1. Chapter 2: Trait Approach
Leadership and Change
Chapter 2: Trait Approach
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2. Overview Understand the concept of Change
Role of a Leader in Change Management
Great Person Theories
Historical Shifts in Trait Perspective of Leadership
What Traits Differentiate Leaders From Nonleaders?
How Does the Trait Approach Work?
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3. Change and Change Management
What is change & why we need it?
Change management defined:
Change Management deals with all internal and external forces that push an organization toward change, identify and reduce resistance toward change, replace old processes, methods, strategies, goals, organizational culture etc with new ones and reduce any stress associated with change for the success of organization.
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4. Leader as a Change Agent
Meaning of Change Agent:
A person who acts as a catalyst and assumes the responsibilities of managing the change.
What skills are required for Change Agents?
Problem sensor
Visionary
Strategy formulation
Conflict and stress management
Communication skills
Coaching and mentorship
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5. Phase I: Preparation for Change (Need Assessment)
General Assessment of organization:
Assess the Scope of Change:
How big the change is? Is it a micro change or macro change? What areas and parts of the organization require change? How many people will be affected? Who will be affected the most? Do we require gradual change of rapid change?
Assess the Impact on Organization:
What will be the impact on organization? Will there be any resistance? What could the severity of resistance? What could be the impact of changes on organization’s vision, strategy, long term plans, culture, value, etc?
Assess the Change Management Team (Team Evaluation):
Is team capable of handling the change?
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6. Phase II: Managing Change
Develop a Detailed Change Plan
Develop Implementation Plan:
What implementation model or theory to follow? How to implement the detailed plan? What method to follow? What would be the practical actions?
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7. Phase III: Reinforcing the Change
Gather the Data:
Assess the change whether it has provided the required result.
Diagnose the Gaps and Manage Resistance:
Find the gaps, give a feedback with proper actions.
Manage resistance & stress associated with change process.
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8. Great Person Theories Trait Approach:
One of the first systematic attempts to study leadership. The trait theory of leadership is an early assumption that leaders are born and due to this belief, those that possess the correct qualities and traits are better suited to leadership.
“Great Man” Theories (early 1900s)
Focused on identifying innate qualities and characteristics possessed by great social, political, & military leaders
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9. General Personality Traits
1- Trustworthiness 2- Dominance 3- Extroversion 4- Self awareness/self objectivity 5- Emotional stability 6- Self confidence 7- Sense of humor  8- Assertiveness 9- High tolerance for frustration 10- Enthusiasm 
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10. Task Related Personality Traits
1- Courage 2- Resiliency  3- Initiative 4- Internal Locus of Control 5- Flexibility and Adaptability 6- Sensitivity to others and empathy
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11. Historical Shifts in Trait Perspective
Early 1900s s
1970’s - Early 90s
Today
Revival of Critical Role of
Traits in Leader
Effectiveness
Great Man
Theories
Traits Interacting
With Situational
Demands on Leaders
5 Major
Leadership
Traits
Research focused
on individual
characteristics
that universally
differentiated
leaders from nonleaders
Landmark Stogdill (1948)
study - analyzed and
synthesized 124 trait studies
- Leadership
reconceptualized
as a relationship between
people in a social situation
Mann (1959) reviewed 1,400
findings of personality and
leadership in small groups
- Less emphasis on situations
- Suggested personality traits
could be used to discriminate
leaders from nonleaders
Stogdill (1974)
- Analyzed 163 new studies
with 1948 study findings
- Validated original study
- 10 characteristics
positively identified with
leadership
Lord, DeVader, &
Alliger (1986) meta-analysis
- Personality traits can be
used to differentiate
leaders/nonleaders
Kirkpatrick & Locke (1991)
- 6 traits make up the
“Right Stuff” for leaders
Intelligence
Self-Confidence
Determination
Integrity
Sociability
Innate Qualities
Situations
Personality / Behaviors

12. Leadership Traits Studies of Leadership Traits and Characteristics
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13. Stogdill identified the following characteristics in his second survey
1. Drive for responsibility and task completion;
2. Strong and persistence in pursuit of goals;
3. Risk taking and originality in problem solving;
4. Drive to exercise initiative in social situations;
5. Self-confidence and sense of personal identity;
6. Willingness to accept consequences of decision and action;
7. Readiness to absorb interpersonal stress;
8. Willingness to tolerate frustration and delay;
9. Ability to influence other people’s behavior; and
10. Capacity to structure social interaction systems to the purpose at hand.
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14. Major Leadership Traits
Traits to possess or cultivate if one seeks to be
perceived by others as a leader:
Intelligence – Intellectual ability including verbal, perceptual, and reasoning capabilities
Self-Confidence – Ability to be certain about one’s competencies and skills
Determination – The desire to get the job done (i.e., initiative, persistence, dominance, drive)
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15. Major Leadership Traits
Traits to possess or cultivate if one seeks to be
perceived by others as a leader:
Integrity – The quality of honesty and trustworthiness
Sociability – Leader’s inclination to seek out pleasant social relationships
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16. 5-Factor Personality Model & Leadership
Big Five Personality Factors
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17. 5-Factor Personality Model & Leadership
Big Five & Leadership
Study (Judge et al, 2002)
Results – a strong relationship between personality traits and leadership
Extraversion – factor most strongly associated with leadership
Most important trait of effective leaders
Conscientiousness – 2nd most related factor
Neuroticism & Openness – next most related
Neuroticism negatively associated to leadership
Agreeableness – only weakly related to leadership
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18. Emotional Intelligence & Leadership
Definition
Underlying Premise
Ability to perceive and:
apply emotions to life’s tasks
reason/understand emotions
express emotions
use emotions to facilitate thinking
manage emotions within oneself & relationships
people who are more sensitive to their emotions & their impact on others will be more effective leaders
Shankman and Allen (2008) suggest that leaders must be conscious of three fundamental aspects of leadership: context, self, and others.
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19. How Does the Trait Approach Work?
Focus of Trait Approach
Strengths
Criticisms
Application
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20. Focus of Trait Approach
Personality
Assessments
Leader
Focuses exclusively on leader
What traits leaders exhibit
Who has these traits
Organizations use personality assessments to find “Right” people
Assumption - will increase organizational effectiveness
Specify characteristics/traits for specific positions
Personality assessment measures for “fit”
Instruments: LTQ, Myers Briggs
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21. Strengths Intuitively appealing
Perception that leaders are different in that they possess special traits
People “need” to view leaders as gifted
Credibility due to a century of research support
Highlights leadership component in the leadership process
Deeper level understanding of how leader/personality related to leadership process
Provides benchmarks for what to look for in a leader
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22. Criticisms Fails to delimit a definitive list of leadership traits
Endless lists have emerged
Doesn’t take into account situational effects
Leaders in one situation may not be leaders in another situation
List of most important leadership traits is highly subjective
Much subjective experience & observations serve as basis for identified leadership traits
Research fails to look at traits in relationship to leadership outcomes
Not useful for training & development
Mansoor Ullah Baig/IMSciences Peshawar

23. Application
Provides direction as to which traits are good to have if one aspires to a leadership position
Through various tests and questionnaires, individuals can determine whether they have the selected leadership traits and can pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses
Can be used by managers to assess where they stand within their organization and what is needed to strengthen their position
Leadership Traits
Intelligence
Self-Confidence
Determination
Integrity
Sociability
Mansoor Ullah Baig/IMSciences Peshawar