Effective Leadership is a Self-concept: How Important is to Know your Psychological Type for Being an Effective Leader

Abstract

This article examines whether knowing one’s psychological type, as identified by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), helps a leader to be effective. Reviewing literature on leadership, high-performance teams and the personality of leaders, the authors note that earlier studies focused on rigid leadership styles based on position power rather than on the needs of followers, and that no existing instrument integrated MBTI with situational leadership. The study develops a conceptual model linking the MBTI type of the leader, the situational leadership styles described by Hersey and Blanchard (telling, selling, participating and delegating), the readiness levels of followers, and the followers’ perception of the leader as over leading, under leading or appropriate. A questionnaire based on this model, covering leadership style, MBTI preference, follower readiness, situations and followers’ perceptions, was developed and tested, and the results were analysed statistically. The relationship between MBTI and situational leadership was found to be statistically significant, and the MBTI type of the leader was found to influence leadership styles, leading to appropriate, over leading or under leading styles. The instrument developed for effective leadership was found to be 76 percent matching the hypothetical model. The authors argue that knowing their MBTI type can help leaders modify their leadership style to suit the readiness levels of their followers.

Abstract prepared by the editorial office from the full text of the article; the authors did not supply one.