Leadership Qualities

Our leadership qualities questionnaire uses the most sophisticated methodology in the industry to match your leadership qualities with what makes a good leader. It can help you:

• learn about leadership theory;
• discover your leadership style;
• see how your leadership style relates to your personality type;
• match your leadership profile against what makes a good leader in different industries and disciplines;
• develop your leadership and management skills.

What makes a good leader?

There is a difference between leadership and management. We conducted research with 4,000 people to identify what makes a good leader. We found that, although there are some leadership qualities that are common, the leadership qualities required to make a good leader vary in different companies, teams and situations.

By way of analogy, in U.K. English and International English, it is correct to use an "s" and put the full stop after the quotes when ending a sentence with "organisation". However, in North American English, the correct usage would be "organization." In a similar way, what makes a good leader in different organisations depends on the context - the perception of good leadership is influenced by the historical practices and beliefs that shape the organisation's culture.

In leadership training, a popular way of illustrating that leadership qualities are dependent on context has been to use the second world war film Twelve O'Clock High. At the start of the film, the Colonel in charge of a bombing group uses the participative leadership style. Although this builds loyalty amongst the squadron to the leader, they suffer significant losses on missions. The Brigadier General takes over and uses the executive leadership style, a change that does not go down well with the members of the group. Nevertheless, this style proves more effective and the performance of the group improves. The Brigadier General eventually wins back the loyalty of the bombing group, but he suffers from a nervous breakdown.

Leadership Style and Performance

The film illustrates two important points. The first is that, to be effective, a leader has to adapt flexibly - adopting the style that is most appropriate for the circumstances. The film focuses on two out of eight basic leadership styles. In these particular circumstances, executive leadership was much more effective than participative leadership in achieving high levels of performance, loyalty and morale.

The second point is more complex. The film shows the different types of consequences there can be when there is a conflict between the leader's preferred styles and the demands of the context. The Colonel's response to this conflict was to adhere to his preferred participative style - encouraged by the widely held belief in the group that this made him a good leader. However, his style proved ineffective. The Brigadier General's response was to use the executive style that was needed in order to improve the bombing group's performance, even though it was counter-cultural. Although he was successful, he paid a high personal price in his nervous breakdown - because he did not pay attention to his own needs and preferences.

Finding the Balance

Although the film was produced in 1949, the leadership issues it raises are still relevant. Poor leadership performance can result from a lack of flexibility, from too much adherence to the individual's preferred leadership style, or from the maintenance of rigid beliefs about what makes a good leader. However, leaders can also become stressed, or suffer from 'executive burnout', if they suppress their own preferences for the sake of performance.

In practice, no one is a perfect leader, i.e., no one has infinite flexibility to use whichever style is needed in each situation without there being a personal cost. There are therefore two main ways to maintain effective and fulfilling leadership.

The first solution is to find a leadership role that provides a good match between the individual's preferences and the demands of the context. Sometime that might involve moving from one department or company to another. Someone who is a poor leader in an accountancy environment may be a good leader in a marketing environment.

The second solution is to be realistic about what an individual can achieve, and allow a degree of compromise based on good enough leadership¹. For example, rather than expecting one person to do everything, responsibilities could be shared by a leadership team in which a variety of preferences and skills are represented. The allowable weaknesses of each leader can then be complemented by the strengths of other members of the leadership team.

Conclusion

What makes a good leader depends on the degree to which the individual's qualities match the demands of the context. However, there are some leadership qualities that are required in most contexts. Leadership qualities therefore have two main aspects:

• There are some basic qualities that most leaders need to exhibit in most circumstances. Some of these are listed in our leadership qualities checklist, which shows the traits that make people more or less inclined to follow someone.
• There are some leadership qualities that are context-dependent, and relate to your personal or natural leadership style. You can identify your natural leadership style by completing our leadership qualities questionnaire.

¹ Samuels, A. (2001), Politics on the Couch, (New York: Karnac Books), pp. 77-9

Develop Your Potential

Our personality questionnaire can help you:

• become much more self-aware;
• develop your leadership, management or influencing skills;
• find a career that matches your personality;
• Improve teamwork and team relationships.

You can either do the personality test yourself, or administer multiple questionnaires for use in team building and leadership development.