CHAPTER 4
The Leader as an Individual
Chapter Outline
The Secret Ingredient for Leadership Success
Personality and Leadership
Values and Attitudes
Social Perception and Attribution Theory
Cognitive Differences
Working with Different Personality Types
In the Lead
Rick Williams and John Addison, Primerica Inc.
Chris Hughes, Facebook and MyBarackObama.com
Leader’s Self-Insight
The Big Five Personality Dimensions
Measuring Locus of Control
Instrumental and End Values
Summary and Interpretation
This chapter explores some of the individual differences that affect leaders and the leadership
process. Individuals differ in many ways, including personality, values and attitudes, and styles
of thinking and decision making. One model of personality, the Big Five personality dimensions,
examines whether individuals score high or low on the dimensions of extraversion,
agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience. Although
Another area of individual differences is cognitive style. The whole brain concept explores a
person’s preferences for right-brained versus left-brained thinking and for conceptual versus
experiential thinking. The model provides a powerful metaphor for understanding differences in
thinking styles. Individuals can learn to use their “whole brain” rather than relying on one
thinking style. Another way of looking at cognitive differences is the Myers–Briggs Type
Indicator, which measures an individual’s preferences for introversion versus extraversion,
sensing versus intuition, thinking versus feeling, and judging versus perceiving.
Your Leadership Challenge
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
Understand the importance of self-awareness and how to recognize your blind spots.
Identify major personality dimensions and understand how personality influences leadership and
relationships within organizations.
Clarify your instrumental and end values, and recognize how values guide thoughts and
Key Terms and Concepts
Self-awareness: being conscious of the internal aspects of one’s nature, such as personality
traits, emotions, values, attitudes, and perceptions, and appreciating how your patterns affect
other people.
Blind spots: characteristics or habits that people are not aware of or don’t recognize as problems
but which limit their effectiveness and hinder their career success.
Personality: the set of unseen characteristics and processes that underlie a relatively stable
pattern of behavior in response to ideas, objects, and people in the environment.
Emotional stability: the degree to which a person is well-adjusted, calm, and secure.
Openness to experience: the degree to which a person has a broad range of interests and is
imaginative, creative, and willing to consider new ideas.
Values: fundamental beliefs that an individual considers to be important, that are relatively stable over
time, and that have an impact on attitudes and behavior.
End values: sometimes called terminal values, these are beliefs about the kind of goals or outcomes
that are worth trying to pursue.
Perceptual distortions: errors in judgment that arise from inaccuracies in any part of the
perceptual process.
Stereotyping: the tendency to assign an individual to a group or broad category and then
attribute generalizations about the group to the individual.
Self-serving bias: the tendency to overestimate the influence of internal factors on one’s
successes and the influence of external factors on one’s failures.
Cognitive style: how a person perceives, processes, interprets, and uses information.
Whole brain concept: an approach that considers not only a person’s preference for right–brained
versus left-brained thinking, but also conceptual versus experiential thinking; identifies four quadrants
of the brain related to different thinking styles.
Introduction
As head of Windows at Microsoft, Steven Sinofsky led one of the largest and most important
software development companies in the world. He ran the complex organization skillfully, met
deadlines, achieved significant accomplishments, and was generally respected for his brilliant
mind. Yet Sinofsky was also known to come across as arrogant and abrasive. Clashes with
Microsoft CEO Steven Ballmer and other managers became increasingly frequent. In the fall of
2012, just after the release of Windows 8, Sinofsky and Ballmer agreed that it was time for
Annotated Lecture/Outline
Leadership Challenge #1: Understand the importance of self-awareness and how to recognize
your blind spots.
I. The Secret Ingredient for Leadership Success
A survey of 75 members of the Stanford Graduate School of Business’s Advisory Council
revealed that the most important capability for leaders to develop is self-awareness. Self-
A. The Importance of Self-Awareness
Most leadership experts agree that a primary characteristic of effective leaders is that they know
who they are and what they stand for. When leaders deeply understand themselves, they remain
B. Leader Blind Spots
New Leader Action Memo: As a leader, strive for self-awareness so that you know who you are
and what you stand for. Undergo ruthless self-examination and seek feedback from others to
avoid being derailed by blind spots.
Many leaders have blind spots—things they are not aware of or don’t recognize as problems—
that limit their effectiveness and hinder their career success. One particularly damaging blind
spot is displaying an aggressive, confrontational style, otherwise known as being a jerk. Stanford
professor Robert Sutton argues that jerks not only hurt the people they work with but also
Discussion Question #1: Do you agree that self-awareness is essential for being a good leader?
Can you think of some specific negative consequences that might result from a leader not having
self-awareness?
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Leadership Challenge #2: Identify major personality dimensions and understand how
personality influences leadership and relationships within organizations.
II. Personality and Leadership
Understanding personality differences is one aspect of knowing how to maximize one’s own
In the Lead: Rick Williams and John Addison, Primerica Inc.
Primerica is considered one of the best-managed companies in the insurance and financial
products industry. Part of that success, perhaps surprisingly, comes from having two top leaders.
Having co-CEOs isn’t always successful for organizations, but it has been a magic formula for
Primerica. Having two people with the right personalities who can both put their egos aside and
work for the benefit of the organization has kept the company buzzing.
and being the “analytical, financial, make-the-trains-run-on-time person.” He’s happy to let
Addison be the outgoing, intuitive, motivational half of the duo.
A. A Model of Personality
Researchers have investigated whether any traits stand up to scientific scrutiny. Although
investigators have examined thousands of personality traits over the years, their findings have
been distilled into five general dimensions that describe personality. These often are called the
New Leader Action Memo: You can see where you fall on the Big Five scale for extroversion,
agreebleness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience by answering the
questions in Leader’s Self-Insight 4.1.
Extroversion refers to the degree to which a person is outgoing, sociable, talkative, and
comfortable meeting and talking to people. This dimension includes the characteristic of
Discussion Question #2: Extroversion is often considered a “good” quality for a leader to have.
Why might introversion be considered an equally positive quality?
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Agreeableness refers to the degree to which a person is able to get along with others by being
good-natured, cooperative, forgiving, compassionate, understanding, and trusting. A leader who
scores high on agreeableness seems warm and approachable, whereas one who is low on this
dimension may seem cold, distant, and insensitive.
The dimension of emotional stability refers to the degree to which a person is well-adjusted,
calm, and secure. A leader who is emotionally stable handles stress well, is able to handle
criticism, and generally doesn’t take mistakes and failures personally. Leaders who have a low
The final Big Five dimension, openness to experience, is the degree to which a person has a
broad range of interests and is imaginative, creative, and willing to consider new ideas. These
people are intellectually curious and often seek out new experiences through travel, the arts, etc.
New Leader Action Memo: As a leader, you can learn about your own basic personality
dimensions and how to emphasize the positive aspects of your personality in dealing with
followers.
Discussion Question #5: What might be some reasons the dimension of “openness to
experience” correlates so strongly with historians’ ratings of the greatest U.S. presidents but has
been less strongly associated with business leaders? Do you think this personality dimension
might be more important for business leaders of today than it was in the past?
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One summary of more than 70 years of personality and leadership research did find evidence that
four of the five dimensions were consistently related to successful leadership. The researchers
found considerable evidence that people who score high on extroversion, agreeableness,
conscientiousness, and emotional stability are more successful leaders. In a study by a team of
Exhibit 4.1: Maximizing Leadership Effectiveness
Exhibit 4.1 gives some tips for both introverts and extroverts to help them be more effective and
successful.
B. Personality Traits and Leader Behavior
Locus of Control
A person’s locus of control defines whether he or she places the primary responsibility within
the self or on outside forces. People who believe their actions determine what happens to them
have a high internal locus of control (internals), whereas those who believe outside forces
determine what happens to them have a high external locus of control (externals).
In the Lead: Chris Hughes, Facebook and MyBarackObama.com
Chris Hughes grew up in Hickory, North Carolina, as the only child of older parents. His father
was a paper salesman and his mother a teacher. When Hughes entered high school, he decided he
wanted something different than graduating from the local school and getting a job in town. In
fact, what he wanted was to attend a prestigious prep school and go on to an Ivy League
university.
New Leader Action Memo: Do you believe luck, chance, or the actions of other people play a
major role in your life, or do you feel in control of your own fate? To learn more about your
locus of control, complete the questionnaire in Leader’s Self-Insight 4.2.
Research has shown real differences in behavior between internals and externals across a wide
range of settings. Internals in general:
Are more self-motivated
Are in better control of their own behavior
Participate more in social and political activities
More actively seek information
Are better able to handle complex information and problem solving
Are more achievement oriented than externals
Are more likely than externals to try to influence others and thus more likely to assume or seek
leadership opportunities
Discussion Question #3: A survey found that 79 percent of CEOs surveyed fall into the category
of being “highly optimistic,” whereas a much lower percentage of chief financial officers were
rated as highly optimistic. Do you think these differences reflect personality characteristics or
the different requirements of the two jobs? Discuss.
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Authoritarianism
The belief that power and status differences should exist in an organization is called
authoritarianism. Individuals who have a high degree of this trait tend to adhere to conventional
rules and values, obey established authority, respect power and toughness, critically judge others,
New Leader Action Memo: As a leader, you can improve your effectiveness by recognizing how
traits such as authoritarianism and locus of control affect your relationships with followers. You
can tone down a strong authoritarian personality to motivate others.
Discussion Question #6: Leaders in many of today’s organizations use the results of personality
testing to make hiring and promotion decisions. Discuss some of the pros and cons of this
approach.
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Leadership Challenge #3: Clarify your instrumental and end values, and recognize how value
guide thoughts and behavior.
III. Values and Attitudes
Individuals may differ significantly in the values and attitudes they hold. These differences affect
the behavior of leaders and followers.
A. Instrumental and End Values
Values are fundamental beliefs that an individual considers to be important, that are relatively
stable over time, and that have an impact on attitudes, perception and behavior. Values are what
cause a person to prefer that things be done one way rather than another way.
Social scientist Milton Rokeach developed a list of 18 instrumental values and 18 end values that
have been found to be more or less universal across cultures. End values, sometimes called
terminal values, are beliefs about the kinds of goals or outcomes worth trying to pursue. For
Exhibit 4.2: Differences in Leaders, and Nonleaders’ Value Rankings
National culture, generational differences, and family background can influence how people rank
values. For example, in the United States, independence is highly valued and is reinforced by
many institutions, including schools, religious organizations, and businesses.
New Leader Action Memo: Complete the exercise in Leader’s Self-Insight 4.3 to see what you
can learn about your own values and how they affect your decisions and actions. Were you
surprised by any of your instrumental or end values?
Our values are generally fairly well established by early adulthood, but a person’s values can also
change throughout life. Personal values influence how leaders perceive opportunities, situations, and
problems, as well as the decisions they make in response to them.
CONSIDER THIS: Developing Character
“The character that takes command in moments of critical choices has already been determined.
It has been determined by a thousand other choices made earlier in seemingly unimportant
moments. It has been determined by all those ‘little’ choices of years past—by all those times
when the voice of conscience was at war with the voice of temptation—whispering a lie that ‘it
Source: President Ronald Reagan, quoted in Norma R. Augustine, “Seven Fundamentals of Effective Leadership,”
an original essay written for the Study of American Business, Washington University in St. Louis, CEO Series, no,
27 (October 1998).
In the Lead: Admiral Vernon E. Clark, U.S. Chief of Naval Operations, 2000–2005
Admiral Vernon E. Clark, who retired in July 2005 after a 37-year career in the U.S. Navy, was
the second-longest serving U.S. CNO. The job of the CNO is to advise the president on the
conduct of war.
When Clark was named CNO in July 2000, the Navy was losing too many good sailors who
didn’t want to re-enlist. For Clark, getting and keeping good sailors who could protect the
national security was a top priority, and all his decisions were based on valuing the people on the
Leaders can be more effective when they clarify their values and understand how values guide
their actions and affect their organizations. In addition, for many organizations today, clarifying
and stating their corporate values, including ethical values, has become an important part of
defining how the organization operates.
Discussion Question #7: From Leader’s Self-Insight 4.3, identify four or five values
(instrumental or end values) that could be a source of conflict between leaders and followers.
Explain.
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Leadership Challenge #4: Define attitudes and explain their relationship to leader behavior.
New Leader Action Memo: As a leader, you can cultivate positive attitudes and learn to expect
the best from followers.
A
B. How Attitudes Affect Leadership
Values help determine the attitudes leaders have about themselves and about their followers. An
attitude is an evaluation—either positive or negative—about people, events, or things.
A leader’s attitudes towards followers influence how he or she relates to people. Every leader’s
style is based to some extent on attitudes about human nature in general—ideas and feelings
Exhibit 4.3: Attitudes and Assumptions of Theory X and Theory Y
In general, Theory X reflects the assumption that people are basically lazy and not motivated to
work and that they have a natural tendency to avoid responsibility. Thus, a supervisor who
subscribes to the assumptions of Theory X has the attitude that people must be coerced,
controlled, directed, or threatened to get them to put forth their best effort. Theory Y, on the
other hand, is based on assumptions that people do not inherently dislike work and will commit
Leadership Challenge #5: Explain attributions and recognize how perception affects the leader-
follower relationship.
IV. Social Perception and Attribution Theory
Perception means the process people use to make sense out of their surroundings by selecting,
organizing, and interpreting information. Values and attitudes affect perceptions and vice versa.
For example, a leader who greatly values ambition and career success may perceive a problem or
A. Perceptual Distortions
Of particular concern for leaders are perceptual distortions, errors in perceptual judgment that
arise from inaccuracies in perception. Leaders who recognize these perceptual distortions can
better adjust their perceptions to more closely match objective reality.
Stereotyping is the tendency to assign an individual to a group or broad category (e.g., female,
black, elderly or male, white, disabled) and then to attribute generalizations about the group to
the individual. Stereotyping prevents people from truly knowing those they classify in this way.
Projection is the tendency of perceivers to see their own personal traits in other people; that is,
they project their own needs, feelings, values, and attitudes into their judgment of others. A
leader who is achievement-oriented might assume that subordinates are as well.
B. Attributions
Attributions are judgments about what caused an event or behavior—(a) something about the
person or (b) something about the situation. People also make attributions or judgments as a way
to understand what caused their own or another person’s behavior:
An internal attribution says characteristics of the person led to the behavior (“My subordinate
The Fundamental Attribution Error
People tend to have biases that they apply when making attributions. When evaluating others,
many people underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of
internal factors. This tendency is called the fundamental attribution error.
The Self-Serving Bias
In the Lead: Kevin Kelly, Emerald Packaging
As the top leader of his family’s California company, Emerald Packaging—a maker of plastic
bags for the food industry—Kevin Kelly thought of himself as indispensable. When Emerald
began to falter, Kelly blamed it on his managers’ resistance to new ideas that could keep the
business thriving. He thought everyone needed to change except him.
For some time, Kelly’s leadership approach was to reprimand and complain. Then, he decided to
look at things in a different way. Was it really all his managers’ fault? Realizing that everyone
was under stress from several years of rapid growth, Kelly hired a pack of new managers to
reinforce his exhausted troops. Surprisingly, though, things just seemed to get worse. Kelly had
to face a hard truth: Rather than being the one person in the organization who didn’t need to
change, as Kelly had previously thought, he realized he was a big part of the problem.
Leadership Challenge #6: Recognize individual differences in cognitive style and broaden your
own thinking style to expand leadership potential.
V. Cognitive Differences
Cognitive style refers to how a person perceives, processes, interprets, and uses information.
When we talk about cognitive differences, we are referring to varying approaches to perceiving
A. Patterns of Thinking and Brain Dominance
Neurologists and psychologists have long known that the brain has two distinct hemispheres.
Furthermore, science has shown that the left hemisphere of the brain controls movement on the
Although the concept of left-brained versus right-brained thinking is not entirely accurate
physiologically (not all processes associated with left-brained thinking are located in the left
hemisphere and vice versa), this concept provides a powerful metaphor for two very different
ways of thinking and decision making. It is also important to remember that everyone uses both
left-brained and right-brained thinking, but to varying degrees.
New Leader Action Memo: A simplified exercise to help you think about your own preferences
appears in Leader’s Self-Insight 4.4. Before reading further, follow the instructions and
complete the exercise to get an idea about your dominant thinking style according to
Herrmann’s whole brain model. Then, read the following descriptions of each quadrant.
Quadrant A is associated with logical thinking, analysis of facts, and processing numbers. A
person who has a quadrant-A dominance is rational and realistic, thinks critically, and likes to
deal with numbers and technical matters. When a leader has a predominantly A-quadrant
thinking style, he or she focuses on tasks and activities and likes to deal with concrete
information and facts.
Quadrant D is associated with conceptualizing, synthesizing, and integrating facts and patterns.
A person with a quadrant-D preference is visionary and imaginative, likes to speculate and break
the rules, takes risks, and may be impulsive. The D-quadrant leader is holistic, imaginative, and
Exhibit 4.4: Herman’s Whole Brain Model
Hermann believes that people can learn to use their “whole brain,” rather than relying on one or
two quadrants. Leaders who reach the top of organizations often have well-balanced brains,
according to Hermann’s research.
Understanding that individuals have different thinking styles can help leaders be more effective
New Leader Action Memo: As a leader, you can strive for “whole–brain” thinking to deal
effectively with a wide variety of people and complex issues. You can be aware of your natural
thinking patterns and include other perspectives that help you develop a broader understanding.
Discussion Question #8: Do you believe understanding your preferences according to the whole
brain model can help you be a better leader? Discuss.
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Discussion Question #9: How can leader use an understanding of brain dominance to improve
the functioning of the organization?
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B. Problem Solving Styles: Jungian Types
Carl Jung, psychologist, believed that differences in individual behavior resulted from
preferences in how we go about gathering and evaluating information for solving problems and
making decisions. One of the most widely used tests in the United States, the Myers-Briggs
Type Indicator (MBTI)™ assessment, is one way of measuring how individuals differ in these
areas.
The (MBTI)™ instrument uses four pairs of attributes to classify people in 1 of 16 different
personality types:
Introversion versus Extroversion—this dimension focuses on where people gain interpersonal
strength and mental energy. Extroverts (E) gain energy from being around others and interacting
with others, whereas introverts (I) gain energy by focusing on personal thoughts and feelings.
Sensing versus Intuition—this identifies how a person absorbs information. Those with a
In the Lead: Hallmark Cards
The value of people understanding and seeing the best in one another is a core part of Hallmark’s
mission. The mission and core philosophy have remained constant, but the market, workforce,
and business environment have changed dramatically in recent years, becoming more global,
diverse, and mobile.