Introduction: Leadership traits are a deceptively appealing approach to describing leadership. This exercise will give you more insights into both the value and the complexities inherent in trying to take a trait approach to understanding leadership.
Internet Assignment: Use multiple search engines to locate several Internet sites that deal with leadership. Narrow the list to those that focus specifically on the nature and meaning of leadership-what qualities leaders possess, how to develop those qualities, and so forth. Next, identify at least six traits that Internet sites purport to relate to leadership. Now do follow-up searches using those traits as key terms. Visit those sites and see how many of them implicitly or explicitly attempt to relate the trait to leadership in some way or another.
Follow-up: Does the information you located on the Internet make you more or less confident that leadership and traits are related than you were before? Finally, respond to the following questions:
- What qualities or traits do you ascribe to effective leaders?
- Do you believe leaders are born or made? How does this belief map onto the trait approach to leadership.
- What advice would you offer to someone who is a firm believer in the trait approach?
4. What advice would you offer to someone who believes that traits are totally unrelated to leadership?
