Nye, Christopher D; Baker, Nathan; Scott, William; Park, Heewoong; Chernyshenko, Oleksandr.

Personality traits are key individual differences with validity for predicting a variety of leadership outcomes such as leader performance and emergence. Although these traits are recognized as important, existing research has important gaps in how contextual factors influence these personality-leadership relationships. To address these issues, we will present a meta-analysis focused on refining understanding in this area by examining a broader range of personality dimensions and leadership outcomes across several key contextual moderators. A final set of k = 135 studies were analyzed and corrected for unreliability and range restriction to identify the relationships between personality traits, facets, and various leadership performance outcomes. Results indicated that several personality facets were strong predictors of leader outcomes such as ratings of effectiveness, emergence, and both transformational and transactional leadership. Moreover, we also found that the specific personality characteristics that are related to leader outcomes varied across the levels of the organization. For example, Agreeableness had some of the strongest relationships with leader effectiveness, but only for lower-level leaders. In contrast, the Responsibility facet was related to leadership outcomes for higher-level leaders. This work expands existing research by providing fresh insights into the moderators of the personality—leadership relationship. Our findings also contribute to the study of personality facets by refining our understanding of the importance and structure of these lower-level dimensions of personality.

At the conclusion of this event, attendees should understand the characteristics of personality that are most related to leadership. Understanding these characteristics can help to identify and select individuals who are likely to be successful leaders.