Leadership survey -- you are invited to participate

I am going to refine this poll as time goes by; here is my first version. All comments and suggestions are appreciated, both on the survey and on pollhost the mechanism I am using to conduct it. Please feel free to ask others to participate, too. I would like to have lots of responses. Thanks.

(I wish I could figure out how to center this.)

Please choose all the statements that you believe apply to leadership
	An essential, necessary trait of a leader is integrity (actions match values)
	An essential, necessary trait of a leader is communication skill
	An essential, necessary trait of a leader is honesty
	An essential, necessary trait of a leader is charisma
	An essential, necessary trait of a leader is intelligence
	An essential, necessary trait of a leader is ability to envision the future
	An essential, necessary trait of a leader is kindness
	An essential, necessary trait of a leader is the ability to see potential in people
	An essential, necessary trait of a leader is the ability to see potential in situations
	An essential, necessary trait of a leader is courage
	One or more essential, necessary traits are missing from above and I will e-mail them to you
	The essential, necessary traits of a leader vary from situation to situation
	There are no essential, necessary traits of a leader
	One can be a leader without followers
	Leaders choose their followers
	In studying leadership, it is more valuable to talk about the specific traits of leadership rather than the general concept of leadership
	For everyone, there is a situation in which he or she would be a capable leader
	The ability to be a great leader is innate -- a person is born with it
	Leaders must understand neuroscience -- how the brain works
	Leaders must understand complexity theory and how systems work
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Comments

[Carol Metzker]

Stephanie, I was curious about the survey statement - An essential trait of leadership is intelligence. As a proponent of multiple intelligences, I wondered what definition of intelligence you (or survey participants) are using. I've seen many leaders who exhibit logical, rational intelligence (although some didn't do well in school), and some who show interpersonal intelligence (or some of Gardner's other types). But in Tojo Thatchenkery's and my analysis of stories and interviews with top leaders, we found something else. All had Appreciative Intelligence - simply put, the ability to see the mighty oak in the acorn.

[StephanieWestAllen]

Thanks very much for your comment, Carol. You make a great point. I have received a lot of e-mail about this survey with a wide variety of thoughts and input and feedback. Intelligence is probably the one topic about which more people have commented than any other of the poll statements.

Take a look at an idealawg interview of Carol here:
http://westallen.typepad.com/idealawg/2006/06/interview_of_ca.html
In it Carol talks more about Appreciative Intelligence.

[Tina]

You might enjoy the complexity perspective on leadership that appears in the book, Experiencing Risk, Spontaneity and Improvisation in Organizational Change.

In chapter 5, David Walker writes, "From a complex responsive processes perspective, individuals form and are formed by groups at the same time. Themes of leadership and authority are created simultaneously between leaders and followers. It follows that leadership is a process which occurs between people rather than being simply to do with individual characteristics of leaders."

He quotes Binney who says, "The real work of leadership is in leaving the models behind and discovering in the here and now, with this group of people, this organization and in this context, what leadership is possible and needed."

Your survey might be an interesting example of "seeing what we expect to see." If we look for the characteristics of leaders, we find the characteristics of leaders. What if we look for leadership that emerges in the moment - what might we find then?

[StephanieWestAllen]

Thanks, Tina. I think the complexity perspective is very important; that's one reason why I included the last question in the leadership poll. I am doing an interview right now of Irene Sanders who wrote Strategic Thinking and the New Science. You can read about Sanders and my interview (soon to be posted on this blog) here:
http://westallen.typepad.com/idealawg/2006/07/us_must_invest_.html

Watch for the interview as I think you will appreciate what she has to say. I think you might enjoy her book, too.