Leadership: Why Charisma Is Overrated
Traits, styles, situations, relationships, transformation, service and feedback: what decades of research say about who leads well and why.
Try 3 questions
1. The 19th-century 'great man' theory of leadership held what?
- Anyone can learn to lead with training
- Leadership depends on the situation
- Leaders are born with special traits
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Answer: Leaders are born with special traits
Popularized by Thomas Carlyle, it saw history shaped by heroic individuals with innate qualities, a view later research largely rejected.
2. Research finds which physical trait modestly predicts who emerges as a leader and earns more?
- Voice pitch
- Hand size
- Being tall
Show the answer
Answer: Being tall
Studies such as Judge and Cable's found taller people are somewhat more likely to be seen as leaders and to earn more, a bias, not a skill.
3. In meta-analyses, which Big Five personality trait is most strongly linked to emerging as a leader?
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism
- Extraversion
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Answer: Extraversion
Judge and colleagues found extraversion was the most consistent correlate of leader emergence, while neuroticism was negatively related.
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