Application Journal #2

LTQ Questionnaire Results, Thoughts and Implications

Liz Horgan

Comm 628 Summer 2010

Dr. Kristen Johnson

June 8, 2010
 “Leaders are not like other people…Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991) postulated that leaders

differ from nonleaders on six traits: drive, motivation, integrity, confidence, cognitive ability, and

task knowledge” (Northouse, p.18). I have a hard time with that supposition. It puts leaders in

an elite and separate space. I believe that anyone can be a leader; complex individuals are

affected by multi-faceted factors of circumstance and time which converge and from which

leaders in all of their variety emerge. As we are discovering in this class, there is no single trait

(or combination of traits), skill, approach, or situation that defines a leader. Leadership is

dynamic, it occurs between a leader and a group. However, one approach to understanding the

relationship and process that ultimately defines leadership is to first concentrate on a leader in

isolation.

The Leadership Trait Questionnaire (LTQ) is a tool that focuses on the characteristics of

an individual leader. Northouse (2010) presents a variety of opinions on traits, from the ‘great

man’ theory to Stogdill (1948) who suggested that there is no consistent set of traits that

distinguish a leader from a nonleader in a variety of situations. It is with this dichotomy in mind

that I completed the Leadership Trait Questionnaire. I took the LTQ and recorded my ratings, and

had four others (a program director I worked with recently, a person who is a friend and who I

worked with years ago, a family member and a friend) take the questionnaire and rate me.

My ratings of my personal characteristics tended to be harsher than the ones I got from

my four participants. When I presented the questionnaire and asked each person to complete it

on my behalf, I asked them to be brutally honest with their assessments of my traits. However,

the feedback tended to be very high, consisting primarily of 5’s and no ratings below 4. When
rating myself, most of my ratings were 4s and 5s and were reasonably comparable to the

opinions of others. There were three areas where the perception of others and my personal

reality were at odds. I gave myself two 3’s, in self-assured and in conscientious, while the raters

gave me an average rating of 4.25 and 4.5 in these two areas respectively. People rated me as

more articulate than what I believe about myself, but otherwise the raters and I were fairly close

in our answers. Overall, as I reflected on the LTQ ratings, I found two things: First, I see the

self-assured, conscientious and articulate traits as ones to explore more deeply and to question

the differences between my perception and the perception of others; and second, it was difficult

to winnow down the responses to zero in on what my trait strengths and/or weaknesses are.

It seems that the LTQ responses stem from people’s perceptions of me and are affected by

my personality. Each person rating me was either a friend, colleague or family member; I

believe they were predisposed to think positively about me and, by definition, are favorably

biased. As a result, I didn’t really learn much from the LTQ other than the people I chose like me

and view me favorably.

I like the idea of developing personal awareness and can take the input from the LTQ as a

beginning point. Emotional intelligence, social competence, motivation, need and situation all

combine and affect whether or not I, or anyone else, exhibit leadership. As I think about

leadership and myself, I don’t lead to lead, I don’t need much external attention, am internally

motivated and find fulfillment in little things. Often I choose not to be a leader.

It is only when my interest, passion and personal drive kick in that I put forth the effort to

work a vision and seek to affect change by taking a leadership role. An example of this is my
work with Citizen Diplomacy through International House. I have been helping out with

international visitor programs in numerous support capacities for almost 20 years. Recently a

situation presented itself that changed my role from a typical support position into a leadership

role where I ended up responsible for a group of 8 Azerbaijani visitors who came to Charlotte for

10 days in May, 2010. The delegation was sponsored by our State Department to learn about

American culture, tourism and our public libraries. I handled their entire visit, from planning

their program to taking them to the NASCAR Hall of Fame the second day it was open (to see

the museum and meet with the Executive Director), to throwing the farewell dinner for the group

and their host families at the end of their stay in Charlotte. A number of factors impacted this

opportunity and decision to lead the Azerbaijani delegation; I was interested, I was needed, I had

the task competencies, and it was a personal challenge, that I was both given and accepted, to

step up. Part of my success stemmed from the 4s and 5s on my trait ratings, but added to this

were circumstances, personal passion and competence.

Leadership is complex, I believe it comes from internal and external sources, is time

sensitive and is something that is chosen or accepted. Having the fourteen traits identified in the

LTQ are helpful and probably critically important to the ability to lead and to ultimate outcomes.

However, to me it is more than a single person and their traits; ultimately leadership

effectiveness depends upon the group and on their perceptions and realities.
References:

Northouse, P. G. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.