Leadership Defined by the Leader: "Trait" Leadership Theory
There are many different theories on what is leadership. What does define a good leadership?
Is there a line that divides a bad leadership from a good one and what defines that line?
The "trait" leadership theory suggests that certain characteristics needed to be found in an individual in order for him/her to be marked as a good leader.
Lists of traits and characteristics are made by the advocates of this leadership theory and these lists are said to contain what a leader should be like.
If a person possessed these traits, then that person would be able to take control of a situation when needed.
If you look at the list, those traits seem sensible enough and the leadership theory seems sound from one perspective.
Here are just some of those traits:
*Flexibility/Adaptability
*Trustworthiness
*Motivated by the need to achieve
*People skills
*Competence
*Intelligence
*Physical Fitness
*Courage
*Decisiveness
Other traits have been added and removed to this list.
The main intention of the people who presented this leadership theory was to separate and define the leaders from the followers.
The knowledge of what makes a leader and what makes a follower, as defined by this leadership theory was supposed to help the people to define the term "leadership".
The thinking during the introduction of this theory was that any leader who did not conform to the standards set by the leadership theory was not really a leader at all and so his leadership is unacceptable.
However, many people observed that great leaders really did have very little in common with the lists that were presented by this leadership theory.
In fact, some people who do have the traits written in the provided lists did not even prove to be good leaders.
The problem with making a list that defined a leader is that no human being can ever truly be defined.
Every human being is unique in every unique situation. Thus, no leader will ever be truly conformed to this leadership theory's list.
However, there are also some traits that a leader might possess and yet remain unwritten on the list.
And so the situation gets even more complicated than before.
This leadership theory also does not take into consideration the fact that every situation calls for a different type of leadership.
The leadership traits of men are defined by the needs of the people around them, so the fact remains that an absolute list of the traits of leadership is just impossible.
Each great leader became who he was because of his ability to lead in the face of the situation. To believe that leaders should act the same during different situations is just plain ridiculous.
Some parts of the list though are not totally wrong. There is some truth to the traits written in this leadership theory.
Some traits given can be adapted to change with every given situation and yet still remain to be effective.
And some traits are really inherent in every great leader. These skills are preserved and put to heart to be the world's greatest leaders. And so this leadership theory does not seem that ridiculous now.
Although the question still remains whether this leadership theory should be believed in or not, three fact remains that we are rational thinking beings, we can pick out what is right in the theory and use it, while discarding those parts which we think folly.
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