<P> In 1948, Stogdill stated that leadership exists between persons in a social situation, and that persons who are leaders in one situation may not necessarily be leaders in other situations . This statement has been cited ubiquitously as sounding the death knell for trait - leadership theory . Furthermore, scholars commented that any trait's effect on leadership behavior will always depend on the situation (Huges, Ginnett, & Curphy, 1996; Yukl & Van Fleet, 1992). Subsequently, leadership stopped being characterized by individual differences, and behavioral and situational analyses of leadership took over and began to dominate the field of leadership research (Bass, 1990). During this period of widespread rejection, several dominant theories took the place of trait leadership theory, including Fiedler's (1967) contingency model, Blake and Mouton's (1964) managerial grid, Hersey and Blanchard's (1969) situational leadership model, and transformational and transactional leadership models (Avolio, Sosik, Jung, & Berson, 2003; Bass, 1985; Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Moorman, & Fetter, 1990). </P> <P> Despite the growing criticisms of trait leadership, the purported basis for the rejection of trait - leadership models began to encounter strong challenges (Kenny & Zaccaro, 1983; Lord, DeVader, & Alliger, 1986) in the 1980s . Interestingly, Zaccaro (2007) pointed out that even Stogdill's (1948) review, although cited as evidence against leader traits, contained conclusions supporting that individual differences could still be predictors of leader effectiveness . With an increasing number of empirical studies directly supporting trait leadership (Judge et al., 2002; Judge, Colbert, & Ilies, 2004), traits have reemerged in the lexicon of the scientific research into leadership . In recent years, the research about leader traits has made some progress in identifying a list of personality traits that are highly predictive of leader effectiveness . Additionally, to account for the arguments for situational leadership, researchers have used the round - robin design methodology to test whether certain individuals emerge as leaders across multiple situations (Kenny & Zaccaro, 1983). Scholars have also proposed new ways of studying the relationship of certain traits to leader effectiveness . For instance, many suggest the integration of trait and behavioral theories to understand how traits relate to leader effectiveness (Derue et al., 2011). Furthermore, scholars have expanded their focus and have proposed looking at more malleable traits (ones susceptible to development) in addition to the traditional dispositional traits as predictors of leader effectiveness (Hoffman, Woehr, Maldagen - Youngjohn, & Lyons, 2011). Context is only now beginning to be examined as a contributor to leaders' success and failure . Productive narcissistic CEOs like Steven Jobs of Apple and Jack Welch of GE have demonstrated a gift for creating innovation, whereas leaders with idealized traits prove more successful in more stable environments requiring less innovation and creativity (Maccoby, 2007). </P> <P> The investigations of leader traits are always by no means exhaustive (Zaccaro, 2007). In recent years, several studies have made comprehensive reviews about leader traits which have been historically studied (Derue et al., 2011; Hoffman et al., 2011; Judge et al., 2009; Zaccaro, 2007). There are many ways that traits related to leadership can be categorized; however, the two most recent categorizations have organized traits into (1) demographic vs. task competence vs. interpersonal and (2) distal (trait - like) vs. proximal (state - like). Both these categorizations are described below . </P> <P> Based on a recent review of the trait leadership literature, Derue and others (2011) stated that most leader traits can be organized into three categories: demographic, task competence, and interpersonal attributes . For the demographics category, gender has by far received the most attention in terms of leadership; however, most scholars have found that male and female leaders are both equally effective . Task competence relates to how individuals approach the execution and performance of tasks (Bass & Bass, 2008). Hoffman grouped intelligence, Conscientiousness, Openness to Experience, and Emotional Stability into this category . Lastly, interpersonal attributes are related to how a leader approaches social interactions . According to Hoffman and others (2011), Extraversion and Agreeableness should be grouped into this category . </P>

Leader traits and attributes. the nature of leadership