Which of the following Big Five personality traits is most strongly associated with leadership effectiveness?

Openness is how open-minded, imaginative, creative and insightful a person is or can be. More open minded people tend to prefer variety, seek new experiences and are curious and perceptive to their environment. Less open minded people tend to avoid change, dislike disruption and focus on a few specific interests.

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The earliest approach to the study of leadership sought to identify a set of traits that distinguished leaders from nonleaders. What were the personality characteristics and physical and psychological attributes of people who are viewed as leaders? Because of the problems in measurement of personality traits at the time, different studies used different measures. By 1940, researchers concluded that the search for leadership-defining traits was futile. In recent years, though, after advances in personality literature such as the development of the Big Five personality framework, researchers have had more success in identifying traits that predict leadership. Most importantly, charismatic leadership, which is among the contemporary approaches to leadership, may be viewed as an example of a trait approach.

The traits that show relatively strong relations with leadership are as follows:

Intelligence

General mental ability, which psychologists refer to as “g” and which is often called IQ in everyday language, has been related to a person’s emerging as a leader within a group. Specifically, people who have high mental abilities are more likely to be viewed as leaders in their environment. We should caution, though, that intelligence is a positive but modest predictor of leadership. In addition to having high IQ, effective leaders tend to have high emotional intelligence (EQ). People with high EQ demonstrate a high level of self-awareness, motivation, empathy, and social skills. The psychologist who coined the term emotional intelligence, Daniel Goleman, believes that IQ is a threshold quality: it matters for entry- to high-level management jobs, but once you get there, it no longer helps leaders because most leaders already have high IQ. According to Goleman, what differentiates effective leaders from ineffective ones becomes their ability to control their own emotions and understand other people’s emotions, their internal motivation, and their social skills. Many observers believe that Carly Fiorina, the ousted CEO of HP, demonstrated high levels of intelligence but low levels of empathy for the people around her, which led to an overreliance on numbers while ignoring the human cost of her decisions.

Figure 10.4 Big Five Personality Traits

Condoleezza Rice had different responsibilities as the provost of Stanford University compared with her role as secretary of state for the United States. Do you think these differences affected her behavior as a leader?

There are also some traits that are negatively related to emerging as a leader and being successful as a leader. For example, agreeable people who are modest, good natured, and avoid conflict are less likely to be perceived as leaders. The key to benefiting from the findings of trait researchers is to be aware that not all traits are equally effective in predicting leadership potential across all circumstances. Some organizational situations allow leader traits to make a greater difference. For example, in small, entrepreneurial organizations where leaders have a lot of leeway to determine their own behavior, the type of traits leaders have may make a difference in leadership potential. In large, bureaucratic, and rule-bound organizations, such as the government and the military, a leader’s traits may have less to do with how the person behaves and whether the person is a successful leader.J Moreover, some traits become relevant in specific circumstances. For example, bravery is likely to be a key characteristic in military leaders but not necessarily in business leaders. Scholars now conclude that instead of trying to identify a few traits that distinguish leaders from nonleaders, it is important to identify the conditions under which different traits affect a leader’s performance, as well as whether a person emerges as a leader.

Key Takeaway

Many studies searched for a limited set of personal attributes, or traits, which would make someone be viewed as a leader and be successful as a leader. Some traits are consistently related to leadership, such as intelligence (both mental ability and emotional intelligence), personality (extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience, self-esteem), and integrity. The main limitation of the trait approach was that it ignored the situation in which leadership occurred. Therefore, it is more useful to specify the conditions under which different traits are needed.

Which of the Big 5 personality traits is most strongly related to both leader emergence and leader effectiveness?

Extraversion was the most consistent correlate of leadership across study settings and leadership criteria (leader emergence and leadership effectiveness). Overall, the five-factor model had a multiple correlation of .

What are the Big 5 personality factors and how do they relate to leadership?

In a meta-analytic review of the research, the five-factor characteristics extraversion, intellectual curiosity (or openness to experience), emotional stability, and conscientiousness

Which of the following Big Five personality traits is most strongly associated with leadership effectiveness quizlet?

Which of the Big 5 personality types is most predictive of leadership?

Which of the Big 5 personality traits are strongly related to leadership across different situations?

Which of the following Big Five personality traits was more predictive of leadership effectiveness in comparison to its impact on leadership emergence?