Trait Leadership's basic tenant is nature vs. It argues that a person's biological makeup or genetics determines a leader. A leader is born and his/her leadership qualities are innate. The quality encompasses physiological and psychological characteristics. Physiological attributes can be defined such as gender, race, height, weight, and overall appearance (Hackman, 2013, pg. 72). On the other hand, psychological attributes of a leader are intelligence, emotional stability, and overall personality. The ideal combination of the above traits mentioned can make a potential leader, hence the basic argument of trait leadership that leaders are born. It also focuses on other factors such as social status, mobility, popularity, and etc. There have been many studies on the subject matter each drawing a slightly different conclusion either cementing the initial argument of trait theory or stating that certain personal traits in combination with situational factors contribute to a person being a leader. A review published by Ralph Stogdill, which based its conclusion on data from 124 studies that primarily focused on traits and personal factors, concluded that leaders had traits that would not align with the ideal traits mentioned by the trait theory (Hackman, 2013, pg. 73). Its findings uncovered that leaders were found to be tall and short, young and old, introverted and extroverted, and etc. It also stated that the correlation between a specific trait and person prone to being a leader varied significantly. Although later on researchers used advanced statistical techniques, and reanalyzed previous reviews of trait research, and the updated results suggested that the personal traits do aid or influence on leadership behavior and perceptions (Hackman, 2013, pg. 74). This means that people who are in leadership positions have higher cognitive abilities, which means they are able to think differently and creatively compared to the masses.
