Personality and Leadership

Donelson R.Forsyth

•Everyone is unique

• But everyone is similar,too, in some ways.

Personality

...a distinctive and relatively stable pattern of behavior, thoughts, motives, and emotions that characterizes an individual.

The word personality comes from

the Latin"persona", meaning "mask“.

What is “Personality”

Levels of Personality AnalysisLevels of Personality Analysis

Every human being is…

… like all others

Human nature

What are humans, as a species, like?

… like some others

Individual difference

In what ways do people differ from one another?

… like no others

Individual uniqueness

How is this individual special?

The traits and mechanisms of personality that are typical of our species and are possessed by everyone or nearly everyone

Human Nature LevelHuman Nature Level

• The Need to Belong

• The Primal Need for a Leader

Ways in which each person is like some other people; dimensions of variation among people

Individual Differences LevelIndividual Differences Level

IntrovertedIntroverted ExtravertedExtraverted

Every individual has personal and unique qualities not shared by any other person in the world

Individual Uniqueness LevelIndividual Uniqueness Level

Consider a leader….what do these levels of analysis tell us about him or her and the way he or she leads?

• leadership emergence

• leadership methods and style

• leadership effectiveness

• followers’ reactions to leaders

• leaders’ reactions to leading

What can personality tell us about leaders and leadership?

Questions to Consider

Does Personality Influence…..

• who becomes a leader?

Trait theories of leadership

Early explanations of leadership studied the “traits” of great leaders• “Great man” theories (Gandhi, Lincoln,

Napoleon)• Belief that people were born with these traits

and only the great people possessed them

But researchers and reviewers (e.g., Stogdill), when they compared the characteristics of leaders to non-leaders, found few differences.

A few characteristics were correlated with leadership, but the relationships were weak.

Emerging consensus leaders do possess certain qualities that set them apart from other people.

As Steve Zaccaro conclude in their chapter “Leader Traits and Attributes”

New Advances and Renewed Interest

Better Measures

Better Theory

Better Methods

Better Statistics

Example: Big Five Theory

Big Five Factors and Leadership

Personality Leadership Emergence

Questions to Consider

Does Personality Influence….

• how one leads, when a leader?

Leadership Style

Example: Fiedler’s Contingency Theory

• Fiedler studied various leaders and organizations

• Preferred to only study groups with clear indicators of effectiveness/ performance (e.g., teams with win/loss records)

• Revised and extended model based on data

Personality Variable

MotivationalStructure or

Leadership Style

“In oversimplified terms, … the leader manages the group in either of two ways. He can:

• Tell people what to do and how to do it.

• Or share his leadership responsibilities with his group members and involve them in the planning and execution of the task.”

Fielder, Harvard Business Review, p. 116

MeasuringMotivational

Style

The Least Preferred Coworker Scale, or LPC scale.

• Think of the person who you least like to work with

LPC Scale

Think of a person with whom you can work least well. He or she may be someone you work with now or someone you knew in the past. This coworker does not have to be the person you like least but should be the person with whom you had the most difficulty in getting a job done.

Pleasant :.8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1.:Unpleasant

Friendly :.8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1.:Unfriendly

. . .Insincere :.1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8.:

SincereKind :.8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1.:

Unkind

.

Low score = Task Motivated (57)

High score = Relationship Motivated (63)

(If 58-62, “socioindependent”): ambivalent, mixed motivations, socially independent, not clear

Questions to Consider

Does Personality Influence. . .

• who is effective as a leader?

High LPC leaders most effective in “moderately” favorable situations

Low LPC leaders most effective in very favorable or very unfavorable situations

In moderate situations, the correlation between LPC and Effectiveness is POSITIVE

In highly favorable or highly unfavorable situations, the correlation between LPC and Effectiveness is NEGATIVE

Example: Fiedler’s Contingency Theory

Intelligent leaders:• Are faster learners.

• Make better judgments, decisions.

• Are better at visioning and developing strategies to make their vision a reality.

• Can develop better solutions to problems.

Depends, though, on “type” of intelligence and situation

Example 2: Intelligence

Fiedler’s Cognitive Resources Theory

• Why do some highly intelligent leaders behave so poorly?

• Fiedler’s CRT suggests several factors important to consider:

ExperienceStressRelations with co-workersDirectiveness of leader

1. When stress is high, people fall back on experience.

2. If inexperienced, high intelligence is of little help.

3. So, even less intelligent individuals perform well under stress (if experienced).

• Other factors (e.g., directiveness) also important

• Implication: Monitor and regulate stress

Fiedler’s Cognitive Resources Theory

Other Questions to Consider

Does Personality Influence . . .

• how people relate to leaders?

• leadership emergence

• leadership methods and style

• leadership effectiveness

• followers’ reactions to leaders

• leaders’ reactions to leading

Other Questions to Consider

Does Personality Influence. . .

• how leaders change over time?

• leadership emergence

• leadership methods and style

• leadership effectiveness

• followers’ reactions to leaders

• leaders’ reactions to leading

Need for Power!