Discussion Board Two: Traits of Leadership
BUS-375
Selma Hasic

Personality is the set of unseen characteristics and processes that underlie a relatively stable pattern of behavior in response to ideas, objects, or people in the environment. Leaders who have an understanding of how individuals’ personalities differ can use this understanding to improve their leadership effectiveness (Daft,2008). We compare CEOs to CFOs and others in terms of personality traits and career characteristics. We find that CEOs are much more risk tolerant than the lay population of similar age profile. It is also notable that CEOs are also much more optimistic than the lay population as compared to the norms in the psychology literature (Scheier, 1994). CEOs and CFOs have different personal characteristics, career paths, and attitudes. CEOs are much more optimistic than CFOs, meaning that they are more hopeful and confident about the future. The CFOs job is to manage financial risks of the corporation. This officer is also responsible for financial planning and record-keeping as well as reporting to higher management. A CEO is the highest-ranking corporate officer in charge of total management of an organization (Graham, 2012). I think that both personality characteristics and different requirements reflect these two jobs. Everyone has their own type of personality that only they really understand and react upon; sometimes this affects or encourages their life at work. The requirements regarding the CEOs surveyed to be more optimistic, I think is because they have more responsibilities due to their high rank in management. They have more work to do and after that report to the board of directors. These people are more hopeful and more confident about the future because they have high self-esteem and courage to do their job right; Courage meaning the ability to step forward through fear. This is what every one of us should have while working. I also think that having good personality traits can affect your job in a positive way, that way you will always know what you are doing and how well you are doing. A personality test generates a set of hypotheses about a candidate’s leadership style. These hypotheses should always then be verified by face-to-face interview. Pros about personality test can be comparing candidates to your “ideal employee” in several areas. You can test different aspects of their character. Different personality tests