Personal Leadership

Personal Leadership

Introduction

The literature review and the use of the panel for item review constituted the only validity research. The use of instruments such as 4-H's Life Skills for Leadership (Miller, 1984) or the Need Dominance Scale of the Edwards Personal Preference Inventory (Edwards, 1953) could have helped to establish concurrent validity. A study comparing the performance of proven young leaders (e.g., successful organization officers) with non-leaders would have lent credibility to claims of construct validity for the LSI. More work is clearly needed before the inventory can be considered to measure what it intends to measure. Modern-day psychologists cannot agree on a definition, but they are starting to understand what charisma is and just how far it can get you. The good news for anyone who aspires to revolutionise a nation or just hold dinner-party guests in thrall is that some aspects of charisma can be learned. Perhaps this should make us question the value we place on this most alluring of personal qualities. In our media-saturated, globally connected, 24/7 world, charisma is more important than ever, particularly for anyone in the spotlight. Actors have to be charismatic or they will struggle to find roles, says Joseph Roach, a theatre historian at Yale University who has written a book on charisma called It (University of Michigan Press, 2007).

Discussion

The reliability data presented by the authors show the inventory to be internally consistent, with split-half and Kuder-Richardson reliability coefficients mostly in the .80s for the seven regional samples. (A total of 452 students participated in the development of the instrument.) Test-retest reliability was found to be quite low in the one sample featuring this procedure, with six of the subscales having coefficients of .49 and under. Therefore some scales, particularly Fundamentals of Leadership, Personal Skills, and Planning Skills, may lack stability. The instrument itself is simple, clear, and easily read by most children over 10 years of age. For each category of leadership skills, the respondent is given a set of competency statements followed by Likert 4-point scales anchored by Almost Always and Almost Never, (e.g., 'I know how to get and use written information.') It seems likely that children might learn about the skills of leadership while responding to the inventory. The authors assume truthful responding to the inventory. In fact, they say that individuals 'can obtain a realistic assessment of their current leadership skills. Due to the self-reporting and self- scoring format, individuals can obtain a more objective view of themselves, rather than being rated by others who may be less knowledgeable about the person's individual strengths and weaknesses.' This is a novel usage for the word 'objective') Clearly, this instrument is not at all objective, but entirely subjective. Because it is a self-report measure which does not control for socially desirable responding, it would not serve well as a measure of leadership skills for purposes such as identification of potential leaders or selection for leadership positions. However, the LSI is probably a good self-exploration and learning ...