Week 2 Blog

    If you look at great leaders through history you seldom find one without gray hair or baldness. Being a leader takes a toll on you which is why it is important for leaders to have the six major leadership traits. These include intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity, and sociability. Most leaders exhibit all of these traits. For example most of our presidents have intelligence because they are lawyers and went to law school. They need to be smart in order to make good decisions for our country. I guess, now a days though you could have people think for you as long as you are strong in all the other areas.  All are self-confident because if you don’t believe in yourself than who is going to follow you. They all showed determination to make a change or a difference in our nation or in the world. However the trait that is most lacking in our presidents is integrity. For example, Nixon tried to spy on his opponents during the watergate scandal. Bill Clinton cheated on HIllary with Monica Lewinsky. Our presidents are suppose to uphold a certain moral code because we the people are following them. When a leader does something that is morally wrong no one will want to follow them. The final leadership trait our presidents possessed was sociability. In another word they were popular. They are great with people and everyone loves to be around them. People aren’t going to vote for you to be president if they don’t like you. Almost everyone liked Reagan because he was such a likable guy. He made people laugh and was a former favorite movie star. Popularity goes a long way when it comes time to vote. This is where a person’s personality is important. The big five personality factors include neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Neuroticism is one of the worse traits because nobody wants an insecure leader that is depressed. We want people who will take charge of the situation head on and find a solution. Extraversion is important because it helps the people around you to do a better job. Leaders need to be assertive because persistency gets results. Nothing is ever handed to you in life, you have to work for it and that is where extraversion comes in handy in a leader. Openness is also important because its important for a leader to listen to new ideas that might make things easier or better. If you have a close minded leader than they just might turn into a dictator. Agreeableness is important because you need to trust the people around you and in a time of crisis you need to be nurturing the nation like Franklin D. Roosevelt during WWII. Finally conscientiousness is important because if a leader is not organized than you can’t get anything done.