Northouse, Leadership 9e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
Lecture Notes
Chapter 2: Trait Approach
Learning Objectives
2-2: Explain how the trait approach works.
2-4: Discuss the weaknesses of the traits approach.
2-5: Explain how you can use information from the traits approach to strengthen your
leadership position.
Annotated Chapter Outline
I. Description
A. Leadership trait research was common in the early 20th century.
i. Typically researched “great man” theories, which focused on identifying innate
qualities and characteristics of social, political, and military leaders.
B. In the mid-20th century, Stogdill reviewed the literature and suggested that no
consistent set of traits differentiated leaders across various situations.
i. Those with leadership traits might be a leader in one situation, but not another.
ii. Leadership is not a quality, but a relationship between people in a social
situation.
C. This did not decrease researchers’ interest in the trait approach in modern times.
i. Due to the charismatic persona of President Barack Obama, much research has
been done on visionaries and charismatic leaders.
ii. Jung and Sosik (2006) found charismatic leaders are:
a. Self-monitors.
D. Stogdill’s multiple analyses of literature on the subject provide a good overview of the
trait approach.
i. His first survey identified leadership traits related to how individuals in various
groups became leaders.
a. Asserted that individuals do not become leaders just because of certain
personality traits; the traits must be relevant to the leadership
situations.
Northouse, Leadership 9e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
ii. According to Stogdill’s first literature review, average individuals in leadership
roles are different from the average group member in eight key ways:
a. Intelligence.
b. Alertness.
f. Persistence.
g. Self-confidence.
h. Sociability.
iii. Stogdill’s second literature review took a more balanced approach, asserting that
leadership is determined by both traits and situational factors. 10 traits positively
associated with leadership were:
a. Drive for responsibility and task completion.
b. Vigor and persistence in pursuit of goals.
c. Risk-taking and originality in problem solving.
d. Drive to exercise initiative in social situations.
E. Mann’s (1959) six traits of leadership:
i. Intelligence.
ii. Masculinity.
iii. Adjustment.
vii. Lord et al. (1986) reassessed Mann’s findings with a meta-analysis.
a. Found that intelligence, masculinity, and dominance were significantly
F. Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991) determined six traits of leadership as well:
i. Drive.
ii. Motivation.
iii. Integrity.
Northouse, Leadership 9e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
G. The 1990s saw a focus on social intelligence, or the ability to understand one’s own and
others’ feelings, behaviors, and thoughts and act appropriately.
i. Component skills:
a. Social awareness.
ii. These capacities were empirically shown to be key traits for effective leaders.
H. Research generally converges on five leadership traits: intelligence, self-confidence,
determination, integrity, and sociability.
I. Intelligence
i. Leaders tend to have a somewhat higher IQ than nonleaders. Too much higher,
and it has a counterproductive impact on leadership as barriers to
communication and understanding arise.
J. Self-Confidence
i. The ability to be certain about one’s competencies and skills.
ii. Leads to self-esteem, self-assurance, and belief that one can make a difference,
which facilitates influencing followers.
K. Determination
i. The desire to get the job done.
ii. Component characteristics include initiative, persistence, dominance, and drive.
L. Integrity
i. Honesty and trustworthiness.
ii. Adhere to a strong set of principles and take responsibility for their actions.
M. Sociability
i. Inclination to seek out pleasant social relationships.
Northouse, Leadership 9e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
ii. Associated traits include friendliness, outgoingness, courteousness, tact, and
diplomacy.
N. Five-Factor Personality Model and Leadership
i. Consensus has emerged to determine the “Big Five” traits of personality, here
ordered by the strength of their association with leadership:
a. Extraversion (surgency): The trait most strongly associated with leaders.
b. Conscientiousness: Highest correlation with overall job performance,
O. Strengths and Leadership
i. Central idea: Everyone has special talents, and good leaders recognize and
capitalize on their own strengths and the strengths of their followers as well.
ii. Strength: An attribute or quality of an individual that accounts for successful
v. Integrity contributes the most to explaining differences in executive performance
(Sosik, Gentry, and Chun, 2012).
P. Emotional Intelligence
i. The interplay between emotions, or the affective domain, and thinking, or the
cognitive domain.
ii. Understanding emotions and applying this understanding to life’s tasks.
v. Leaders trained in emotional intelligence are less stressed, more moral, and
more civil.
vi. Goleman and Boyatzis suggest four aspects: self-awareness, self-management,
social awareness, and relationship management.
Northouse, Leadership 9e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
viii. The U.S. Army used a brief internet training program in emotional intelligence
II. How Does the Trait Approach Work?
A. Focuses exclusively on the leader, making it seem more straightforward.
B. Finding a leader with the right traits is crucial to good leadership.
C. Also used for personal awareness and development.
i. Gives individuals a clearer picture of who they are as leaders and how they fit in.
III. Strengths
A. Intuitive appeal: Society already tends to push the premise that leaders are a special
kind of people who do extraordinary things.
B. Extensive body of research.
IV. Criticisms
A. Fails to delimit a definitive list of traits.
B. Fails to take the influence of the situation on leadership into account.
C. Research has resulted in highly subjective determinations of the most important
leadership traits.
V. Application
A. Provides direction for personal development.