Personality and Leadership
Donelson R.
Forsyth
•Everyone is
unique
• But everyone is similar,
too, in some ways.
What is “Personality”
Personality
The word
personality
comes from
the Latin
"persona",
meaning
"mask“.
...a distinctive and relatively
stable pattern of behavior,
thoughts, motives, and
emotions that characterizes an
individual.
Levels of Personality Analysis
Every human being is…
… like all Human
others
nature
What are
humans, as a
species, like?
… like
some
others
… like no
others
Individual
difference
In what ways
do people
differ from one
another?
Individual
uniqueness
How is this
individual
special?
Human Nature Level
The traits and mechanisms of
personality that are typical of our
species and are possessed by
everyone or nearly everyone
• The Need to Belong
• The Primal Need for a Leader
Individual Differences Level
Ways in which each person is like some
other people; dimensions of variation
among people
Introverted
Extraverted
Individual Uniqueness Level
Every individual has personal and unique
qualities not shared by any other person in
the world
Consider a leader….what do these levels
of analysis tell us about him or her and
the way he or she leads?
What can personality tell us about leaders and leadership?
• leadership emergence
• leadership methods
and style
• leadership
effectiveness
• followers’ reactions to
leaders
• leaders’ reactions to
leading
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.
New Advances and Renewed Interest
As Steve Zaccaro conclude in their
chapter “Leader Traits and Attributes”
Better Theory

Better Measures

Better Methods

Better Statistics
Emerging consensus
leaders do possess
certain qualities that
set them apart from
other people.
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
Motivational
Structure 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
Measuring
Motivational
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
Friendly
. . .
Insincere
.
Kind
:.8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1.:
:.8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1.:
Unpleasant
Unfriendly
:.1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8.:
:.8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1.:
Sincere
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?
Example: Fiedler’s Contingency Theory
High LPC leaders most
effective in
“moderately”
favorable situations
In moderate situations,
the correlation
between LPC and
Effectiveness is POSITIVE
Low LPC leaders most
effective in very
favorable or very
unfavorable situations
In highly favorable or
highly unfavorable
situations, the correlation
between LPC and
Effectiveness is NEGATIVE
Example 2: Intelligence
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
Fiedler’s Cognitive Resources Theory
• Why do some highly intelligent leaders
behave so poorly?
• Fiedler’s CRT suggests several factors
important to consider:
Experience
Stress
Relations with co-workers
Directiveness of leader
Fiedler’s Cognitive Resources Theory
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
Other Questions to Consider
• leadership
emergence
• leadership methods
and style
• leadership
effectiveness
• followers’ reactions
to leaders
• leaders’ reactions to
leading
Does Personality
Influence . . .
• how people
relate to
leaders?
Other Questions to Consider
• leadership
emergence
• leadership methods
and style
• leadership
effectiveness
• followers’ reactions
to leaders
• leaders’ reactions to
leading
Does
Personality
Influence. . .
• how leaders
change over
time?
Need for Power!