Personality Traits In Leadership Effectiveness
The role of the athletic director is an important one. They are the leaders of not only the athletics department, the coaches, the leaders of the kids participating in the sports, and you also have to build a solid support team of parents. This is why being a good leader is essential and ensuring the entire department works towards one common goal (Leading People and Organizations, 2012). One of the earliest studies looked at leadership as an innate trait, a set of characteristics that a person is born with, which is where the Big Five Personality Traits come into play. A meta-analysis of leadership studies found support for a relationship between these five traits and effective leadership (Leadership, 2012).
The trait that is linked most to leadership emergence and success is extraversion. Extraversion is being friendly and talkative, keen to social situations (Leading People and Organizations, 2012). Youth sports mean one thing for absolute certainty: children and parents. Parents all want the best for their children, which means I could end up with many opinions being thrown around as the athletic director. Sociable people are more likely to assert themselves in a group situation, which would be highly necessary for parents with their opinions about running a program for their kids.
Conscientiousness is a trait about organization and being dependable (Leading People and Organizations, 2012). This trait is said to be the second strongest predictor of leadership potential. This is important for obvious reasons when running a youth sports organization; parents should know they are leaving their kids under organized and dependable leadership. In addition, it takes a lot of organization and hard work to be the director of any sports organization.
As Athletic Director, I would want to ensure that I kept the program fun and new, which would keep attracting more. This trait falls under the Big Five trait of openness to experience or to try new things because these types of leaders demonstrate creativity and originality (Leading People and Organizations, 2012).
The last two traits are both ones that weren’t strong predictors of outstanding leadership. Neuroticism is related to being anxious and moody, which would not give way to a dependable leader (Leading People and Organizations, 2012). Finally, while being the least relevant, agreeableness is still related to leadership. Agreeable individuals tend to be complacent, meaning they wouldn’t take the necessary steps to emerge as leaders. But if these individuals reach the top, they might be more likely to succeed in the top position than others who exhibit all the other traits because an assessment doesn’t always lead to the most outstanding leaders (Lebowitz, 2016).
References
Leadership. (2012). In T. Byers, T. Slack, & M. Parent, SAGE key concepts: Key concepts in sport management. London, UK: Sage UK. Retrieved from https://apus.intelluslearning.com/lti/#/document/114915626/1/ceb9eb062d4e679916a 6309861921dd7/502d229438d40ad7c105adaba4c27fbc/browse_published_content/120 57/58996/96389/5/lesson/lesson? hideClose=false&tagId=96439&external_course_id=401711&external_course_name=SPHE4 16%20D001%20Win%2019
Leading People and Organizations (2012). In Principles of Management. Saylor Academy. Retrieved March 13, 2019, from https://apus.intelluslearning.com/lti/#/document/44162778/1/8b545c84faf67030eff22 869e5d3e709/eeb0601caf499007c10e63ae946b378e/browse_published_content/12057/ 58995/96389/4/lesson/lesson? hideClose=false&tagId=96439&external_course_id=401711&external_course_name=SPHE4 16%20D001%20Win%2019
Lebowitz, S. (2016, December 07). The ‘Big 5’ personality traits could predict who will and won’t become a leader. Retrieved March 13, 2019, from https://www.businessinsider.de/big-five-personality-traits-predict-leadership-2016-12?r=US&IR=T
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Question 
Personality Traits In Leadership Effectiveness
Recently, you were hired to become the Athletic Director for a local youth sports organization. Please explain how you envision using the Big Five Personality Traits (i.e., openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and Neuroticism) to demonstrate leadership effectiveness as an athletic administrator within this organization. Please be specific and give practical examples relative to managing an athletic department.