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Chapter 4

The Personal Side of Leadership


The Leader as an Individual

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Discussion Questions
• Do you agree that self-awareness is
essential for being a good leader?
Can you think of negative
consequences that may result from
not having self-awareness?
• Extroversion is often considered a
good quality for a leader to have.
Why might introversion be
considered equally positive quality?
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Discussion Questions
• A survey found that 79% of CEOs
surveyed fall into the category of
being “highly optimistic”, but a much
lower percentage for CFOs. Do you
think these differences reflect
personality characteristics or the
different requirements of the two
jobs?

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The Secret Ingredient for
Leadership Success
• Self Awareness
• Leader Blind Spots
– Being a Jerk (Occasional vs. Perpetual)
– Too nice (People Pleaser)

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Definition of Personality

• A set of relatively stable


characteristics that lead to
consistent patterns of behavior
• As a manager, how can you know
or assess an individual’s
personality? Why would you want
to do this?

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• Value of understanding personality is
primarily to help leaders understand
their own basic personality
dimensions, and then to learn to
emphasize the positive and mitigate
the negative aspects of their own
style.
• Also helps you understand others to
know something about their
personality – knowledge that you can
use to guide YOUR behavior.

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Ex. 4.1 The Big Five Personality Dimensions

Quiet, Outgoing,
withdrawn, Low Extroversion High energetic,
unassertive gregarious

Cold, distant, Warm,


Low Agreeableness High considerate,
insensitive
approachable,
good-natured
Impulsive, Low Conscientiousness High Responsible,
carefree, dependable ,
distracted goal-oriented

Moody, tense, Well-adjusted,


lower self- Low Emotional Stability High Stable, calm,
confidence secure

Narrow field Imaginative,


of interests, Low Openness to Experience High curious, open to
likes the tried- new ideas
and-true
• Some evidence that people who are
high on extroversion, agreeableness,
conscientiousness, and emotional
stability are more successful leaders.

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Leader’s Self-Insight 4.1
• Page 103

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Personality Traits and
Leader Behavior
Two personality attributes that have significant impact
on behavior
• Locus of Control
– Defines whether a person places the primary
responsibility for what happens to him or her
within himself/herself or on outside forces
• Authoritarianism
– The belief that power and status differences
should exist in an organization
– Dogmatism: receptiveness to others’ ideas and
opinions. Highly dogmatic people are close
minded and not receptive to others’ ideas. 10
Locus of control

• Generalized belief about self control vs.


control by the situation or others
• Internals have higher job satisfaction, are
more likely to assume managerial positions,
prefer participative management, have
higher work motivation, hold stronger belief
that efforts lead to performance, receive
higher salaries, and display less anxiety than
externals. Will not react well to being
closely supervised.
• Externals prefer more structured work
setting and may be more reluctant to
participate in decision making.
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Leader’s Self-Insight 4.2
• Page 108

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Values
• Fundamental beliefs that an individual
considers to be important, that are
relatively stable over time, and that have
an impact on attitudes and behavior.
• End Values
– Sometimes called terminal values, these are
beliefs about the kind of goals or outcomes
that are worth trying to pursue (happiness,
prosperity, freedom, equality, salvation).
• Instrumental Values
– Beliefs about the types of behavior that are
appropriate for reaching goals (e.g. honesty,
politeness, courage).
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Ex. 4.2 Differences in Value
Ranking

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• Values affect your perception of
situations. Perception is the process
people use to make sense of the
world by selecting, organizing, and
interpreting information.
• Affect how leaders relate to others
• Guide leaders’ choices and actions.
• http://blogs.wsj.com/independentstr
eet/2007/10/10/take-your-kids-to-
work-day-every-day/
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• National Culture, Generational
differences and Family Background
can influence how people rank values

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Leader’s Self-Insight 4.3
• Page 110

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Attitude
• Values help determine the attitudes
leaders have about themselves and about
their followers.
• An evaluation (either positive or negative)
about people, events, or things.

Should poor performance be blamed on a “bad attitude”?

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Theory X and Theory Y
Two sets of attitudes how to interact with and influence subordinates:

Theory X: the assumption that


people are basically lazy and not
motivated to work and that they
have a natural tendency to avoid
responsibility

Theory Y: the assumption that


people do not inherently dislike
work and will commit themselves
willingly to work that they care
about
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Management Assumptions

Theory X Theory Y
• Dislike work • View work as natural
• Must be threatened • Self-directed
with punishment
• Exercise self-control
• Avoid responsibilities
• Accept responsibility
• Seek formal direction
• Seek responsibility
• Require security
• Make innovative
• Little ambition decisions

• Workers are costs • Workers are assets


How do you explain “lazy” behavior? 20
Social Perceptions and Attributions
• Perception is the process people use
to make sense out of the
environment by selecting,
organizing, and interpreting
information.
• Perceptual Distortions:
– Stereotyping
– Halo Effect
– Projection
– Perceptual Defense 21
Attributions
• Judgement about what caused a an
event or behavior.
• Example: success and failure of an
organization is attributed to the
leader.

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Cognitive Style
How a person perceives,
processes, interprets, and
uses information

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Ex. 4.4 Hermann’s Whole Brain
Model
A D
Upper Upper
left Logical Holistic right
Analytical Intuitive
Fact-based Integrating
Quantitative Synthesizing

Organized Interpersonal
Sequential Feeling-based
Planned Kinesthetic C
B
Detailed Emotional Lower
Lower
left right

There is a reason why people think (and act) differently than you
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Action memo

• Strive for “whole-brain” thinking to deal


effectively with a wide variety of people
and complex issues.
• Be aware of your natural thinking patterns
and engage in activities that help develop
a wider range of styles.
• When possible, tailor your
communications and leadership approach
to the thinking styles of followers.

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Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
(MBTI)

Personality test that measures


how individuals differ in
gathering and evaluating
information for solving problems
and making decisions

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MBTI Preferences
(see page 124 for more)

Preferences Represents
How one
E/I Extraversion Introversion re-energizes
Sensing Intuiting How one gathers
S/N
information
T/F Thinking Feeling How one makes
decisions
J/P Judging Perceiving How one orients to the
outer world
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MBTI
• All individuals have some development of both
sides of each pair of functions/attitudes.
• Each type has advantages and pitfalls. No
type is better than another.
• Accepting and understanding type helps
individuals be more effective.
• Understanding the full range of types helps an
individual to communicate and work effectively
with others.
• Pitfalls: labeling or excuse for behavior

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