This document is about leadership, the personality of leadership and values important for a leader. The leadership style adapted by a person according to different personality. Personality profile of a successful leader. Power its effects and sources of power. Can power be corrupted. Persuasion is important for a leader to persuade others on its opinion. Persuasion and its influence is discussed.

1. Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Content
Personality and values
Personality
Values
Leadership style
Power, politics
Introduction
Sources of power
Persuasion and influence

2. Leadership and organizational behavior
Personality and values
The personality of a person matters a lot for being a leader and the values of a person turn into
behavior.
The personality consists of traits that are stable across time and situation.
Traits themselves are habitual patterns of behavior, thought, and emotion.
Personality is important to leadership because these are the behaviors a person will engage
across situations.
This means one’s personality will be your default response to different kinds of crises and
challenges.
Extrovert personality
If you're extroverted, you will automatically start interacting with people.
Introvert personality
If you are introverted, you might recede and start contemplating.
We need to adapt our leadership style to our personality.
However, we need to be careful at the same time not to overestimate the importance of
personality.
As a leader, we do not want to assume that a fellow’s behavior is caused by the personality when
it was really the circumstances.
We have to make the right attribution.
Attribution are the causal explanations that we make about behavior.
Psychologists talk about external attributions where the cause is the situation, and
Internal attributions where the cause is the person.
Humans in general tend to assume that behavior is caused by internal factors, even if they are
truly external.
For example, if a worker is late to work, people are more likely to assume that they're just not
very organized than that there was say traffic.

3. Factors of attribution
To protect yourself against this bias, consider the three factors of attributions.
These are consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency.
1. Consensus factor
If that worker is late and no one else is, then is more likely their personality than the
situation. That is the consensus factor.
2. Distinctiveness
If the worker is late, even to other events or parties, then that is likely the personality that is
distinctiveness.
3. Consistency
If a person act the same way across different situations. If they are always late to work, that is
consistency.
Make sure all three are true before making an assumption about a worker's personality.
Assumptions of personality
If a person make assumptions about others personality and who they are, he'll have a harder
time adapting leadership style to who they actually are.
That will make leadership particularly challenging.
We do not just make bias attribution about others. We also make them about ourselves.
In particularly, we tend to assign internal attributions to our own successes, and external
attributions to our failures.
That as humans tend to take credit for our successes, but blame our failures on the
circumstances. As a leader, we need to be mindful of this bias.
Using the three factors of attribution can be a guard to protect you against this bias as well.
Big Five System
Many different systems of personality have been created to understand and categorize people.
Psychologists have found one system is the most consistent and has the strongest evidence.
This system is called the Big Five, because there are five broad traits that included many different
kinds of human behavior.
These traits are

4. 1. extraversion,
2. conscientiousness,
3. agreeableness,
4. openness to experience, and
5. Neuroticism.
These are traits, not types. So one person will be high or low on one or all of these.
People who are extroverted tend to be sociable, active, and find it easy to express the positive
emotions.
They also tend to be assertive and socially domineering.
People who are conscientious tend to be dependable, productive, and ambitious. They are loyal
and achievement oriented.
People who are agreeable tend to be trusting, caring, and gentle. They're friendly and easy to get
along with.
At the same time, they might struggle to speak up or enforce their personal boundaries.
People who are open to experience tend to be imaginative, independent, and kind of eccentric.
They often like trying different things and exploring.
Neuroticism
People who are emotionally stable are not easily threatened. They do not worry much nor do
they often feel insecure.
Sometimes this personality trait is called neuroticism, and that describes people who are those
things.
Honesty and humility as a single additional personality trait.
People who have this trait tend to be modest, sincere, and strive to be fair.
I am sincere and have the personality traits of honesty and humility.
Important personality traits for leadership
Those traits that are important for leadership are honesty, openness to experience, extraversion,
humility, neuroticism, conscientiousness.
Structure of personality
Modern researchers say that people are not types. They may be extroverted or introverted but
they are not different groups of people. Man is a complex individual typologies can cause to think
they are static categories.

5. Personality in different situations
Personality can depend on situations
Strong situation personality is not very predictive in situations. E.g. high job specialization.
Weak situations personality is often more predictive in these situations. E.g. unstructured work.
Values
Values are stable trans-situational goals, and motivational. Understanding persons’ values is to
understand what motivate them.
A social psychologist Shalom .H Schwarz found values structure with 10 values which is group
into 4 group of families.
Values are not always we would call morals.
Values measured by ranking them. The idea being that people will sacrifice some values for
others, especially in situations which require that they pick between the two
Values likely develop through your life experiences. One long term study found that early life
experiences shaped values as an adult.
Values predict everyday behavior. Achievement, universalism and understanding a workers
values will help understand their behavior on daily basis.
Ethical behavior
Values also predict ethical behavior in diverse ways.
Self-enhancement predicted more selfish intentions and decisions. Like “use company resources
for your own purpose”. Violation of rules of fairness e.g. cheating.
People differ in how well they know themselves and their values. Self-concept clarity predicts
lower neuroticism, higher self-esteem and more awareness of our internal states.
Values structure
Self-transcendence, openness to change, self-enhancement, achievement, helpfulness,
conservation make up the values of person.
Personality profile of a successful leader
People are attracted more to the leader. Society tends to value the idea of leadership even in
situations when it might not be relevant. This is called the romance of leadership. It is the belief
that leadership always matters and is uniquely important.

6. Going further with this, people talk about the so-called great man, theory of leadership.
The idea here is that history is shaped by powerful and important individuals.
In this theory, great leaders are born, not made.
However, there is very little evidence for this, most leadership experts do not seriously proposed
this theory.
So going forward, we should take with a grain of salt the idea that only certain kinds of people
can be leaders.
In light of that, we can talk about the trait approaches to leadership that people with certain
qualities of leaders and these traits differentiate them from others.
Now there is a correlation between leadership and the Big Five personality.
Here are those correlations.
Extraversion by far has the strongest relationship to leadership.
Leaders also tend to be conscientious and emotionally stable.
We need to be reliable and ambitious to achieve a leadership position, and we tend to trust
leaders more who are cool-headed and calm.
Notably, leaders are not necessarily more or less agreeable than others.
One interpretation of that relationship is not that agreeableness and friendliness are not
important to leadership, just that the importance depends on the situation.
Research has found that about 31% of the variants and leadership effectiveness is predicted by
personality.
At the very least, it debunks the idea of the great man theory.
Different leadership styles have slightly different profiles.
For example, ethical leaders tend to be more agreeable and conscientious.
You don't have to fit the exact profile of a leader to be a leader, the goal is to develop the style
of leadership that fits your personality.
Leadership and introversion.
A person may want to improve his leadership style, and person may think that he need to become
an extrovert to do so.
However, research does not support that, and you can craft a style of leadership that fits you.
First, it is true the extraversion can be important to leadership.
Extraversion is the biggest predictor of who gets picked as a leader, although not necessarily is
the best in all leadership situations.
One important factor is called dominance complementarity.
The idea here is that followers that are highly motivated and proactive actually do better with
introverted leaders than with extroverted leaders.
Dominance complementarity
 Extroverted leaders improve group performance when the team is passive, but ultimately
can obstruct the motivation of the team in other situations.
 Because extroverts are themselves often socially dominant, they may be less receptive to
other people's initiative and motivation.

7. So ironically, social dominance of extroverts can actually make it harder for them to be a leader,
especially for followers who are already motivated.
Another situation in which extroverts can be at a disadvantage is, interestingly enough, in
communication.
In a sales context, people who are not necessarily extroverted or necessarily introverted, that is
to say, people who are called ambiverts tend to do better than pure extroverts.
The idea here is that the ambiverts engage in a flexible pattern of talking and listening, which
helps them sell, whereas extroverts tend to just talk.
Ultimately, we should not change who we are to become a leader, instead we should find a style
of leadership that fits who we are.
Different approaches of a leader
Behavioral approaches are focused on what leaders do rather than who they are.
Task-oriented behavior
• Involve structuring tasks, giving instruction, and directly leading performance on projects.
• Is associated with higher productivity, but also higher burnout.
People- oriented behavior
• Involves connecting with subordinates, demonstrating empathy, maintaining social relations in
the group.
• Is associated with higher job satisfaction
Contingency approaches focus on the situation, and adapting to that.
Situational leadership theory suggests four leadership styles exist, and that leaders can move
between them.
Directing, coaching, supporting, delegating.
Relational approaches focused on building a unique connection between the leader and the
follower.
However, all approaches have one thing in common, social influence.
Power
Definition
Power is having the discretion and the means to asymmetrically enforce ones will have over
others.
Traditionally, researchers talk about five different bases of power, that is, sources of power.
1. Reward power, or the ability to give people what they want.
For example, imagine a boss who can give promotions.
2. Coercive power, which is the ability to inflict punishment, for example, firing someone.
3. Expert power is the influence you have from just knowing useful things. Consultants, for
example, have this or professors.
4. Legitimate power is the power that is instilled in a social role or position rather than a specific
ability.

8. So a coach on a team might be able to inflict punishment on players, but for the most part, player
listen to them because they're the coach. The social role called coach gives you certain power in
a specific social context.
5. Referent power.
The power that celebrities and role models have.
You want to be near them, you want to be like them. That is referent power.
Mostly these seek to develop and use all five of these bases if they can.
 Formal leaders tend to focus on reward, coercive, and legitimate power.
 Informal leaders tend to focus on expert and referent power.
There are two major theories that guide this research.
First is the motivational theory of power.
Since having power means we can do what we want, this activates the behavioral approach
system in the brain.
But most broadly, it means that having power causes you to seek out rewards and
opportunities with less concern for the risks involved.
Another perspective suggests that having power cuts you off from other people. This social
distance that you feel from other people can have lots of different consequences.
In particular, we might have trouble connecting with people in an authentic way.
1. Power increases positive emotions and motivation.
This means that the power is engage in more smiling and positive affect.
They have a greater sense of confidence and more optimism, and at times, dangerously, they're
more likely to take risks.
Having power itself feels good, whether you use it or not.
2. Power causes more approach related behavior.
This means the powerful tend to be motivated by trying to get what they want, rather than
avoiding what they don't want.
Having power means you are more likely to take the initiative over others.
We’re also more likely to seek opportunities instead of worrying about threats or concerns.
3. Power causes a broad minded perspective and broad perspective thinking for both
good and bad.
This means that the powerful tend to think globally and in generalities.
This can be a strength when you're managing an entire team.
Or it can be a weakness when you need to adapt to an individual follower.
Power and corruption
Power trigger actions consistent with one’s goals.
Weak moral identity
People are more likely to use power for their own self-interest.

9. Strong moral identity
They are not likely to do so.
Power does not necessarily corrupt. If we pursue it we should be aware who we are as a person.
Create safeguards and empower advisors.
Politics
“self-interested, often covert and crafty activity that entraps organizational members in zero-
sum game situations in which one’s advancement is feasible only to the detriment of others’
well-being”.
Behaviors that are associated with “politics” are;
 Taking credit for others’ work.
 Coalition building.
 Personal attacks upon others competing for the same resources.
 Decisions based upon favoritism.
 "Organizational politics are informal, unofficial, and sometimes behind-the-scenes
efforts to sell ideas, influence an organization, increase power, or achieve other
targeted objectives".
It is also important to mention that:
 Organizational politics are widespread
 “93% of managers surveyed reported that workplace politics exist in their organization,
and 70% felt that in order to be successful, a person has to engage in politics.
 Workers who follow the organizational procedures often resent people who engage in
politics and perceive that the distribution of resources and recognition is unequal.
 Employees who perceive that their organization is drive by politics are less committed
to the organization
Political skill
 The above sounds negative, but political skill predicts positive leadership outcomes
 Higher recruitment interview evaluations.
 Ratings of leader effectiveness.
 “The ability to effectively understand others at work, and to use such knowledge to
influence others to act in ways that enhance one’s personal and/or organizational
objectives”.

10. Facets of political skill
Social astuteness
Interpersonal influence
Networking ability
Apparent sincerity
 Leader’s political skills increases team performance.
 Political skills improved markers of stress and strain even on biological level.
Persuasion, influence
Persuasion involves getting people to think about something differently than they did before.
So to understand how to persuade people first, it is needed to understand how they think.
Adjust your persuasion strategy to how they will process your message.
In this model, there are two modes of thinking.
1. Think of it like a highway.
There is one lane that is fast and one that is slow.
However, unlike with roads, these lanes in the brain have different qualities as well.
When you walk into a meeting and quickly assess all the subtle relationships between the
people, you are using this mode.
2. The second mode is slow.
It is rational. It is good at processing information deeply and critically.
It processes information in a straight line, so we can only think about one thing at a time.
When you're working through a math problem and carefully taking each step you are using this
mode.
The first is often unconscious, it is superficial but does not require a lot of resources.
The second is often conscious, it is deep, but it does require a lot of cognitive resources.
People often wanted to persuade by using facts and rationality.
We prepare well developed cases for meetings.
However, we are often disappointed by the fact that people do not listen to our well-
constructed logical arguments.

11. Remember that the second mode is exhausting and resource heavy, so the problem is that
people tend to only use the second when we have the motivation, the time and the energy to
do so.
Otherwise, we are more likely to use the first mode.
First, make sure they are in the right mindset for it, perhaps schedule a special time
beforehand.
Perhaps start by explaining why what you're saying is important, so they are motivated to
listen.
Logic can be a powerful persuader.
However, you need to clear the way for it to be effective.
If people don't have the resources. It is more useful to use other methods of persuasion.
Six principles of persuasion
Psychologist Robert Sheldon identifies six principles of persuasion.
3. Liking. We tend to listen to the people we like.
One way to use this principle is to start by finding genuine similarities with the other person.
4. Reciprocity.
We tend to give to those who have given to us.
One great way to use this principle is this simply be generous as much as you can, Of course, do
not offer what you cannot give, but people who have received your generosity will be far more
likely to listen to you because they want to give back to you in return.
5. Social proof.
And this is an interesting one.
Social proof is a psychological effect where we tend to believe what others believe.
If we're not sure what is true in a situation, then we will use other people's beliefs to guide our
own.
So two ways to use this principle are to build consensus and offer testimony.
Before you try to convince someone of something, start by convincing everyone else around
them.
Also, be honest about your own experiences.

12. Simply talking about your own perspective, offering your own testimony will help persuade
people.
6. Consistency.
People try to act consistently.
One way to use this principle is to get public commitments.
As someone has publicly said, they would do something, they will feel far more responsibility to
do it.
7. Authority.
We tend to defer to visible authority.
Of course, you can use this in very antisocial ways, but one way that is more pro social is to
simply make your expertise visible by displaying your accomplishments or achievements you
make your competence more visible, which increases your apparent authority and makes you
more persuasive.
8. Scarcity.
We see where things as valuable, in this case find your specific and unique strengths and sell
those.
Even if you do not have a unique strength, you don't feel you do.
You might have a unique combination of strengths.
These are the six core principles of persuasion.
Feedback
• In one-third of cases, feedback actually harmed performance.
Focus on specific areas, rather than a global evaluation:
• People overrate their overall job performance, but are relatively more objective about
specific areas.
• Worker and supervisor assessments are closer under certain situations.