The Trait Approach to Leadership

Of interest to scholars throughout the 20th century, the trait approach was one of the first systematic attempts to study leadership. In the early 20th century, leadership traits were studied to determine what made certain people great leaders.

The theories that were developed were called “great man” theories because they focused on identifying the innate qualities and characteristics possessed by great social, political, and military leaders. It was believed that people were born with these traits, and that only the “great” people possessed them. During this time, research concentrated on determining the specific traits that clearly differentiated leaders from followers.

In the mid-20th century, the trait approach was challenged by research that questioned the universality of leadership traits. An individual with leadership traits who was a leader in one situation might not be a leader in another situation. Rather than being a quality that individuals possess, leadership was reconceptualized as a relationship between people in a social situation. Personal factors related to leadership continued to be important, but researchers contended that these factors were to be considered as relative to the requirements of the situation.

The trait approach has earned new interest through the current emphasis given by many researchers to visionary and charismatic leadership. Yet another review argues for the importance of leadership traits contended that “it is unequivocally clear that leaders are not like other people.” From a qualitative synthesis of earlier research, leaders differ from nonleaders on six traits: drive, motivation, integrity, confidence, cognitive ability, and task knowledge.

According to these researchers, individuals can be born with these traits, they can learn them, or both. It is these six traits that make up the “right stuff” for leaders. It was asserted that leadership traits make some people different from others, and this difference should be recognized as an important part of the leadership process. What, then, can be said about trait research? The answer is an extended list of traits that individuals might hope to possess or wish to cultivate if they want to be perceived by others as leaders. Some of the traits that are central to this list include intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity, and sociability.

In the 1990s, researchers began to investigate the leadership traits associated with “social intelligence,” which is characterized as the ability to understand one’s own and others’ feelings, behaviors, and thoughts and act appropriately. Others defined social intelligence as having such capacities as social awareness, social acumen, self-monitoring, and the ability to select and enact the best response given the contingencies of the situation and social environment.