Does Personality Matter in Leadership?

I think that a leader’s personality plays a large role in the success of their leadership. However, I don’t think that there are specific personality traits that can be analyzed and are guaranteed to result in effective leadership. I think that the success of the leader greatly depends on the environment or situation, the culture of the company and the personalities of the employees. There are important characteristics that are imperative in all situations. These include being conscientious, having an internal locus of control and being able to get along with different types of personalities.

It is essential that leaders are conscientious. This means that they are reliable, well-organized, and self-disciplined. This allows employees to trust and feel comfortable with their leader. Also, the employees will have a better understanding of what is expected of them and when tasks need to be accomplished. A self-disciplined leader is able to motivate employees and set a good example.

I think another important characteristic of successful leadership is having an internal locus of control. This means that the leader thinks that their success is due to their efforts, not luck.  On the other hand, if there is a problem in the organization, the leader needs to take responsibility and realize that the problem is not due to bad luck. An internal locus of control ensures that leaders take responsibility for their actions, policies and practices.

It is also essential that leaders are able to get along with different personalities. Each employee comes with different life experiences, opinions and ways of doing things. It is important that the leader creates a relationship with each employee. This will lead to a higher level of employee satisfaction and, in turn, productivity.

As far as personality tests, I believe that you can learn a lot about yourself and others from analyzing the results. However, I don’t think that specific results lead to effective leaders. For example, my results of the big five personality test were low in openness to experience, high in conscientiousness, low in extraversion, middle in agreeableness and low in neuroticism. At first glance, you would assume that scoring low in openness to experience and low in extraversion are bad traits for a leader. However, the results don’t mean that I’m not open to new experiences, they mean that I prefer familiar experiences and that I am down to earth. Also being more introverted doesn’t mean that I am socially awkward or don’t like being around people. This means that sometimes I just prefer to do things on my own.

All in all, I think that personality plays a large role in the effectiveness of a leader. However, there are very few personality traits that an effective leader must have because each leader is in a different situation or environment working for companies with different cultures and with employees that have different personalities.

Differences in Leadership: Buffett v. Obama

Leadership is a process in which a person influences and motivates others to achieve a set goal in a cohesive and orderly way. I have learned from my Strategic Management class that there are a few characteristics of good strategic leaders that lead to high performance in an organization.  These include:

      
1. Vision, Eloquence, and Consistency

This implies that it is important to have a sense of direction, be able to properly express the sense of direction and be consistent in reinforcing the sense of direction
2. Articulation of the Business Model

This means that the individual must be able to understand and explain how the organization will attain the vision.
3. Commitment

This means that the leader is dedicated and passionate. One way to show commitment would be leading by example.
4. Being Well-Informed

Becoming well-informed is best achieved through a network in formal and informal sources.
5. Willingness to Delegate and Empower

This is imperative so that one person doesn’t become overloaded with responsibilities.
6. Astute Use of Power

The leader attempts to build consensus for their ideas rather than force ideas through.
7. Emotional Intelligence

This is a term created by Daniel Goldman that suggests a good balance of self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills allows a leader to move people in a desired direction.

I think that each of these characteristics is important for a leader to posses. I have decided that the best way to highlight the differences between Warren Buffett’s and Barack Obama’s leadership style and “brand” is to comment on each leader (based on the assigned readings) following the leadership characteristics listed above.
1. Vision, Eloquence, and Consistency

*Buffett: Buffett seems to have a blurry vision. If his vision is to keep the financial results high and increasing, then he shouldn’t be so pessimistic. However, he is consistent with his message that the stock market is a gamble and there is a possibility that the positive results of his company may not be repeated. Buffett is good at communicating.

*Obama: Obama has a strong vision, he is good at communicating it and it remains consistent.

2. Articulation of the Business Model

*Buffett: Buffett’s business strategy is well-known. He is known for keeping “his head while others are losing theirs...” He buys out companies at an advantageous price when the stock market is turbulent.

*Obama: Obama may have a very strong vision, however, it is blurry how he plans to accomplish these goals.

3. Commitment

*Buffett: Buffett’s commitment is apparent because he leads by example. He is pessimistic about the stock market, he is frugal and a penny-pincher. He believes that these are the ways to be a smart and successful investor.

*Obama: Obama’s commitment is evident through his speeches. He is able to inspire people by demonstrating that he cares about the people. His emotion toward the topics at hand are evident in his speeches.

4. Being Well-Informed 

* I think the success of both leaders have demonstrated that they are well-informed.

5. Willingness to Delegate and Empower

*Buffett: Buffett made a comment saying “(Berkshire) didn’t miss me while I was gone.” I think that this implies that Buffet has done a very good job of delegating power and empowering his employees

*Obama: Obama did a great job of delegating when he hired Chris Hughes to do the social networking for the campaign.

6. Astute Use of Power

*Buffett: Based on his financial success, Buffett is able to use his power to form a consensus when it comes to making decisions.

*Obama: I think that Obama uses the power of being the first African-American man to climb the political latter so high in his favor. This helps him to inspire and motivate people.

7. Emotional Intelligence

* Buffett: I think that Buffett has a moderate level of emotional intelligence. I think that his self-awareness is very good, he is able to keep calm and collected in the face of calamity. Also, he thinks before acting. He has good social and communication skills. However, he is not a good motivator due to his pessimism. This is unfortunate because I believe that motivation is very important in a leader.

*Obama: Obama has very high emotional intelligence. This is apparent because he easily gains trust and confidence from the people, his motivation is infectious, and he is able to move people in the direction of his vision.

Overall I think that image is very important to a leader and it needs to be strategically aligned with their goals. For example, if Obama had a laid back, lack of motivation,  penny-pinching persona (like that of Buffett) it is likely that he wouldn’t have attained presidency because his image would go against his beliefs. There are many different leadership styles that have proven to be successful. The key to leadership success is that the image they portray is aligned with their goals.

Sources (other than those provided):

http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadcon.html

Hill, C.L. & Jones, G.R. (2012). Strategic Management, An Integrated Approach.

            Mason : South-Western, Cengage Learning.