Leadership and Personality

Often times, personality does have a large effect on leadership because many followers try to connect to leaders in some way or another and if a leader can touch an individual on a personal level, they are more likely to have success.  No matter what the position of the leader, this is almost always the case.  President Obama makes it obvious that his family plays an enormous role in his life and for many family-oriented individuals, this may inspire them to be more like Obama and follow his beliefs.  In the workplace, an employee who feels that they have a lot in common with a boss or can talk to that boss about personal issues will be more likely to be more productive and efficient for that boss.  Specific personality traits do play a role in leadership because one's personality will have a lot to do with how they handle their position.  For example, a person who is shy or laid back may make the work environment more relaxing and easy for everyone to communicate while a leader who is strict and short-tempered might make employees feel more uptight and nervous at work.  A leader's personality traits may have a lot to do with how much an employee/follower enjoys being on the job or even how long they stay in the follower position that they are currently in.

A Leader's Image

Being a leader ultimately means having the ability to motivate and persuade others and the best way to catch people's attention and get them to listen is to provide them with a good image.  A leader's image is most likely going to be the first knowledge that viewers/listeners have about them and from the beginning will be a huge part in helping one determine their opinion of that person.  In the most recent presidential election, for example, Barack Obama made himself very appealing to young people by using his youthfulness and ability to adapt to change in order to gain supporters.  Although he may have had an odd name and irregular background for a presidential candidate, he found a way to turn those into positive aspects of his campaign by showing less fortunate people that success is possible all the way from poverty stricken people to those with disabilities.  A large part of Obama's success throughout his campaign was from making himself appear as a very family orriented man as shown from his response to the question "what is something you never leave home without?"  In conclusion, I believe that one's image is an extremely large factor in being a leader no matter what the position because without the proper image, people may  not take someone as seriously or look into their true ideas or concepts.