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.
You took an interesting stance on personality and how it affects leaders and I must say it is true. I think it plays a huge rule in leadership as well, but I didn't explore the aspect of whether or not there are particular traits of someone's personality that should be present for all effective leaders. Good Job!
ReplyDeleteI think you did an excellent job in expressing your opinion. However, I challenge you only because studies have found that personality tests are more likely to determine whether or not someone is right for a position (including a leadership position) than a simple, typical interview. Wouldn't this prove you wrong because it would determine that personality tests can be very effective when it comes to accurately determining whether or not someone would be right for the job? It is just what Dr. Taylor said recent studies are showing. I just wanted your opinion.
ReplyDeleteI think that when you look at a specific position within a company, a personality test can be helpful. The person in charge of hiring the manager would know what traits would be beneficial to have in that particular organization, etc. However, I don’t think that it would be good to base the hiring solely from the results of the test. Ultimately, some sort of trial period would lead to the best decision. This is not always an available option due to cost and time, so I think that an interview along with a personality test would be best for determining employment.
DeleteI was trying to explain that specific results on a personality test are not going to determine whether that person is a good leader for every leadership position. There are going to be a combination of results that are satisfactory for some leadership positions and different combinations of results that will be satisfactory in other leadership positions. All in all, personality tests will be helpful if the organization knows specifically what traits they are looking for to fill the position.
I like the point that you made when you said that personality is very important when it comes to leadership but there are not specific personality traits that can be pointed to as being the best for every situation. I also agree that conscientiousness, locus of control, and flexibility with all different types of personalities are important. Being flexible with different employees/followers is extremely important because ultimately as a leader, one's goal is to motivate those individuals to do things a certain way or help a company or team move in a certain direction. I agree that personality tests may not be the best way for a company to determine how an individual will handle a certain position, but I do believe that they are a very helpful instrument in doing so. Ultimately, the only way to discover whether someone is truly fit for a certain position would be some sort of "trial" to see how they handle it, but because that is not a likely scenario, I believe that personality tests can be one of the better indicators for managers to use.
ReplyDeleteI know this response is a little late, but I enjoyed your take on whether certain personality traits result in effective leaders. I agree with you that their is and isn't. Certain traits can put you in a position to be a better leader, but there is no mold in what you have to have to be a good leader. I also got told on my Big Five test that I was inntroverted but I am no where near that in my opinion. Those tests have a way of showing you different things you would have never thought about, but can also miss. I guess in our case it missed a little.
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