Trait theories of leadership focus on personal qualities and characteristics. For personality, comprehensive reviews of the leadership literature organized around the Big Five framework have found extraversion to be the most predictive trait of effective leadership. However, extraversion is perhaps more related to the way leaders emerge than it is related to their effectiveness. Sociable people are more likely to assert themselves in group situations, which can help extraverts be identified as leaders.

However, effective leaders do not tend to be domineering. One study found that leaders who scored very high in assertiveness, a facet of extraversion, were less effective than those who were moderately high. Unlike agreeableness and emotional stability, which do not seem to predict leadership, conscientiousness and openness to experience may predict leadership, especially leader effectiveness. Also, achievement striving and dependability were found to be related to effectiveness as a manager.

Based on the latest findings, we can say that traits can predict leadership. Also, traits do a better job predicting the emergence of leaders than distinguishing between effective and ineffective leaders. The fact that an individual exhibits the right traits and others consider that person a leader does not necessarily mean they will be an effective one. Trait theories help us predict leadership, but they don’t fully explain leadership. What do successful leaders do that makes them effective? Are different types of leader behaviors equally effective?