leadership trait questionnaire essay

PSYCH 485 blog

My capacity to be a leader when using the Leadership Trait Questionnaire (LTQ) for analysis.

September 5, 2014 by Anne Merideth Tressler

Everyone should look at their traits and how they pertain to leadership periodically in their lives.  For someone that is interested in being a good leader, it is important to determine what you need to improve on to become a great leader.  According to the leadership trait questionnaire found in Northouse’s Leadership Theory and Practice book, there are fourteen classifications that a great leader should possess (Northouse, 2013, p. 38-39).  Those fourteen traits are to be: articulate, perceptive, self-confident, self-assured, persistent, determined, trustworthy, dependable, friendly, outgoing, conscientious, diligent, sensitive, and empathetic.  There are many different opinions on what traits a leader should possess, but this is a pretty extensive list.

As a human resources professional, I am continually striving to be a better leader.  To help me examine where I stand in my current leadership abilities, I asked several of my peers to take the leadership trait questionnaire on me.  For the most part, I was not surprised by the responses that I received.  The highest of my scores was in diligence.  I am glad that my peers, most of which are followers, look at me as being hardworking and persistent.  Leaders must be willing to put the needs of others first and strive to achieve the ultimate goal.  One of the words that stand out to be as being repeated in Northouse’s book is the word “drive” (2013).  Drive and diligence to me go hand in hand.  Drive is one’s need to achieve something.  Both drive and diligence go together to determine the hard work needed to achieve the ultimate goal.

The question on the leadership questionnaire that I scored the lowest on was in regards to being outgoing.  This is most certainly not a surprise to me as I am very shy.  As a leader it is important to reach beyond boundaries and limitations to become a great leader.  In saying that, I work really hard to overcome my shyness, though obviously I still need work.  One of the factors on the five-factor personality model is extraversion (Northouse, 2013).  I can think of very new great leaders that are not extraverts.  But there are a few.   Nelson Mandela, for example, is in my opinion not an extraverted man.  He is more reserved and can be considered quiet, but he is still friendly and people respect him.  I think there is a balance that needs to be reached for those leaders that are not extraverted.  They don’t have to be so forward that it is insincere, but they need to be friendly and come across as warm and inviting.

Leadership is a complicated subject and reviewing the traits of leadership is just one way to examine leadership.  While I am still young and have many years of leadership ahead of me, it was important for me to take part in the leadership questionnaire so that I may better gage where I am and where I need to grow as a leader.  It is important to review all of the aspects of the questionnaire to better understand how complicated the leadership role can be.

Northouse, P.G. (2013).   Leadership: Theory and Practice.   Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

September 5, 2014 at 10:03 pm

It would be a mistake to simply rely on the questionnaire to accurately reflect your ability to lead. Beyond that fact that “Allport and Odbert identified over 18,000 traits in 1936” (Lesson 2, p.3), the true strength in traits are their ability to correlate to outcomes (Northouse 2013). So how can we determine what is and isn’t working for a leader? Perhaps 360 degree feedback as you describe, but is this the best way? And does this offer you insight into traits that actually make you a better leader?

You provided a great example in that when you took the survey, you scored low on the questionnaire. However before letting your mind wonder into if this is a bad thing, you need to figure out what sort of traits would/do human resource professionals benefit from? A simple search (URL’s below) shows that there are many different traits (amongst other knowledge and skills) all of which aren’t in parallel with each other. To me, this signals what Allport and Ogbert found almost 80 years ago, that is that leadership can be articulated in an almost uncountable amount of ways. So the question remains, how can you figure out what works for you and or your position?

The answer lies in case study, and measurement of outcomes. From a case study point of view, we can evaluate how your 360 review correlates with your perception of your traits. For example, you said that “I think there is a balance that needs to be reached for those leaders that are not extraverted,” and what I really believe you meant, is to say is that extroversion requires balance in accordance with the situation. It could be argued that Nelson Mandela was quite extroverted in his youth, and 30 years in prison lead him to use his actions more than his words, but still, he was very extroverted. Which brings me to my point. Northouse (2013) and his citations in chapter two lead you to believe that there are so many different facets to traits that it is very hard to say that one trait is more desirable over another. A questionnaire may identify a weakness or strength, but it doesn’t offer a solution. Conversely a case study may point towards a solution, but it may not be the only one, which is the point. Leadership defined through traits is a tough way to accurately explain a phenomenon, it’s only after careful consideration of the outcomes that we can be sure that the traits we identify as positive truly are.

Web search for “leadership traits in human resources”

http://humanresources.about.com/od/leadership/a/leader_success.htm

http://www.tlnt.com/2011/10/28/the-top-qualities-and-characteristics-of-great-hr-leaders/

http://www.slaytonsearch.com/2012/08/3-highly-desirable-traits-for-todays-chief-human-resources-officer/

References:

Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

Pennsylvania State University. (2014). Leadership in Work Settings. Retrieved at: https://cms.psu.edu

September 5, 2014 at 9:38 pm

There are a lot of traits that make a great leader but I believe that those who work on all of their traits, especially those that they do not excel in, make them successful leaders. Going through that list, I find myself wondering how my followers would rate me in the Leadership Trait Questionnaire.

I would have to admit, different people would probably give me different ratings on some of those traits. This is not because I am not respectful or friendly towards some people, but because I have different relationships with different individuals. Those people that I have personal relationships with may find me to be more friendly and outgoing. Others who I do not know as well may feel that I am more persistent and determined in reaching my goals. In your research, have you found this to be the case?

Leadership Trait Questionnaire and Reflection

My experience with the leadership trait questionnaire.

After completing the questionnaire, I found that my traits suggest that I would be an average leader. Despite not finding any of my traits to have a score lower than three, a lot of them returned very average results. I believe that my main weaknesses as a leader lie in the lack of confidence in my abilities. Because of my life experience, I am familiar with the fact that I can accomplish certain tasks very well. Sometimes, the things I do are even considered to be great and extremely helpful. However, I still find myself to be doubtful when an unfamiliar challenge arises before me. I have certain insecurities, and they have a negative effect on my determination, persistence, and even my trustworthiness. Not because I lie or betray people, but because my attitude rarely inspires confidence in others, which is a crucial aspect of leadership. My organization skills are also lacking as I often find myself lost if more than two tasks require completion in a short amount of time (Walter & Scheibe, 2013).

My philosophy in this matter is focused on accentuating my positive aspects because I believe that they can overshadow and overcome the shortcomings of my personality. I have a very diligent approach to work which allows me to avoid making extraneous mistakes and prevents delays that often plague large projects. I am also a very sociable person who tries to respond to people with warmth and understanding. This improves my professional ethic as I am extremely patient and understanding when people are experiencing fits of anger, frustration, and other negative emotions that can be present in a team working under pressure. Therefore I believe that I am able to lead a team working on a project that has a limited timetable and has to be diligently finished on schedule. Such projects are often the result of a leader loss due to either health issues, or professional disagreements (Dinh & Lord, 2012).

The most surprising aspects of my test results were perhaps the self-confidence and dependability scores that I gave myself. Originally both were going to be a few points lower, but I decided to think about them more clearly. I started with the dependability score. My initial self-doubt forced me to consider giving myself a low score. However, I thought about all the projects that I was involved in for the last five years. Out of about 15 major ones, I have not failed a single one. Despite worries and doubts, I have overcome myself and delivered quality work that benefited the project every single time. Therefore, I gave myself the highest mark. Such dependability can be a saving grace for a leader, so I had to rethink my self-confidence score. I still knew that I often experience panic while encountering new challenges, so the score could not be high but after considering my previous results I have gained a higher confidence in myself so I gave myself a four.

The trait approach to leadership suggests that a good leader has traits that help them to influence the team as well as provide effective results (Northouse, 2016). I believe that despite some of my low scores I can have an influence on the team with my social skills and positive attitude. Making a personal connection with team members is an important skill in the work of a leader, and I can achieve that. Similarly, my dependability and diligence should provide quality results.

The test suggests that I would not be a great leader. However, I possess traits that can be used to provide consistent results under pressure. I hope to work on my traits in the future to achieve a better level of leadership.

Dinh, J. E., & Lord, R. G. (2012). Implications of dispositional and process views of traits for individual difference research in leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 23 (4), 651–669.

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks: CA: Sage Publications.

Walter, F., & Scheibe, S. (2013). A literature review and emotion-based model of age and leadership: New directions for the trait approach. The Leadership Quarterly, 24 (6), 882–901.

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Leadership Self-Assessment: How Effective Are You?

• 21 Nov 2019

Knowing yourself is critical to being an effective leader . Building self-awareness and understanding your tendencies and motivational drivers can enable you to unlock the potential in yourself and your team.

“Self-awareness is about developing your capacity to sense how you’re coming across—to have undistorted visibility into your own strengths and weaknesses—and to be able to gauge the emotions you’re personally experiencing,” says Harvard Business School Professor Joshua Margolis in the online course Leadership Principles . “If you’re going to mobilize others to get things done, you can’t let your own emotions get in the way.”

This especially reigns true for professionals with experience in leadership roles. Leaders must be level-headed and capable of making critical decisions for the good of their organizations. Successful leaders must also be in tune with their leadership capabilities before acting on them. There’s reason to suggest that self-aware leaders directly correlate to happier employees and healthier companies.

Access your free e-book today.

Why Is Self-Evaluation Important For Leaders?

According to an analysis by Korn/Ferry International , companies with higher rates of financial return tend to employ professionals with high degrees of self-awareness. Relatedly, research by the Association for Talent Development shows that self-aware leaders report having:

• Greater effectiveness in the workplace
• Better relationships with colleagues
• Improved abilities to identify and manage their emotions
• Reduced stress

Reaping these rewards can be achieved through honest self-assessment. By examining patterns in how you view yourself and how others experience you, you can identify ways to learn and develop as a leader.

If you want to maximize your career trajectory and improve how you guide and manage teams, here are four ways you can assess your leadership effectiveness.

How to Self-Evaluate Yourself as a Leader

1. complete a self-assessment.

Questionnaires can be useful for identifying your motivations and strengths. In the online course Leadership Principles , participants complete two self-assessments: the Emotional and Social Competency Inventory (ESCI) and the Personal Values Questionnaire (PVQ) .

By taking these assessments, leaders can recognize behavioral patterns and gain insight into how they manage themselves and their colleagues.

This self-awareness is critical to effective leadership because it develops emotional intelligence —an ability that’s possessed by 90 percent of top performers in the workplace . Through looking inward and answering questions with honesty and candor, you learn how to better command your emotions—as well as others’—and build a foundation for your leadership approach .

2. Observe Yourself

In addition to self-assessments, observing a video recording of yourself can be a valuable way to learn more about your current leadership tendencies. Taking part in this kind of exercise can enable you to gauge how you present yourself and exhibit attributes of different leadership styles , such as authenticity, humility, and faith. Maintaining these attributes can not only foster concern for your company’s success but employees' wellbeing—also known as “caring leadership.”

Engaging in critical self-observation can also help you overcome the vulnerability of putting yourself in front of others as a leader, providing the confidence needed to inspire and influence your team .

3. Ask for Feedback

Beyond self-reflection, turn to those you interact and collaborate with for feedback on your effectiveness. Unlike management , leadership is less about administering and organizing and more about aligning and empowering employees to pursue organizational goals.

By turning to colleagues for thoughts on how they experience your leadership style, you can identify discrepancies in how you perceive yourself and chart a plan for more effective leadership. Soliciting and heeding feedback also helps develop clear lines of communication , which, according to the Center for Creative Leadership, is essential for building trust and driving performance.

For Juliana Casale , a marketing professional who took the online course Leadership Principles , completing self-assessments and receiving peer feedback led to a greater sense of awareness in her role and improved communication with her team.

“I'm now more mindful of how my colleagues are experiencing me and less averse to having difficult conversations,” Casale says.

Related: How to Give Feedback Effectively

4. Build and Maintain a Robust Network

Leadership is a skill that must be honed. As you progress throughout your career, it’s vital to cultivate a robust network you can rely on for coaching, support, and guidance.

“Your internal and external networks are important leadership assets,” says HBS Professor Anthony Mayo in the online course Leadership Principles . “They're how you gain access to resources like information, know-how, and funding that are crucial in enabling you to help those you’re leading. Networks also foster your learning by connecting you to people in organizations with different skills, perspectives, and contexts than your own.”

Through networking, you can build a powerful resource that exposes you to new opportunities and drives personal growth and success.

Unleashing Your Leadership Potential

You can be an effective leader at any stage of your career . Whether you’re a mid-level manager or new to the workforce, honing your leadership skills can pay dividends for your professional development.

By building self-awareness, soliciting feedback, and networking, you can gain a better understanding of your personal leadership style and unleash the potential in yourself and others.

Do you want to enhance your leadership skills? Explore Leadership Principles —one of our online leadership and management courses —to discover how you can become a more effective leader and unleash the potential in yourself and others.

This article was updated on July 19, 2022. It was originally published on November 21, 2019.

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How useful is the trait approach to leadership?

What defines a leader? The trait-based approach to leadership tries to answer this question by defining the characteristics an individual needs to be a leader. This essay will discuss how the trait approach helps to gain a better understanding of leadership. It argues that some points made by contemporary interpretations connecting it with situational circumstances and the interaction with followers are of utmost importance. It will conclude that recent reassessments of formerly used models actually are very useful to the assessment of leadership.

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Self-Leadership Assessment and Its Components Essay

Introduction, leadership assessment survey results, analysis of the score, improvement plan, improving on the four spheres of leadership.

This reflective treatise attempts to explicitly review the components of self leadership assessment. Besides, the paper examines personal views, strengths, and areas of improvement for this assessment. The assessment is based on transactional leadership, confidence, relationship, and transformational leadership. The assessment presents my score besides a comprehensive plan for improvement.

The Leadership Trait Questionnaire is a leadership assessment tool that is intended to measure and give insight on personal leadership traits (Avolio, 2011). Through participating in the questionnaire, my skills are defined and my strengths and weaknesses exposed. The assessment was significant to me in understanding the areas that I need to improve on. It is important that I look at my traits and how they pertain to leadership to determine which ones I need to improve on. After taking the Leadership Trait Questionnaire, which has 14 classifications, I scored high in characteristics such as trustworthiness, empathy, friendliness, dependability, determination, sensitivity, and diligence. However, I scored the lowest in self-confidence and self-assured.

The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire MLQ 5x-Short tool evaluates three different leadership styles, which are transformational, transactional, and passive-avoidance. It allows individuals to measure how they perceive themselves with regard to specific leadership behaviors. It is essentially based on the premise that for a leader to be successful, transactional and transformational attributes need to be exhibited.

It identifies the characteristics of a transformational leader and helps individuals discover how they measure up in their own eyes and in the eyes of those they work (Avolio, 2011). I rated myself withithin four parameters of the transformational style, a one and two on the transactional, and zero and two on the passive/avoidant leadership styles. From the results, it is apparent that my style would be more transformational, and I need to improve on the transactional style.

The style questionnaire is to measure two types of leadership behaviors; task and relationship. The style is necessary to give a person better understanding of the leadership skills he or she might possess. After completing the style questionnaire, I scored 43 points on task and 32 points on the relationship attribute. I believe that I am both a task and relationship oriented person. In the style questionnaire, my cumulative score was higher in the task and than in the relationship attributes.

Task-oriented leadership

Despite task orientation being rated as a high self leadership assessment strategy, action planning is of importance to create a solution and strategy implementation secession for quantifying task orientation levels (Ismail, Mohamed, Sulaiman, Mohamad, & Yusuf, 2011). In my opinion, task orientation leadership, on an individual task management level in ethics, encompasses actual and expected outcome. My cumulative score is Very High Range (42).

Through designing personal task management model levels, my task orientation module has remained active in developing dependence of interest attached to an activity, creating proactive relationships, and monitoring their interaction with physical and psychological health. Eventually, it has paid off since I have learnt to appreciate the essence of tolerance and necessity to stay active. In fact, I scored high in characteristics such as trustworthiness, empathy, friendliness, dependability, determination, sensitivity, and diligence. However, I should improve on excessive independence, intra and interpersonal communication since the two influence the level of task orientation with the third party (Avolio, 2011).

Relationship-oriented leadership

Specifically, relationship-oriented leadership identifies a range of problematic situations an individual faces in his or her social environment, and generates multiple alternative solutions to those problems; he/she lays a series of procedures that are necessary to achieve desired results rather than postponing response strategies. Through using team work diagnostic tools, an individual can assess the areas of participatory leadership that require urgent improvement moving the person closer to an ideal leadership sphere. Self initiative in participatory leadership plays a significant role in setting up the leadership environment for situational occurrence management from external factors (Ismail et al. 2011). I am competent in teamwork and keen believer in collective responsibility.

My cumulative score is Moderately High Range (32). I have been successful in time management and reducing unpleasant distractions. I have been successful in self reward creation. This style of leadership engages in active process of learning through promotion, facilitation, and rewarding collective learning results in the practical arena (Avolio, 2011). I am a motivator with adequate skills in situational leadership management. The strategy requires systematic and periodic review of the parameters of professionalism, organization, respect, optimal performance, and discipline. However, I scored the lowest in self-confidence, and self-assured.

Unfortunately, these indicators are difficult to quantify. Since research methods focus on the development of a range of skills that are designed to help an individual to cope with a variety of life situations, they remain indispensable to the personal initiatives I have internalized in practicing a proactive balance in self situational leadership management. I would suggest an improvement in urgent matrix for duties since it doesn’t remain constant in different situations. I am currently monitoring counterproductive behavior as a negative parameter, which limits leadership productivity as a result of these hurdles.

Leadership improvement is promoted by the ART model proposed by Ivey and Kline (2010) to explicitly review the link between task and role as enshrined in the tenet of authority. To inspire loyalty and effort, I should be a good communicator. I have to seek opportunities to communicate with team members. At the same time, I should attempt to increase the volume and frequency of communication. Having in mind that 90% of communication is not about what we say, but how we say it, I should be able to communicate with passion, humility and enthusiasm in line with the group aspirations (Ivey & Kline, 2010).These improvements will improve my self-confidence, and self-assured elements in leadership. The following strategic plan will address the leadership challenges noted above and present an explicit improvement plan.

Areas of improvement

Despite my steady score in the transactional leadership and transformational leadership, I need improvement on the spheres of self confidence and self assurance. Besides, there is an urgent need for improvement in the relationship and transformational leadership skills as part of task orientation to ensure that my leadership skills are all round. In order to make these improvements, I will use the leadership inventory practice (LIP) model since internal and external factors greatly influence the perception and direction of each leadership attributed.

Leadership Inventory Practice (LIP) development is vital in understanding psychological principles which form the links between the ability to inspire and human behavior. Basically, leadership development focuses on how individuals think about themselves and activities that affect these thoughts and feelings in an organizational environment, especially during selection, perfection, and persuasion procedures (Northouse, 2012). Application of leadership development strategies facilitate advanced stages of maladaptive leadership skills and talents.

Self confidence and self assurance

LPI assessment is important because it enables an individual to perceive how people evaluate leadership skills. Furthermore, this is a self assessment strategy that enables an individual to inquire people’s opinion in order to compare their suggestions with leadership perspectives as a way to improve on personality and leadership skills. In order to improve on my self confidence and assurance, I will use the LIP assessment to monitor the desire to achieve in challenging situation and meet the expectations I set.

Since challenging experiences normally compel a person to examine his or her attitude, I will enroll myself in confidence building classes for a period up to six months and use the class environment to improve on self assurance. I will retake the assessment questionnaire after four months in the class and declare my improvement endeavors successful when the score increases of 32 points to at least 45 points, which is comfortably above the average (Avolio, 2011).

Relationship and task-orientation

According to Ivey and Kline (2010), LPI assesses human acts which people utilize when interacting with different peoples. This assessment is helpful, especially for leaders who intend to know how they influence people and how to communicate effectively in a society. In addition, leadership skills are normally influenced by situational and personal experiences (Northouse, 2012). I will improve my relationship and task-orientation attributes by interacting more with peers and friends. Indeed, situational experiences exist in many ways.

First, attitude of encouragement is important in a society. Actually, people should appreciate and encourage positive contributions. Secondly, shared objectives are helpful because they guide community to embrace desired outcomes while discouraging unfavorable attitudes. On the other hand, personal experiences are based on three aspects. First, past reality that people have experienced influence them to be aware of human acts that have positive outcomes (Ismail et al. 2011).

Secondly, personal attitude usually influences people on how to interact with others. Lastly, self esteem enables people to develop inner strength in carrying out various actions. I will measure improvements in these elements through carrying out an ad hog interview with my peers to establish their perception on any improvement over a period of at least three months. Besides, I will repeat the self assessment to determine the exact improvement I have made. The exercise will be declared successful when the score improves to 50+ score.

Prioritization and rationale

The first priority will be directed towards the improvement of self confidence and self assurance followed by improvement in relationship building and other forms of task orientation. Basically, the need for improvement of my confidence and self-assurance was informed by my low score in the two areas. These two attributes are significant in exercising transformational and task-oriented leadership at micro and macro levels (Ivey & Kline, 2010). Therefore, the improvement prioritization will not only ensure that the current weaknesses are addressed, but also improve on my score in other parameters since the attributes are dependent on leadership practice.

Tools for measuring the plan’s effectiveness

The tools which will be used in measuring the plan’s effectiveness include LIP, Leadership Trait Questionnaire, Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire MLQ 5x-Short, and Style Questionnaire. These tools are critical in establishing the actual score in each of the leadership attributes associated with transformational and task-oriented leadership. The successful application of these tools will determine the variance in the score at the beginning and the end of the improvement plan (Avolio, 2011). A positive variance will indicate improvement in leadership skills and vice versa.

Personal and organizational implication of failure to implement the plan

Productive leadership behavior stresses the need for an active cooperation between personality and the roles assigned in the planning and execution of the set targets for the assigned roles within the parameters of situational leadership, task-person orientation, and transformational leadership. Therefore, failure to implement the proposed improvement plan would jeopardize the personal learning and organizational performance since confidence and self assurance are important variables in making rational decisions and comprehensive task completion (Northouse, 2012).

Specifically, development of transformational leaders is achievable through mentorship, stretch assignments, multi-year training programs, and coaching. These aspects are complimentary to each other and are active in modeling a broad vision candidate who has the ability to inspire positive change and motivate people. Therefore, failure to implement the plan would mean that I will be trying to function as a competent individual with low self confidence and assurance.

Therefore, I will miss the opportunity to acquire complete leadership skills, which are critical in self improvement and organizational performance. As a leader, I can never be egocentric since it is not about me but the team. Therefore, failure to implement the improvement plan will leave me egocentric and opinionated in a complex and dynamic organization that functions on team work (Ismail et al. 2011).

Assessment of the leadership improvement

After reviewing and understanding different theoretical explanations of the elements that interact during the group formation process, I discovered that the elements of dependency within conscious and unconscious tenets are directed towards a leader of a formal or informal group. Specifically, Avolio (2011) opined that the elements of dependency within conscious and unconscious tenets are critical towards understanding the perception of each member of the group on the environment, expectations, and possible challenges. In fact, in the first interaction during the LLG formation process, little eye contact may be witnessed since persons meeting for the first time may face difficulties in building instant affinity.

Basing on LPI assessment that I have undergone through, the practice enabled me to develop the following three personal competencies. First, I should be a role model. I need to develop self-confidence by elucidating my own individual values. I should set good examples through conforming to shared values of the community. Secondly, I need to enliven a common vision. Indeed, I should visualize the future through perceiving to achieve pleasant and excellent possibilities (Northouse, 2012).

In addition, I should interact with various people to achieve common objectives that are important in group activities. Thirdly, I should learn through challenging inspirations. Expressing loyalty is a noble act showing a sense of worth and gives meaning to life. However, it is not an easy task; it comes with lots of challenges as some people are naturally rebellious. I learned that in spite of the prodigious challenges leaders go through; they can still inspire loyalty and effort in their team. This creates a culture in the group because members feel they have shared values and beliefs.

Avolio, B. (2011). Full Range Leadership Development (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Sage Publications.

Ismail, A., Mohamed, H. A., Sulaiman, A. Z., Mohamad, M. H., & Yusuf, M. H. (2011). An empirical study of the relationship between transformational leadership, empowerment and organizational commitment. Business and Economic Research Journal, 2 (1), 89-108.

Ivey, G. W., & Kline, T. B. (2010). Transformational and active transactional leadership in the Canadian military. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 31 (3), 246-262.

Northouse, P. (2012). Leadership: Theory and Practice (6th ed.). New York, NY: Sage Publications.

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IvyPanda. (2020, June 23). Self-Leadership Assessment and Its Components. https://ivypanda.com/essays/self-leadership-assessment-and-its-components/

"Self-Leadership Assessment and Its Components." IvyPanda , 23 June 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/self-leadership-assessment-and-its-components/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Self-Leadership Assessment and Its Components'. 23 June.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Self-Leadership Assessment and Its Components." June 23, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/self-leadership-assessment-and-its-components/.

1. IvyPanda . "Self-Leadership Assessment and Its Components." June 23, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/self-leadership-assessment-and-its-components/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Self-Leadership Assessment and Its Components." June 23, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/self-leadership-assessment-and-its-components/.

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• v.23(1); 2018

Assessment of medical students’ leadership traits in a problem/case-based learning program

Samara b. ginzburg.

a Department of Science Education, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Hempstead, NY, USA

Jessica Schwartz

b Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Hempstead, NY, USA

Rachel Gerber

Susan deutsch, david e. elkowitz, christina ventura-dipersia.

c Hofstra Northwell School of Graduate Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies, Hempstead, NY, USA

Youn Seon Lim

Robert lucito.

Background : Healthcare delivery is shifting to team-based care and physicians are increasingly relied upon to lead and participate in healthcare teams. Educational programs to foster the development of leadership qualities in medical students are needed to prepare future physicians for these roles.

Objective : Evaluate the development of leadership attributes in medical students during their first 2 years of medical school while participating in leadership training integrated into a problem/case-based learning program utilizing the Leadership Traits Questionnaire assessment tool.

Design : Ninety-eight students enrolled at Zucker School of Medicine participated in Patient-Centered Explorations in Active Reasoning, Learning and Synthesis (PEARLS), a hybrid problem/case-based learning program, during the first and second years of medical school. The Leadership Traits Questionnaire, designed to measure 14 distinct leadership traits, was utilized. It was administered to students, peers in students’ PEARLS groups and their faculty facilitators. Participants completed questionnaires at three-time points during the study. Likert scale data obtained from the questionnaire was analyzed using a two-level Hierarchal Linear Model.

Results : Complete data sets were available for 84 students. Four traits, including self-assured, persistent, determined, and outgoing, significantly increased over time by measurements of both peer and facilitator-rated assessments. Six additional traits significantly increased over time by measurement of facilitator-rated assessment. By contrast, a majority of student self-rated assessments trended downward during the study.

Conclusions : Medical students demonstrated development of several important leadership traits during the first 2 years of medical school. This was accomplished while participating in the PEARLS program and without the addition of curricular time. Future work will examine the impact of third year clerkships on leadership traits.

Introduction

The provision of healthcare in the United States is dynamically evolving in response to a complex set of financial and societal pressures from patients, providers, organizations, and policy-makers [ 1 , 2 ]. As a result, the current structure of healthcare relies increasingly on collaborative models, and physicians must be able to lead and work in teams to provide high-quality, cost-effective patient care [ 3 – 5 ]. Medical schools must set the foundation for this work by providing their students opportunities to develop and enhance leadership skills.

Recent literature pertaining to leadership training in undergraduate medical education (UME) offers various paradigms for the structure and content of leadership curricula or programs [ 1 , 2 ]. Of the medical schools with leadership development programs, some evaluate student satisfaction with their learning [ 6 – 8 ], while others examine students’ confidence in their leadership abilities or teaching skills after participating in leadership programs [ 9 – 12 ]. Several studies measure students’ preparedness or willingness to lead in specific scenarios, such as community service [ 13 – 17 ] or quality improvement [ 18 ]. There have also been reports of increases in understanding of leadership as part of a physician’s professional responsibility among students participating in leadership programs [ 19 , 20 ]. The majority of studies assessing development of leadership in UME utilize a measurement of students’ self-assessments or self-reporting [ 6 – 12 ], while a few report faculty supervisors’ assessments of leadership development among students [ 16 , 21 ], but to our knowledge, none include assessments by peers. In addition, the majority of tools employed to date to assess leadership development utilize situation-based questions or narrative comments rather than measuring discrete leadership traits [ 15 – 17 , 20 ].

We previously showed utilizing an internally developed tool that integration of a longitudinal curriculum in leadership development into our hybrid problem-based/case-based learning (PBL/CBL) program, Patient-Centered Explorations in Active Reasoning, Learning and Synthesis (PEARLS) is an effective way to develop leadership qualities in our medical students [ 21 ]. To both deepen and better characterize the impact of this leadership training, we sought to include perspectives from three different evaluator groups who participate in this program – students, peers, and faculty facilitators. In addition, we were interested in quantifying specific leadership traits impacted by this program. Accordingly, we utilized the Leadership Traits Questionnaire (LTQ) [ 22 ], developed by Peter Northouse, an expert in the field of leadership research, to evaluate leadership development in medical students participating in PEARLS. The LTQ measures 14 leadership traits and reliably assesses an individual’s traits when completed by multiple people familiar with the person being assessed [ 22 ]. To our knowledge, it has not previously been utilized in the UME setting. We hypothesized that participation in our PEARLS program, which includes leadership training, would nurture development of leadership traits in our medical students when evaluated from the perspectives of students, peers, and faculty facilitators.

The present study took place during academic years 2015–2016 (year 1) and 2016–2017 (year 2). Students participated in the Zucker School of Medicine PEARLS program, which includes leadership development as previously described [ 21 , 23 ]. The core elements of the leadership curriculum for students included serving as the ‘leader’ for PEARLS sessions on a rotating basis (setting the agenda for the group, managing group dynamics, and encouraging participation from group members), developing and presenting targeted learning exercises (‘triggers’) during each session and participating in wrap-up discussions related to leadership [ 21 ]. Each student was assigned to a PEARLS group of seven or eight peers with a faculty facilitator. Facilitators were responsible for guiding the PEARLS process and not for delivery of content. The PEARLS program includes six courses, which range in length from 6 to 12 weeks. Student groups and facilitators changed at the end of each course. A single cohort of 98 students was enrolled in the study ( Table 1 ).

Student and facilitator demographic characteristics.

Note. a Total in student demographics does not represent sample size for full analyses due to missing values. For self-assessment, missing values were 6, 6, 7; for peer-assessment, 6, 0, 3; for facilitator-assessment, 2, 0, 3 for Courses 1, 3, and 6, respectively.

b Age is calculated between birthday and 8 January 2015 and 2016.

Leadership Traits Questionnaire

The LTQ was used in its original format with the 5-point Likert scale for the 14 traits ( Table 2 ) in year 1 of this study [ 22 ]. Statistical analysis performed at the end of year 1 showed similar responses to all questions. To differentiate the responses of the study participants, a 10-point Likert scale was applied to the 14 traits in year 2 of the study. Measures from year 2 underwent a linear transformation from a 1–10 scale back to the original 1–5 scale in order to compare them with measures from year 1 [ 24 ].

Student participation in this study was voluntary. Students were asked to complete an LTQ on themselves and all other student members of their PEARLS group at three-time points: the end of Course 1 (a 6-week course) and the midpoint (week 6) of Courses 3 and 6, about half way through years 1 and 2, respectively. Facilitators ( Table 1 ) also completed the LTQ for all students assigned to their groups at the same three-time points.

The LTQ survey was generated using Qualtrics (QUALTRICS, Provo, UT, USA) at the first time point and Baseline (Campus Labs, Buffalo, NY, USA) at the second and third time points. Surveys were distributed through email and were accessible via computer or mobile platforms. Students were provided time to complete surveys during the end of a designated PEARLS session at the three-time points. Facilitators left the rooms while students completed their surveys. Facilitators received instructions to complete their LTQ surveys within 1 week of receipt.

For both facilitator and student surveys, all results were de-identified before any calculations or analysis of the data took place. All self, peer, and facilitator completed LTQ forms with greater than 90% of the questions answered were included in the analysis [ 25 ]. For peer-completed surveys, the average peer response per trait was calculated. All students, whose average peer response had a Cronbach’s alpha value >0.8 for all 14 traits, were included in the analysis. With the balance, data missing at random was imputed using the EM missing values procedure. Inspection of means and standard deviations indicated that the EM procedure caused only minimal difference to the data ( i.e ., differences noticeable only at the .01 level). As a result, the total number of participants is shown in Table 1 .

A two-level Hierarchal Linear Model (HLM) was used to evaluate leadership growth in PEARLS ( Appendix 2 , 3 , 4 ). HLM analysis was chosen over traditional regression analysis because the use of repeated measures was likely to generate correlated errors across time. HLM analysis was chosen over structural equation modeling because HLM is a more robust model and can sufficiently model datasets with missing data. At level 1 of the model, time was used as a predictor of leadership outcomes of the within-subject variable. The slope and intercept parameters of the equation for leadership were analyzed for evidence of random effects. Evidence of random effects indicates significant inter-individual variability in the parameters and is required before testing between-participants variables as level 2 predictors. At level 2 of the model, separate equations were created for the intercept and slope parameters of the level 1 equation. To compare the initial leadership scores, a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used. Post hoc tests were conducted using the Bonferroni correction.

Key findings regarding the development of particular traits as well as overall trends in student leadership trait development for the cohort of students followed longitudinally are shown in Figure 1 . Of the 14 traits examined in this study, none were found to increase across all three evaluator groups. There were four traits that significantly improved (alpha level = 0.05) as measured by two evaluator groups, facilitator and peer, and included self-assured, persistent, determined , and outgoing . There were six traits that significantly improved as measured by one evaluator group, facilitator, and included perceptive, self-confident, trustworthy, dependable, conscientious , and empathic .

Fixed effect regression model for each leadership trait: the Y -axis is the average 5-point Likert scale rating for each student as determined by self, facilitator, and peer evaluator groups. The X -axis is the course number in the curriculum.

Notes. p Value <.05 in comparison of intercepts; p Value <.05 in facilitator-rated measure trend over time; p Value <.05 in peer-rated measure trend over time; p Value <.05 in self-rated measure trend over time.

The general trend of student self-rated assessments, however, was to decrease over time (only articulate was statistically significant). There were no statistically significant differences of initial leadership measures between groups as determined by one-way ANOVA except self-confident, persistent , and determined . The post hoc tests revealed that facilitators’ evaluations were statistically significantly lower than the other evaluator groups at baseline ( Appendix 1 ).

Moving forward, physicians will be expected to actively shape and support interprofessional, team-based models of healthcare delivery. Medical schools have begun preparing graduates for this role via inclusion of leadership training during UME. Our PEARLS program promotes higher order discussion and critical thinking skills important for successful leaders to possess, and, in doing so, creates an environment conducive to leadership trait development. In the present study, we demonstrated the ability to positively impact medical students’ development of several key leadership traits through student participation in our PEARLS program ( Table 3 ).

Leadership traits on Leadership Trait Questionnaire.

Leadership traits significantly improved from baseline.

a Denotes statistically significant decrease.

Surprisingly, student self-rated assessments were very different from peer- and facilitator-rated assessments in aggregate. Self-assessments trended toward a slight decrease or no change in leadership traits over time, with articulate significantly decreasing during the study. The only two traits on self-assessment that trended toward increasing over time were conscientious and perceptive . Interestingly, these two traits are more reflective or introspective as opposed to those that are outwardly manifested. Assessing one’s own progress is a challenging exercise. The reliability of medical students’ self-assessments has been questioned previously [ 26 ]. It has been shown that the accuracy of medical students’ self-assessments depends upon external sources of feedback to help calibrate them [ 27 ]. In our study, students’ baseline self-assessments were gathered prior to receiving formal feedback from their facilitators. By time points two and three, students had received feedback from their facilitators and had also assessed their peers, both of which may have contributed to students’ rating themselves more conservatively at these later points during the study. Another possible factor affecting students’ self-assessments is the ‘impostor syndrome’, a phenomenon characterized by self-doubt and fear of being discovered as an intellectual fraud [ 28 ]. When analyzing these outcomes, we must consider that PEARLS facilitators have experience observing a diverse range of students in this educational setting and, as a result, may be more accurate in their assessments. Additionally, assessments made by the peer evaluator group represent aggregate data collected from all peers assessing a given student. These compiled values may be more representative of a student’s performance than a single student’s self-assessment of his or her leadership traits. The close alignment of assessments made by the peer and facilitator evaluator groups further suggests that there was notable development of leadership traits amongst this cohort for those traits that statistically significantly increased during this study.

The beneficial impact of the program on leadership development in medical students is underscored by the overall alignment between the peer and facilitator assessments for the majority of leadership traits. This result is among the first to demonstrate development of discrete leadership traits not limited to a specific scenario or experience in medical students as the result of curricular engagement. Additionally, in contrast to previous research, which suggests that only leadership skills are amenable to change through experience, our work shows demonstrable change in leadership traits [ 29 – 32 ]. Furthermore, it is important to note that all these developments took place without the addition of curricular time devoted solely to leadership education.

Our study had several limitations. We analyzed results from one cohort of 98 students from our institution and recognize that results obtained from this student sample may have been different had additional cohorts been studied – either from within or beyond our own institution. In addition, we were not able to utilize a control group, as all students in the cohort were enrolled in our PBL/CBL program. As the nature of the curriculum prevents facilitators from making their observations of students blindly, we acknowledge that their assessments of students’ leadership traits may have been affected by subjective factors including improved perception and interpersonal bonds formed over time, as in the halo effect [ 33 ]. While the LTQ is a useful tool for measuring general leadership traits, it is also possible that some of the traits included on the form are not equally necessary for medical students or physicians and further analysis of this tool to determine its appropriateness for the medical student population is warranted.

In future work, we will study multiple cohorts of students and follow them through the third and fourth years of medical school. During that time, we will examine if students’ self-assessment of their leadership traits become more aligned with those of peer and facilitator evaluator groups in the setting of receiving additional external feedback at multiple points in time. In addition, we are interested in examining whether clerkship experiences further impact leadership trait development.

Comparison of fixed effect of initial leadership trait scores

Notes. * p < .05.

A Post hoc test self-rated vs. facilitator-rated p < .05.

B Post hoc test peer-rated vs. facilitator-rated p < .05.

Appendix 2.

Hierarchical linear model for self-rated traits of leadership

* p < .05.

Appendix 3.

Hierarchical linear model for peer-rated traits of leadership

Appendix 4.

Hierarchical linear model for facilitator-rated traits of leadership

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Northeast Group on Educational Affairs for the 2015 Innovation in Medical Education Award that helped support this study. We would like to acknowledge Joanne Willey, PhD for her critical comments on the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

This study was submitted to Hofstra University’s institutional review board and was determined to be exempt from review. All data utilized for this study came from students who gave their written informed consent after reading and agreeing to the following statement, ‘I voluntarily consent to participate in the Research Registry and therefore give permission for the educational data that has been or will be collected throughout my undergraduate experience at Zucker School of Medicine to be included in the Registry’.