The nature within you

The scientific study of leadership started in the 19th century when researchers attempted to isolate the traits that make great leaders. From the trait perspective, leaders are great men who have innate abilities to control others. By the mid-20th century, the trait perspective had become “outmoded” (Bennis & Nanus, 1985, p. 170) for two reasons. First, statistical techniques did not validate its assumptions (Kirkpatrick & Locke, 1991). Second, it failed to account for the situational and behavioral factors that influence leadership success (Yukl, 2010; Jex, 2002).

Researchers turned their attention to understanding the behaviors that contributed to effective leadership. The behavioral perspective isolates the actions that differentiate effective leaders from ineffective leaders so that research can be used to train leaders to use the best leadership style. Researchers could not identify a “best” research style because they tended to find that different styles work better for different situations.