Business leader discussion response walled

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Introduction – ‘Leader traits are not to be considered in isolation but rather as integrated constellations of attributes that influence leadership performance ‘ (Zaccaro (2007). Therefore what can be derived from the above statement is the fact that leadership performance is delivered not through the exhibition of a single trait but rather it is a conjunction of various features which reflected through the actions of the leader. Furthermore, ‘the qualities that differentiate leaders from nonleaders are far ranging and include not only personality attributes but also motives, values, cognitive abilities, social and problem solving skills, and expertise.’ (Zaccaro (2007). This also means that apart from the common traits derived for being an efficient leader, there are also other traits that fulfil the gaps in order to derive characteristics of a good leader. Moreover, what this also suggests is that if the leader combines personal traits with the above qualities then it will definitely contribute towards ‘cross situational stability’. (Zaccaro (2007)

Discussion

The author in the following discussion outlines the important facets in relation to the traits approach so that the reader is able to understand the traits approach clearly and then the discussion moves to making a comparative analysis of the trait approach with that of other approaches of leadership. (Skill/styles approach)

The traits approach is straightforward to the extent that it deals with the leader directly and does not focus on other elements which include situation/context or followers. The traits approach derives the understanding of ‘what’ is the concept of a leader along with ‘who’ are effective leaders based on an evaluation of traits that they possess. It consequently results in personal awareness for the leader as to where he/she stands and if there is need for development or the contribution their role has to the larger part of the organization. (Northouse (2010)

The strength of the traits approach is as follows –

1. The traits approach is considered ‘intuitively appealing’ the reason lies due to the fact that its approach has wide acceptability
2. The approach has a strong foundation in the form of extensive research that has been done to derive the approach
3. The approach like already stated revolves around the leader alone and therefore does not distraught its attention from leadership
4. There is also provision of standardizations to measure as to who can be considered as an effective leader (Northouse (2010)

Therefore overall the traits approach can be used in analyzing ‘all individuals at all levels of the organization’. It also gives an idea about the effective traits of a good leader and helps evaluate a leader based on the strengths and their weaknesses. It also improves the scope for improve since it convenes self assessment, a result of evaluation. (Northouse (2010)

Comparison with skills and style approach

Skills approach – the skills approach does not concentrate clearly just on leadership but takes into account other factors and therefore makes it difficult to evaluate leadership performance therefore consequently resulting in ‘lack of predictive value’. Moreover on the contrary the traits approach concentrates only around the leader. The skills approach is not existing in its pure form it definitely has inclination to trait approach. Furthermore, it is not applicable to all individual’s from all organizations since the derivation of this approach is based on the empirical analysis of the armed services and hence, its applicability is questionable. (Northouse (2010)

Style approach – this particular approach to leadership has failed to establish the relationship between the various types of style in relation to performance outcomes. The traits approach has derive at least common traits based on which evaluation can be done. Moreover, the style approach has failed to derive a ‘universal style of leadership’ which is suitable and applicable in all situations so that leadership can prove to be effective. In other words it has failed to evolve an ideal style which is best suited for all situations. (Northouse (2010)

Taking into consideration all these points it can be understood that traits approach is better compared to other approaches. What has to be kept in mind is the fact that the traits approach also within itself possesses certain defects such as –

· There is ambiguity in deriving fixed traits through research since; each research has come with different sets of assets.
· It does not take into consideration the situational effectiveness of the fixed traits
· It is a result of subjective interpretations of vast research data to derive traits
· It does not take into consideration the outcomes of leadership in relation elements such as employee satisfaction or productivity
· The traits approach only gives an understanding about the concept of leadership and their evaluation but there cannot be programs of training or development for the traits in a leader. (Northouse (2010)

Conclusion – As a summing up of the entire paper it would bring to the forefront for the reader how though the traits approach has certain advantages as compared with the skills or styles approach of leadership, it has certain innate defects which have to be overcome in order to come to a conclusion that it is the best approach to study leadership.

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