Pros and Cons of Trait Theory (An Activity on Leadership Theory)

 

Pros and Cons of Trait Theory (An Activity on Leadership Theory)

Trait mainly talks about human personality. It's mostly habitual patterns of behavior, thought, and emotion. Traits are come from birth & they can be practiced as well for some level. In the early 20th century, leadership traits were studied to determine what made certain people great leaders.

The trait approach has its roots in leadership theory that suggested that certain people were born with special traits that made them great leaders. Because it was believed that leaders and non-leaders could be differentiated by a universal set of traits, throughout the 20th century researchers were challenged to identify the definitive traits of leaders (Northouse, 2016).

Trait theory focuses exclusively on the leader, not on the followers or the situation. This makes the trait approach theoretically more straightforward than other approaches (Northouse, 2016).

Leadership Traits and Characteristics

Major Leadership Traits (Northouse, 2016)

• Intelligence
• Self-confidence
• Determination
• Integrity
• Sociability

Pros and Cons of Trait Theory

Pros.

Cons.

Trait approach is intuitively appealing. It fits clearly with our notion that leaders are the individuals who are out front and leading the way in our society. It has a century of research to back it up. No other theory can boast of the breadth and depth of studies conducted on the trait approach. Results from the way the trait approach highlights the leader component in the leadership process. Leadership is composed of leaders, followers, and situations, but the trait approach is devoted to only the first of these—leaders. trait approach has given us some benchmarks for what we need to look for if we want to be leaders. It identifies what traits we should have and whether the traits we do have are the best traits for leadership.  Traits can be developed. people can work to become a leader.

First and foremost is the failure of the trait approach to delimit a definitive list of leadership traits. Though some traits help produce a leader, they do not define a great leader.  it is not a useful approach for training and development for leadership. Hitler was a great leader, but because he was a great leader, he also caused a lot of trouble. Not all that have leadership traits become leader doesn’t account for situational circumstances.  There is no evidence that trait theory even is relevant. No one can actually prove that it is an accurate evidence of a leader.  The trait approach is weak in describing how leaders' traits affect the outcomes of groups and teams in organizations.

Conclusion

Traits of Nelson Mandela, Jack Ma, Richard Branson, Mahatma Gandhi shows a positive impact while the traits of Adolf Hitler, Ex. President Donald Trump shows some negative impact while having positive too. 

References

Northouse, P. G., 2016. Leadership Theory & Practice. 7th ed. California: SAGE Publications Inc..