Leadership. Big Five personality traits Essay

After studying this chapter, you should be able to1. situate lead and contrast leading and heed. 2. Summarize the conclusions of trait theories of leadinghip. 3. Identify the primal tenets and main limitations of behavioral theories. 4. Assess contingency theories of attractership by their train of support. 5. Comp be and contrast charismatic and transformational attractership. 6. Define authentic drawship and bespeak why effective leaders exemplify ethics and trust. 7. Demonstrate the usage mentoring plays in our understanding of leadership. 8. Address challenges to the effectiveness of leadership.9. Assess whether charismatic and transformational leadership generalize across cultures. I am more(prenominal) afraid of an soldiery of c sheep lead by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep. TalleyrandPrivate Equitys bill sticker BoyIf its true that Nice qats finish last, there is no better proof than Stephen Schwarzman, chief executive of the Blackst unmatche d Group, who swans his mission in bearing is to inflict pain and kill off his rivals. I want war, he told the Wall Street Journal, not a series of skirmishes. And win in business he has. In 20 years, he has do Blackst wiz one of the most profitableand most feargondinvestment chemical groups on Wall Street, with assets attack $200 billion.Though these argon not easy times for every investment bank, Blackstone has largely avoided the pitfalls of subprime mortgages and mortgage-backed securities. Some of this strategy competency be considered expert fortuneBlackstone invests much more heavily in commercial than in residential real estate. However, some credit is due to Schwarzmans foresight. As he notes, We were cautious in the so-called golden age. We were the least fast-growing(a) of all the big firms in the first half of 2007. We were very concerned about the high prices of deals and the vast amount of liquidity fuelling the boom. . . .Things always receive to an end, and w hen they do they end badly. Not only is Schwarzman smart and driven he likesthe attention his success has drawn. When he turned 60, his birthday party might bring forth made Caligula blush. The affair was emceed by comedian Martin Short. Rod Stewart performed. Marvin Hamlisch ramble on a number from A Chorus Line. Singer Patti LaBelle led the Abyssinian Baptist Church choir in a song about Schwarzman. Who stage this event?Schwarzman himself When Blackstone executives prepared a video tri neverthelesse to him to be contend at the event, Schwarzman intervened to squelch any roasting or separate(a) jokes play at his expense. Schwarzman owns residences in Manhattan (a 35-room Park Avenue triplex, for which he paid $37 million), in the Hamptons (a Federal-style house, for which he paid $34 million), in Palm bound (a 13,000-square-foot mansion, which, at $20.5 million, is the slum of the bunch), in Saint-Tropez, and in Jamaica.I love houses, Schwarzman says. The new-fashioned York er called him the designated villain of an era . . . of heedless self-indulgence. As you might imagine, Schwarzman is not the easiest guy to work for. While sunning himself at his Palm Beach estate, he complained that an employee wasnt wearing the proper black shoes with his uniform. On another occasion, he reportedly fired a Blackstone executive for the sound his nose made when he breathed. Given his success, his lifestyle, and his combative individual(prenominal)ity, you might imagine Schwarzman is immune to the ridicule, resentment, and condemnation he receives. How does it feel? he asked, and then answered his own question Unattractive.No thinking person wants to be reduced to a caricature.1 As Blackstones Stephen Schwarzman shows, leaders lots are not like other people. But what makes them so? Intelligence? Drive? Luck? A certain(p) leadership style? These are some of the questions well tackle in this chapter. To value yourself on another set of qualities that well deal sho rtly, take the following self-assessment. In this chapter, we look at what makes an effective leader and what differentiates leaders from nonleaders.First, we present trait theories, which dominated the study of leadership up to the late 1940s. Then we plow behavioral theories, popular until the late 1960s. Next, we introduce contingency and interactive theories. Finally, we discuss the most contemporary approaches charismatic, transformational, and authentic leadership. But first, lets finish up what we mean by leadership. Self-Assessment Library Whats My leaders Style?In the Self-Assessment Library (available on CD and online) take assessment II.B.1 (Whats My leadership Style?) and answer the following questions. 1.How did you score on the two scales?2.Do you think a leader tidy sum be both occupation oriented and people oriented? Do you think there are situations in which a leader has to make a choice in the midst of the two styles?3.Do you think your leadership style will tilt over time? why or why not? What Is leadership?1. Define leadership and contrast leadership and management. Leadership and management are often confused. Whats the difference? John Kotter of the Harvard chore School moots that management is about coping with complexity.2 Good management brings about order and uniformity by drawing up formal plans, designing rigid brass section structures, and monitoring results against the plans.Leadership, in contrast, is about coping with change. Leaders establish burster by developing a mickle of the future then they range people by communicating this vision and inspiring them to overcome hurdles. Although Kotter provides break off definitions of the two terms, both researchers and practicing managers frequently make no much(prenominal) distinctions. So we exact to present leadership in a way that can capture how it is used in theory and practice. We define leadership as the ability to influence a group toward the procurement of a vision or set of goals.The source of this influence whitethorn be formal, such as that provided by managerial rank in an governing. But not all leaders are managers, nor, for that matter, are all managers leaders. Just because an organization provides its managers with certain formal rights is no assurance they will lead effectively. Nonsanctioned leadershipthe ability to influence that arises outside the formal structure of the organizationis often as classic or more important than formal influence.In other words, leaders can emerge from within a group as well as by formal appointment. Organizations need sound leadership and strong management for optimal effectiveness. We need leaders forthwith to challenge the status quo, create visions of the future, andinspire organisational members to want to achieve the visions. We also need managers to formulate detailed plans, create efficient organizational structures, and oversee day-to-day operations. OB Poll Confidence in Business L eaders FallingSource Based on Edelman trust Barometer 2008 (http//www.edelman.com/ assumption/2008/TrustBarometer08_Final.pdf) Trait TheoriesSummarize the conclusions of trait theories of leadership.Throughout history, strong leadersBuddha, Napoleon, Mao, Churchill, Roosevelt, Reagan see been described in terms of their traits. Trait theories of leadership thus taper on personal qualities and characteristics. We recognize leaders like South Africas Nelson Mandela, Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, and American Express president Ken Chenault as charismatic, enthusiastic, and courageous.The search for personality, social, physical, or intellectual attributes that differentiate leaders from nonleaders goes back to the earliest stages of leadership research. Early research efforts at discriminate leadership traits resulted in a number of dead ends.A reexamination in the late 1960s of 20 different studies identified closely 80 leadership traits, but only 5 were common to 4 or more of the investigations.3 By the 1990s, after numerous studies and analyses, about the better we could say was that most leaders are not like other people, but the particular traits that characterized them varied a great deal from revue to review.4 It was a pretty confusing state of affairs.A breakthrough, of sorts, came when researchers began organizing traits around the turgid Five personality framework (see Chapter 5).5 Most of the dozens of traits in dissimilar leadership reviews fit under one of the Big Five (ambition and readiness are part of extraversion, for instance), giving strong support to traits as predictors of leadership.The personal qualities and characteristics of Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin Group, make him a great leader. Branson is described as fun-loving, sensitive to the needs of others, hard working, innovative, charismatic, enthusiastic, energetic, decisive, and risk taking. These traits helped the British entrepreneur e mbodiment one of the most recognized and respected brandsin the world for products and function in the business areas of travel, entertainment, and lifestyle. Jason Kempin/FilmMagic/Getty Images, Inc.A comprehensive review of the leadership literature, when nonionic around the Big Five, has found extraversion to be the most important trait of effective leaders6 but more strongly related to leader emergence than to leader effectiveness. Sociable and dominant people are more likely to put forward themselves in group situations, but leaders need to make sure theyre not too assertiveone study found leaders who scored very high on self-assertiveness were less effective than those who were moderately high.7Unlike agreeableness and emotional stability, painstakingness and openness to experience also showed strong relationships to leadership, though not kinda as strong as extraversion. Overall, the trait approach does have something to offer. Leaders who like being around people and ar e able to assert themselves (extraverted), disciplined and able to keep commitments they make (conscientious), and creative and flexible (open) do have an apparent advantage when it comes to leadership, suggesting good leaders do have key traits in common.One reason is that conscientiousness and extraversion are positively related to leaders self-efficacy, which explained most of the variance in subordinates ratings of leader performance.8 People are more likely to follow someone who is assured shes going in the right direction. Another trait that may indicate effective leadership is emotional intelligence (EI), discussed in Chapter 4. Advocates of EI argue that without it, a person can have outstanding training, a extremely analytical mind, a compelling vision, and an endless supply of terrific ideas but still not make a great leader.This may be especially true as individuals move up in an organization.9 Why is EI so critical to effective leadership? A core lot of EI is empathy. Empathetic leaders can sense others needs, listen to what followers say (and dont say), and read the reactions of others. As one leader noted, The sympathize with part of empathy, especially for the people with whom you work, is what inspires people to stay with a leader when the going gets rough. The mere fact that someone cares is more often than not rewarded with loyalty.10