The Traits of a Leader
In this section the survey examined perceptions about the personal attributes people believe a leader should possess. The question was posed to the respondents in two ways: in an open-ended, or unaided form, in which the respondents were invited to mention up to 10 traits that they believe are characteristic of superior leaders; and in an aided form, in which the respondents rated the importance of each of 23 traits on a 1 (lowest importance) to 5 (highest importance) scale. The results from the two exercises are strikingly similar.
Volunteered Descriptions of the Traits of a Leader
Honesty and integrity lead the list of traits of superior leaders, according to both businessmen and women and Alma College alumni. Of 65 traits mentioned in all, these two were mentioned more often than any others. Table 3 shows the top ten vote-getters among the 65.
| Table 3. Traits of Superior Leaders as Volunteered by Business Men and Women and Alma College Alumni, Percent of all Mentions | ||
| Trait | Percent of Mentions, Business Men and Women | Percent of Mentions, Alma College Alumni |
| Honesty | 11% | 10% |
| Integrity | 9% | 8% |
| Intelligence | 4% | 3% |
| Vision | 3% | 5% |
| Compassion | 3% | 4% |
| Good listening skills | 3% | 3% |
| Good communication skills | 3% | 2% |
| Morality | 3% | 2% |
| Education | 2% | 3% |
| Faith/Christianity | 2% | 2% |
| Source: EPIC _ MRA. Columns do not sum to 100%. | ||
Note that there are no statistically significant differences between the two subsamples. The perceptions of businessmen and women are indistinguishable from those of Alma College alumni, within the ability of the subsamples to discriminate. Because this is so, the analysis that follows discussed the combined responses of the two subsamples without distinguishing business men and women from Alma College alumni.
Though respondents could mention as many as 10 traits, only one did so. Three-fifths of the sample (60%) mentioned one, two or three traits. Their responses are interesting to examine because they reveal the most salient attributes of superior leaders most clearly. In effect, it implies something different when a trait is mentioned by itself or with one or two others, from what is implied when it is mentioned among three, four, five or more others. Table 4 shows what these respondents believe to be the top 10 characteristics of superior leaders. Note that the base for the percentages in this table is not the number of mentions, but the number of respondents; thus it shows the proportion of respondents who mentioned the traits among those respondents mentioning no more than three traits in all.
| Table 4. Traits of Superior Leaders as Volunteered by Business Men and Women and Alma College Alumni Mentioning 1-3 Traits, Percent of Respondents Who Mentioned Trait | ||
| Trait | Percent of Respondents Who Mentioned Trait | |
| Honesty | 32% | |
| Integrity | 24% | |
| Vision | 9% | |
| Good listening skills | 7% | |
| Intelligence | 7% | |
| Morality | 7% | |
| Compassion | 6% | |
| Fairness | 6% | |
| Decisiveness | 6% | |
| People skills | 5% | |
| Ability to lead by example | 4% | |
| Source: EPIC _ MRA. Columns do not sum to 100%. | ||
Table 4 highlights the centrality of honesty and integrity among the attributes of superior leaders, and reinforces the perception that vision, listening skills, intelligence and morality, all of which can be found in Table 3 as well, form a kind of second rank in the composite view of leaders’ attributes that these tables provide.
