date, believe that leadership
development consists of identifying and measuring leadership qualities, screening potential leaders
from non-leaders, and then training those with potential.

In fact, modern thinking suggests that the above traits are little more than characteristics, which
although some people can possess them naturally, can be learned, and built into one’s behaviours
and thinking, thus affecting their leadership potential.

In tandem with modern day thinking, leadership is seen as a skill to be mastered and therefore, the
above characteristics can all be honed. As a result, it is prudent to first understand these ‘traits’ and
then develop areas of weakness, in order to become a great leader yourself.

How to Use Trait Theory of Leadership:

Step 1: Identify the typical traits of good leadership above, and start identifying where you believe
your strengths and weaknesses are.

Step 2: Take the Trait Theory of Leadership Survey yourself.

Step 3: Share this survey with five other people in your team and whom know you as a leader, and
get them to complete the assessment on how they perceive you as a leader.

Step 4: Submit all these findings and analyse where the gaps between how you see yourself and how
others do too.

Step 5: Discuss the findings with the group and agree where you can improve.

Step 6: Develop a simple action plan of no more than 6 items to help improve your skills.

There are many ways to define leadership, but in essence, it “is a process that influences other
people to achieve an objective.”

Now that’s out of the way, let’s see what that really means.

It is about being forward looking, Inspirational to others, and orientated to achieve results, winning the
hearts and minds of those followers to achieve objectives and corporate goals, as a team.

When you define Leadership, it is clear that Leaders and their teams are interdependent – They rely
on each other for success.

The Leader has arguably three main tasks:

 To achieve their goal that they have set out to achieve

 To maintain effective relationships with their team members and to keep them together in
order to achieve that task
 To satisfy the needs of individuals in that group in order to match them to the group task
– The net result: improved and honed Leadership Characteristics, which result in polished and
developed Leadership Styles.
Whilst Leadership can be learned and the skills and attributes can be influenced by the Leader’s
traits, knowledge and skills give the Leader the ability and directly influence the process of
Leadership.

Management and Leadership

Leadership is the core of all Managerial and Supervisory activities. All those who are in Managerial
positions have a Leadership function, and all those in Leadership roles have Managerial
responsibilities. Typical roles may include:

 To give vision
 To energise and motivate
 To set and enforce behaviours and standards
 To see things through to their completion
 To utilise the team member’s skills and get the best out of them, filling capability gaps when
needed.
Leadership differs to being the boss or Manager, in that it makes the followers want to achieve high
goals (called Emergent Leadership), rather than simply bossing people around (Rowe, 2007).
To define Leadership means to understand that it is not enough for someone to just lead – They must
Lead by example, focus on the task at hand, and be truly emotionally intelligent, to get the best out of
their team, themselves and the task.

Often, you become assigned a Leadership position, but the best Leaders are good at getting
unsurpassed results out of their team through inspirational leadership, which is learned over a career.

Trait Theory of Leadership

What are Personality Traits?  
The trait approach to personality is one of the major theoretical areas in the study of human personality and is
focused on differences between individuals. The trait approach was one of the first systematic attempts to study
leadership. The combination and interaction of various traits forms a personality that is unique to each
individual. Trait theory is focused on identifying and measuring these individual personality
characteristics known as Traits. 

Traits: Also called dispositions, Traits can be defined as habitual patterns of behavior, thought, and

emotion. Traits are relatively stable over time, differ across individuals and influence behavior. Traits are
external behaviors that emerge from internal beliefs and processes.  

What is Trait Theory of Leadership?  

Trait Theory of Leadership is based on the assumption that people are born with inherited traits and some traits
are particularly suited to leadership. People who make effective leaders have the right (or sufficient)
combination of traits and great leaders has some common personality characteristics. Trait theories help us
identify traits and dispositions that are helpful when leading others. This theory as described by Kelly (1974)
attempts to classify what personal characteristics such as physical, personality and mental, are associated with
leadership success. Trait theory relies on research that relates various traits to the success of a leader. 

Quotes on Traits:  
“Leadership consists not in degrees of technique but in traits of character; it requires moral rather than
athletic or intellectual effort, and it imposes on both leader and follower alike the burdens of self-restraint.” -
Lewis H. Lapham

 “The screenwriters I know share a few personality traits and one of them is anxiety.” - Tony Gilroy  

 “I think in the end, when you're famous, people like to narrow you down to a few personality traits. I think
I've just become this ambitious, say-whatever's-on-her-mind, intimidating person. And that's part of my
personality, but it's certainly not anywhere near the whole thing.” - Madonna Ciccone  

“The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that
theory” - Thomas Jefferson 

Overview of Trait Theory of Leadership:  

Early research on leadership was based on the psychological focus of the day, which was of people having
inherited characteristics or traits. The trait theory of leadership focused on analyzing mental, physical and social
characteristic in order to gain more understanding of what is the characteristic or the combination of
characteristics that are common among leaders. There have been many different studies of leadership traits
and attention was put on discovering these traits, often by studying successful leaders, but with the underlying
assumption that if other people could also be found with these traits, then they, too, could also become great
leaders.  

Advantages of Trait Theory of Leadership:  

The trait theory is naturally pleasing theory and gives constructive information about leadership. Lot of research
has validated the foundation and basis of the theory and it can be applied by people at all levels in all types of
organizations. Managers can utilize the information from the theory to evaluate their position in the organization
and to assess how their position can be made stronger in the organization. It serves as a yardstick against which
the leadership traits of an individual can be assessed and individuals can get an in-depth understanding of their
identity and the way they will affect others in the organization. This theory makes the manager aware of their
strengths and weaknesses and thus they get an understanding of how they can develop their leadership
qualities. It gives a detailed knowledge and understanding of the leader element in the leadership process.  

Examples of Leadership Traits:   

A lengthy list of traits has been made to describe an effective leader in terms of certain characteristics. Given
below is outcome of studies on leadership traits and characteristics with reference to timelines in terms of years:

Criticism / Arguments against - The Trait Theory of

Leadership:  
Many arguments are made against the leadership theory of traits and it has some inherent limitations as during
the 1930s the field of Psychometrics was in its early years. The greatest argument is that if particular traits are
key differentiator of leadership, then how do we explain people who possess these qualities but are not leaders?
This question is one of the difficulties in using trait theories to explain leadership.   

These characteristics according to some people are considered valid indicators of successful leaders, but if you
compare leaders by various physical personality and intelligence traits, you may find very little agreement on
these. Some findings point out to the fact that leaders are intelligent individuals. But they do not provide any
clue as to whether leaders are brighter than their followers or are as close to them in intelligence. 

This theory is quite complex and there is bound to be some subjective judgment in determining who is regarded
as a ‘good’ or ‘successful’ leader and many of these factors are situational related factors. The followers have a
significant effect on the job accomplished by the leader. Trait theory completely ignores the followers and the
situations that also help a leader to be successful. To be more objective, traits of the person as well as demand of
the situation together determine the effectiveness of the leader. 
 Some of the personality traits are overlapping with each other. Therefore, you need to be cautious in stating,
personality or any other characteristic as a cause of successful leadership. You must ask the questions: Who is a
successful leader? Is he far superior physically? Is he far brighter? Is he more mature as a person? Is he more
motivated to achieve his goal? Does he have more consideration for his followers? Etc. 

Moreover the list of possible traits tends to be very long and personality traits measurement weren't reliable
across studies. More than 100 different traits of successful leaders in various leadership positions have been
identified. These descriptions are simply generalities and there exists disagreement over which traits are the
most important for an effective leader. This theory does not offer explanations between the relation of each
characteristic and its impact on leadership. Some of the traits may describe a successful leader but predicting
successful leaders on the basis of traits alone is not a correct approach. 

Stogdill in 1948, suggested that no consistent set of traits differentiated leaders from non-leaders across a variety
of situations implying that an individual with certain traits who has been successful in one situation might not be
as effective in another situation and this led to researchers concluding that traits were to be considered as
relative to the requirements of the situation.

A broad classification to six categories of traits is also done below: 

Physical Characteristics of the Leader:

 Age
 Height
 Weight
 Alertness
 Energetic 
 Masculinity
 High energy level
 Physical stamina
 Tolerance for stress
 Not concerned about being overworked
 Vitality

Background Characteristics of the Leader:

 Education
 Social Status
 Mobility
 Experience
 Experience in a variety of different types of situations
 Broader perspective
 Expertise in dealing with different types of problems
 Competent and skilled

Intelligence Characteristics of the Leader:

 Ability
 Judgment
 Knowledge
 Clever (intelligent)
 Conceptually skilled
 Creative
 Knowledgeable about group task 
 Intellectual breadth 
 Insight
 Learns from experience
 Adapts to change
 Good judgment
 Foresight
 Intuition
 Creativity
 Self-knowledge
 Coordinator
 Objective
 Decisive
 Asks for more responsibility
 Knows how to delegate

Personality/Emotional Characteristics of the Leader: 

 Aggressiveness
 Alertness
 Dominance
 Decisiveness
 Enthusiasm
 Extroversion
 Independence
 Self-confidence
 Authoritarianism
 Assertive
 Tolerant of stress 
 Conservatism
 Desire to improve
 Understands own strengths and weaknesses
 Self-objectivity
 Emotional intelligence
 Self-awareness
 Empathy
 Self-regulation
 Ambitious
 Courageous
 Knows self
 Risk taker
 Not intimidated by superiors
 Personal competence
 Optimistic
 Exhibits concern for others
 Encourages and engages opposing viewpoints
 Constant and reliable
 Self-disciplined
 Determination
 Need to achieve
 Caring
 Empathizing
 Constancy

Task-Oriented Characteristics of the Leader:

 Achievement Needs
 Responsibility
 Initiative
 Persistence
 Ambitiousness
 Achievement-orientated
 Decisive
 Persistent
 Willingness to assume responsibility
 Organized (administrative ability)  

Social Characteristics of the Leader:

 Sociability
 Supervisory Ability
 Cooperativeness
 Popularity
 Prestige
 Tact
 Diplomacy
 Adaptability
 Adjustment
 Cooperative
 Dependable
 Tactful
 Persuasive 
 Socially skilled 
 Emotional stability and composure
 Good interpersonal skills
 Well-adjusted
 Oriented toward improving self
 Detached
 Honest
 Ethical
 Trustworthy
 Behavioral flexibility
 Understanding
 Empathy
 Social Insight
 Charm
 Tact
 Diplomacy
 Persuasiveness
 Listener
 Collaborative
 Strong motivator
 Cooperative
 Influencer

Communication:

 Ability to communicate
 Ability to articulate a vision
 Ability to persuade others
 Communicate purpose
 Communicate direction
 Communicates passion to others
 Good communication skills
 Use metaphors
 Experts at one-to-one communication
 Superior speakers
 Excellent writing skills
 Creates and maintains a communications network
 Has people keep them informed on problem situations
 Networks with people inside the organization
 Maintains contacts outside the organization
 Doesn’t depend on only one source for information
 Able to communicate with key individuals
 Eager to explore new approaches to their work
 Are not fuzzy about results, interested in ways to track their progress
 Communicates persuasively

Visiting Robben Island

I didn’t quite know what to expect.
 
I wasn’t sure what I would feel, what I would see, or what I would learn.
Earlier this year, I was visiting Cape Town, South Africa and had the opportunity to visit Robben Island. 
Robben Island has been a prison for over 400 years.
 

“
“One of the most difficult things is not to change society but to change
yourself.” -Nelson Mandela
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Today it is most famous as the place where Nelson Mandela spent 18 years of his 27 years in prison.  As a
student of great leaders and an admirer of Nelson Mandela’s leadership, I knew that this visit was a must.
 
A Moving Experience
 
After a brief ferry ride, we boarded a bus to tour Robben Island.
 One of the stops was at the limestone quarry where prisoners toiled in
the hot sun.  The work damaged Nelson Mandela’s lungs and also his eyes.  His tear ducts were damaged,
preventing him from ever crying again.
Visible in the background is a cave.  This cave was used as a bathroom and the guards almost never approached
it.  Our tour guide explained that the cave became a great place of learning and exchanging information.  Some
say it held the most important political meetings of the time.
We later drove to the prison where we met our prison tour guide, Ntando Mbatha.  Ntando was a prisoner for
seven years at Robben Island.  His story was moving.  Hearing him explain the conditions of the prison first
hand will be forever etched in my mind.
I followed him to the cell of Nelson Mandela.  It was small, roughly 7×9.  A thin mat lay in the corner.  It was
stark.  There was an unmistakable feeling I cannot quite explain throughout the entire cellblock.
That day, I learned more about the many heroes who fought against apartheid.  Some beaten.  Some killed.
Seeing this all in person increased my admiration for Nelson Mandela.
  

“
“As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom,
I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in
prison.” –Nelson Mandela
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Qualities of an Extraordinary Leader
 
Nelson Mandela demonstrated remarkable leadership qualities:
1. He was a man of peace.
2. He had a powerful presence and disarmed enemies with his smile.
3. He showed the world what forgiveness looks like.
4. He was positive, thinking about what could be.
5. He was a visionary and could see the big picture.
6. He was focused on goals and a mission beyond himself.
7. He had remarkable endurance.
8. He showed grit and determination.
9. He was humble.
10. He was full of hope, not hate.
11. He was patient.

Ntando Mbatha and Skip Prichard

 
Describing who he was and what he did is powerful.  Perhaps, even more important, was what he didn’t do.
He held no bitterness.
He did not seek revenge.
He did not seek self-glory.
He didn’t hide his faults or failings.
As we boarded the ferry to return to Cape Town, I watched Robben Island disappear from view.
I felt changed somehow.   Motivated and inspired by an imperfect man, who suffered for his dreams and yet
never lost hope.
 “
I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on
trying. –Nelson Mandela
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Aspiring leaders everywhere should take the time to study this man, his accomplishments, and the
characteristics that helped mold a country and the world.
 

 
“
“It is not where you start but how high you aim that matters for success.” –
Nelson Mandela