Does Personality affect leadership?

In many aspects of our lives, personality is very important. We are human so we should act like humans, at least that’s what the majority expect us to be. Although it is common for us to behave in relation to our environment, there are some instances that we commit unpleasant behavior in a particular organization or place. This article aims to discuss whether personality affects leadership or not.

What is personality?

According to American Psychological Association, personality is a person’s patterns of thinking, emotions, and behavior. To be honest, there are too many classifications of personality together with a bunch of theories engulfing this topic. Perhaps the existence of too many explanations, theories, concepts, and principles regarding this matter is because we can never tell or judge a person’s personality in just a blink of an eye, even if you are with someone for a couple of years that doesn’t mean that you already knew everything about each other especially hidden personalities of both sides. Although there are some cases in which they do know each other a lot but not quite certain. However, I found something that might classify these personalities into four divisions just for the sake of this discussion.

There are 4 types of personality according to a study conducted by Amaral, and Gerlach M., these are following;

·         Average – these people are fairly agreeable, conscientious, a little bit extroverted, and neurotic but not that so open.

·         Self-Centered - base on the research, the agreeableness, and conscientiousness as well as openness of these people were considerably low as compared to the average one. However, its extroversion is higher.

·         Reserved – People with this personality are fairly stable on all of the said characteristics in the aforementioned personality though they are low in terms of openness and neuroticism, and;

·         Role Model – have a high degree of extroversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness, but relatively moderate in the level of neuroticism.

Given the classification above, it seems like we already answered the very essence of this article but to further understand the relationship between leadership and personality, we first define the word “leadership”.

What is leadership?

Well, there is no exact definition that will define leadership. According to Ward S. (2020), leadership is the skill of inspiring a group of individuals to work together to achieve a common objective. In a corporate context, this might imply directing workers and colleagues with a plan to satisfy the needs of the firm. Furthermore, Leadership encapsulates the essence of being competent and ready to inspire others. Effective leadership is founded on ideas, both original and borrowed, that is effectively communicated to others in a way that engages people sufficiently to behave in the way the leader desires. In my opinion, leadership is about inspiring while guiding people towards success and not commanding them. A true leader is one who connects himself as one of the groups instead of being the operator of the group.

Does personality affect Leadership?

In a sense, yes there is, just like what I’ve said, a true leader commits himself to be one of the groups so, as what we have discussed above, a person who has a high degree of extroversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness, but relatively moderate in the level of neuroticism might be a good leader. However, we don’t know for sure.

 Did you know that in some cases an introverted person is much more ideal to become a leader? Why? It is because an introvert is often thought of as a quiet, reserved, and thoughtful individual which most of us probably won’t agree to vote them as a leader but don’t underestimate. Many introverts could indeed perceive themselves to be quiet, timid, or aloof, but it doesn’t imply that they won’t take the lead on topics that are important to them. Introverts have a natural tendency to observe the people, events, and surroundings around them. Listening is a talent that introverts inherently possess. They pay attention to what is openly spoken and frequently pick up on implications, ideas, and sentiments that are not expressed.

Most introverts are profound thinkers because they naturally focus on their internal world first. This degree of concentration is generally dedicated to crucial aspects of an introvert's life. As a result, this degree of concentration frequently creates novel ideas and solutions to present issues. Introverts are conscious of how they seem and interact with people during talks and meetings. As a result, they are less likely to come across as forceful or dictatorial in group settings.

Introverted leaders frequently inspire their employees while allowing others to flourish. Because most introverts do not seek the spotlight or a lot of attention, they urge their coworkers and direct reports to be recognized.

So, here is the thing, there is indeed a relationship between a leader’s personality and leadership but it depends upon the leader on how he can handle his members, and the members are also assumed to become participative and they should fill the gap of which the leader failed to fulfill. Remember that the purpose of the group or an organization is for us to be able to successfully finished or achieve our goal easily. Think of an idealistic highly sophisticated robot, if it does have a brain and a heart then it can function well but a brain and a heart alone won’t do good without a body, limbs, arms, and so on. The same goes with an organization, even if the leader is present, active, and possessed a very nice attitude, he won’t accomplish anything without his members. So, I think the question “Does personality affect leadership?” is quite inappropriate, probably, the best question we may ask is this; “Does the personality of the leader and members affect the success rate of the organization’s goal?”. I will leave this question to all of you, it’s up to you whether you think about it or not.