One area of ongoing interest in leadership research is personality. Many studies have focused on how the “Big Five” personality traits—extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism—influence a leader’s effectiveness. Each personality trait produces tendencies to engage in a particular set of behaviors. For instance, leaders who have high levels of conscientiousness tend to be very organized, efficient, and goal oriented. Conversely, leaders with low levels of conscientiousness tend to be laid back, disorganized, and often lack attention to detail. Fortunately, leaders who are deficient in specific personality traits are not doomed. With hard work and dedication, these leaders can learn and practice some of the desired behaviors associated with personality traits and, thus, manage deficits that might have once stalled their careers.

In this Discussion, you examine how the “Big Five” traits, as well as other personality traits, influence leadership effectiveness. Then, you consider leader development activities to further develop a personality trait or to manage a deficit in a personality trait.

To Prepare 

• Read Chapter 2 in the Northouse text, Chapter 12 in The Sage Handbook, and the article, “Personality Profiles of Effective Leadership Performance in Assessment Centers.” Consider specific personality traits and profiles associated with effective leadership.
• Identify a personality trait or profile that you think is most important for effective leadership, and consider specific leader behaviors that are associated with that trait or profile.
• Research leader development activities that could be used to further develop a personality trait/profile or manage a deficit in the personality trait/profile.

By Day 3

Post a response to the following:

Present an argument about the personality trait or profile you think is most important for effective leadership. Be sure to support your argument with peer-reviewed journal articles from the leadership literature. Then, describe two specific leader behaviors that may arise from this personality trait and explain how the behaviors may contribute to a leader’s effectiveness. Finally, propose one leader development activity to further develop a personality trait/profile or manage a deficit in the personality trait/profile.
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