I wonder if any of you read Judge and Bono's (2000) paper on the Five-Factor Model of Personality and Transformational Leadership. As I read it I naturally thought back to the best leaders I've had throughout my career. I've had quite a few who were extraordinary, a few who lacked a lot of leadership capabilities, and one or two who were mediocre.
As I read this paper I thought about the best and whether or not I agree with the author's thoughts on transformational vs transactional leaders. To begin with, I thought of the charisma of each of the best leaders I've had.
Among the best was a former sales VP, Brad, who had an uncanny ability to become anyone's best friend within the first few minutes of talking to them. This charisma carried him throughout the decade or more I worked with him, to higher and higher positions of leadership. His EQ was quite high everyone who worked with him agreed. Judge and Bono rank this aspect of transformational leadership first in their discussion and write "idealized influence can be defined as serving as a charismatic role model to followers. This dimension, often simply referred to as "charisma," is the most prototypic and often the single most important dimension" (Judge and Bono, 2000, p. 751). This seems strongly linked to their first factor, extraversion. "Extraversion represents the tendency to be outgoing, assertive, active, and excitement seeking (Judge and Bono, 2000, p. 752).
Another leader I think of in these instances is LT Johnson from the Rangers. He went to Panama during the invasion as a part of RRD (Ranger Recon) and was one of the first on the ground guiding the C-130's filled with Rangers in for their jumps onto the airfields. He had been in Africa, on the ground, watching the destruction of the aspirin factory that Clinton destroyed. He was in Delta Force and actually got out to go to OCS to become an officer (no one does this . . . no one leaves Delta). He came to work with us as a 2nd LT who had been in the Rangers, Delta, and more for over ten years. He wanted to go back to Delta as an officer. I'm sure he made it. He was the most amazing leader I ever had. Charisma was a large part of his leadership capabilities.
As above, the best leaders I have experienced all had this ability and desire to be out and about, among the crowd, not settling to be in the shadows . . . and it seems to go along with factor 5 Openness to Experience. Unlike the authors, I was surprised that agreeableness was the strongest predictor of transformational leadership. I see agreeableness as a tangential factor, almost like likability, it is generic and I considered it to be less than a good indicator until I read this sentence from Judge and Bono (2000) "it is worthwhile to note that Agreeableness was the Big Five trait most strongly related to charisma" (p. 760). That charisma aspect of leadership that I found in so many of my best leaders I might not have defined as agreeableness, but I can understand how charisma made it to the top of the list of predictors, even as an aside with agreeableness.
To close out this post, it makes sense to think about the other side of the spectrum. The aspect of transactional leadership that the authors defined as laissez-faire, reminded me of all of my worst leaders. The ones who were there because they were expected to be there, the ones who rode high on past experience but contributed little to the day-to-day success of the company. I've had a few of those.
References
Judge, T. and Bono, J. (2000). Five-Factor model of personality and transformational leadership. The Journal of applied psychology. 85. 751-65. 10.1037/0021-9010.85.5.751.
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