TRAIT THEORY

Similar in some ways to "Great Man" theories, trait theories assume that people inherit certain qualities and traits that make them better suited to leadership. Trait theories often identify particular personality or behavioral characteristics shared by leaders. If particular traits are key features of leadership, then how do we explain people who possess those qualities but are not leaders? This question is one of the difficulties in using trait theories to explain leadership.

Pros

• That leadership depends upon having certain traits allows behavior modification to become more tenable in producing good leaders, if one takes to heart the writings of B.F. Skinner. Though the theory says that the traits are innate, this is controversial and allows testing as to whether or not the traits can be developed.
• Knowing what general traits make a successful leader aids in identifying potential leaders.
• The specific traits that are listed permit them to be available for quantification or correlation with validation techniques, such as brain scans.

Cons

• One question of what has been really added to the "Great Man Theory", other than an enumeration of traits. It is controversial whether or not these traits are innate.
• "Traits" in the trait theory refer to innate characteristics and it is questionable, at best, to consider them only as a partial outgrowth of personality.
• There is no situational awareness. The terms may mean different things in different contexts. What is malevolent in one situation may be beneficial in another.

Overview

The trait theory states that leaders have certain innate traits that enable them to lead, such traits as assertiveness,  dependability, persistence and adaptability it is convenient to list the elements that Ralph Stodgill (1974), the originator of the trait theory, determined:

Traits	Skills
Ø  Adaptable to situations Ø  Alert to social environment Ø  Ambitious and achievement-orientated Ø  Assertive Ø  Cooperative Ø  Decisive Ø  Dependable Ø  Dominant (desire to influence others) Ø  Energetic (high activity level) Ø  Persistent Ø  Self-confident Ø  Tolerant of stress Ø  Willing to assume responsibility	Ø  Clever (intelligent) Ø  Conceptually skilled Ø  Creative Ø  Diplomatic and tactful Ø  Fluent in speaking Ø  Knowledgeable about group task Ø  Organized (administrative ability) Ø  Persuasive Ø  Socially skilled

McCall and Lombardo (1983), which expanded on the trait theory, argued that a leader is made or broken based on emotional stability, the ability to admit faults and errors, intellectual strength and having refined interpersonal skills and relations.

Until the mid-1940’s, the trait theory was the basis for most leadership research. Early work in this area maintained the traits are inherited, but later theories suggested that traits could be obtained through learning and experience.

Discussion

During World War II, people were focused on what enabled individuals like Hitler and Mussolini to become so popular. The most immediate observation was charisma; Hitler was electrifying. In his Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote of having to practice speaking and emulating the likes of Gustav Le Bon in his 1896 work The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind. The iniquity of Hitler did not negate the fact that he was a "great" man in the sense of standing far above the others. Certainly, in modern times, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to conceive of anyone more vile.

From this thinking emerged the formalization of Trait Theory of Stogdill in 1974 with his Handbook of Leadership. In 1948 he said that leaders did not have traits that were unique to leaders. This followed much research during the previous two decades that had suggested the same. However, research methods changed and as a result, Stogdill came to his latter view.

The 1950s saw an emergence of behavioralism, the major proponent being B.F. Skinner and his view that a person's behavior could be modified. Psychoanalysis was riding high as well, where the inner mind of a person could be probed by "lying on the couch" and pouring out accounts of past experiences. During the Korean War, it was learned that sensory deprivation could cause a person to alter his/her thinking. Albeit crude, it was possible to utilize behaviorally-oriented techniques to manage traits. Here, a person could be transformed from an adherent to capitalism to communism (surely cognizant of the Stalinist mode). It was in this decade that the mother-daughter team of Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers created a personality trait test with their name which has subsequently evolved into a very sophisticated personality testing instrument often is used for assessing how suited a person was to certain types of work. Carl Jung, a famous psychologist, held that there is a collective consciousness in which is found models or archetypes, of human personality traits. It was from this that Myers-Briggs derived their instrument to assess 16 traits. Scientists, for example, are curious, intelligent and detail-oriented. An accountant is also detail-oriented and is organized and would typically prefer routines. Architects are creative, intelligent and detailed-oriented. Some of these persons are more orientated towards leadership, and others prefer to serve.

The Boy Scouts USA (BSA) "...provides a program for young people that builds character, trains them in the responsibilities of participating citizenship...".The BSA since its inception in 1910 has purported that a scout is "...trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent." In fact, it can be claimed that many other leadership programs stress personal traits as being critical to leadership success.

Future of theory

Refinement of Trait Theory might be made to classify which traits are associated with the ethical system of a person. We have seen Machiavelli's discussion that having benevolent traits does not mean that a leader will be successful. By assessing a person's traits and correlating to known ethical systems, we may be on the verge of being able to predicting how a leader will perform and encourage or prevent her/his rise to leadership.

In a more scientific setting, cognitive neuroscience has been emerging as a viable way of assessing a person's psychological condition. For years, people have debated the "nature vs. nurture" dichotomy of human development. What role does genetics play and do certain families produce more leaders than others? The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (in its four major revisions) draws its authority from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, where people are asked to subjectively respond to questions (albeit asked in several different ways) about their psychological states. Professionals in the psychological and psychiatric field use this manual to assess and classify a person's psychological state, but the whole procedure is subjective. Up until recent time, there has been no clear-cut approach to validating the diagnoses'. In fact, the DSM is controversial and has undergone numerous re-classification schemes.

Source: http://www.leadership-central.com/trait-theory.html#axzz2C0oqNEEO