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potentially lasts throughout one's entire life. It is something that is
relatively inflexible, which would make it difficult for managers to
significantly change these traits among their employees (or individuals
changing their spouse’s traits).

The focus on traits is found in the early research into leadership, which can
be characterized as a search for “the great man.” Personal characteristics of
exemplary leaders were emphasized in this research, and the implicit idea
was that leaders are born rather than made. The focus was on identifying

and measuring traits that distinguished leaders from non-leaders or
effective from ineffective leaders. The hope existed that a profile of an
“ideal” leader could be derived from the above that could serve as the basis
for selection of future leaders. People with the “right” traits would become
the best leaders.

But how do you identify the common traits of good leaders? That was one
of the many questions surrounding the study of leadership—questions that
led to further research. For one thing, it was found that coming up with an
exact list set of leadership traits is difficult due to:

Culture. What works in one part of the world does not necessarily
work in other parts; e.g., a trait that works in Germany will be less
successful in America; or a trait that works in Manhattan may fall flat
in rural Nebraska.

Context. Whatever trait is appropriate depends on the context in
which one finds oneself. For example, taking a leadership role with a
group of people one hardly knows vs. taking that role within an
established organization.

Having said that an exact list in impossible to come up with, does not mean
that leadership traits are not important in leadership development. It
simply means that different experts will come up with different lists. From
about 1930 until 1950, research methods for studying social and
psychological issues were not as sophisticated as they are today. Generally,
when psychologists tried to replicate the studies, they were not consistently
successful. The overall evidence suggested that persons who are leaders in

one situation may not necessarily be leaders in other situations.

David Kolzow 18