The LTQ and Complete Style Questionnaires
Leadership Trait Questionnaire (LTQ)
Organizations use a wide variety of questionnaires to measure individuals’ personality characteristics. In many organizations, it is common practice to use standard personality measures such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory or the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. These measures provide valuable information to the individual and the organization about the individuals’ unique attributes for leadership and where the individual could best serve the organization.
In this section, the Leadership Trait Questionnaire (LTQ) is provided as an example of a measure that can be used to assess your personal leadership characteristics. The LTQ quantifies the perceptions of the individual leader and selected observers, such as subordinates or peers. It measures an individual’s traits and points the individual to the areas in which that individual may have special strengths or weaknesses. By taking the LTQ, you can gain an understanding of how trait measures are used for leadership assessment. You can also assess your own leadership traits.
Leadership Trait Questionnaire (LTQ)
Instructions: The purpose of this questionnaire is to measure personal characteristics of leadership. The questionnaire should be completed by the leader and five people who are familiar with the leader. Make five copies of this questionnaire. This questionnaire should be completed by you and five people you know (eg., roommates, coworkers, relatives, friends).
Using the following scale, have each individual indicate the degree to which they agree or disagree with each of the fourteen statements below. Do not forget to complete one for yourself.
See the Leadership Trait Questionnaire, below.
Key: 1 = Strongly Disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Neutral, 4 = Agree, 5 = Strongly Agree
Scoring
- Enter the responses for Raters 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 in the appropriate columns as shown in the LTQ Example, below. The example provides hypothetical ratings to help explain how the questionnaire can be used.
- For each of the 14 items, compute the average for the five raters and place that number in the “average rating” column.
- Place your own scores in the “self-rating” column.
Scoring Interpretation
The scores you received on the LTQ provide information about how you see yourself and how others see you as a leader. The chart allows you to see where your perceptions are the same as those of others and they differ.
The example ratings show how the leader self-rated higher than the observers did on the characteristic, articulate. On the second characteristic, perceptive, the leader self-rated substantially higher than others. On the self-confident characteristics, the leader self-rated quite close to others’ ratings but lower. There are no best ratings on this questionnaire. The purpose of the instrument is to give you a way to assess your strengths and weaknesses and to evaluate areas where you’re your perceptions are congruent with those of others and where there are discrepancies.
Leadership Instrument
Many questionnaires assess an individuals’ skills for leadership. A quick search of the Internet provides a host of these questionnaires. Almost all of them are designed to be used in training and development to give people a feel for their leadership abilities. Surveys have been used for years to help people understand and improve their leadership style, but most questionnaires are not used in research because they have not been tested for reliability and validity. Nevertheless, they are useful as self-help instruments because they provide specific information to people about their leadership skills.
In this chapter, we present a comprehensive skills model that is based on many empirical studies of leaders’ skills. Although the questionnaires used in these studies are highly reliable and are valid instruments, they are not suitable for our more pragmatic discussion of leadership in this text. In essence, they are too complex and involved. For example, Mumford, Zaccaro, Harding, et al. (200) used measures that included open-ended responses and very sophisticated scoring procedures. Though critically important for validating the model, these complicated measures are less valuable as self-instruction questionnaires.
A skills inventory is provided in the next section to assist you in understanding how leadership skills are measured and what your own skills might be. Your scores on the inventory will give you a sense of your own leadership competencies. You may be strong in all three skills, or you may be stronger in some skills than others. The questionnaire will give you sense of your own skills profile. If you are stronger in one skill and weaker in another, this may help you determine where you want to improve in the future.
Skills Inventory
Instructions: Read each item carefully and decide whether the item describes you as a person. Indicate your response to each item by circling one of the five numbers to the right of each item.
Leadership: Theory and Practice
Key: 1 = Not True, 2 = Seldom True, 3 = Occasionally True, 4 = Somewhat True, 5 = Very True
See Leadership Theory and Practice, below.
Scoring
The skills inventory is designed to measure three broad types of leadership skills: technical, human, and conceptual. Score the questionnaire by doing the following. First, sum the responses on items 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, and 16. This is your technical skill score. Second, sum the responses on items 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, and 17. This is your human skill score. Third, sum the responses on items 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18. This is your conceptual skill score.
Scoring Interpretation
The scores you have received on the skills inventory provide information about your leadership skills in three areas. By comparing the differences between your scores, you can determine where you have leadership strengths and where you have leadership weaknesses. Your scores also point toward the level of management for which you might be most suited.
Style Questionnaire
Researchers and practitioners alike have used many different instruments to assess the styles of leaders. The two most commonly used measures have been the LBDQ (Stogdill, 1963) and the Leadership Grid (Blake & McCanse, 1991). Both of these measures provide information about the degree to which a leader acts task directed or people directed. The LBDQ was designed primarily for research and has been used extensively since the 1960s. The Leadership Grid was designed primarily for training and development; it continues to be used today for training managers and supervisors in the leadership process.
To assist you in developing a better understanding of how leadership style is measured and what your own style might be, a leadership style questionnaire is included in this section. This questionnaire is made up of 20 items that assess two orientations: task and relationship. By scoring the style questionnaire, you can obtain a general profile of your leadership behavior.
Style Questionnaire
Instructions: Read each item carefully and think about how often you (or the person you are evaluating) engage in the described behavior. Indicate your response to each item by circling one of the five numbers to the right of each item.
Key: 1 = Never, 2 = Seldom, 3 = Occasionally, 4 = Often, 5 = Always
See the Style Questionnaire, below.
Scoring
The style questionnaire is designed to measure two major types of leadership behaviors: task and relationship. Score the questionnaire by doing the following: First, sum the responses on the odd-numbered items. This is your task score. Second, sum the responses on the even-numbered items. This is your relationship score.
Scoring Interpretation
45-50 – Very high range
40-44 – High range
30-34 – Moderately high range
35-39 – Moderately low range
25-29 – Low range
10-24 – Very low range
The score you receive for task refers to the degree to which you help others by defining their roles and letting them know what is expected of them. This factor describes your tendencies to be task directed toward others when you are in a leadership position. The score you receive for relationship is a measure of the degree to which you try to make subordinates feel comfortable with themselves, each other, and the group itself. It represents a measure of how people oriented you are.
Your results on the style questionnaire give you data about your task orientation and people orientation. What do your scores suggest about your leadership style? Are you more likely to lead with an emphasis on task or with the emphasis on relationship? As you interpret your responses to the style questionnaire, ask yourself if there are ways you could change your style to shift the emphasis you give to tasks and relationships. To gain more information about your style, you may want to have four or five of coworkers fill out the questionnaire based on their perceptions of you as a leader. This will give you additional data to compare and contrast to your own scores about yourself.
References
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice, Fifth Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: SagePublications.
Basic Leadership Styles
| Directive Behaviour is the extent to which the leader: | Supportive Behaviour is the extent to which the leader: |
|---|---|
| Engages in one-way communication | Engages in two-way communication |
| Spells out the follower’s role | Listens and provides support and encouragement |
| Tells the follower what, where, when, and how to do something | Facilitates interaction |
| Closely supervises performance | Involves the follower in decision making |
| Key words are structure control and supervise | Key words are listen, praise and facilitate |
When to Use Each Style
| High Directive / Low Supportive (Style 1 - Directing) | High Directive / High Supportive (Style 2 - Coaching) |
|---|---|
| In emergency situations; when there are short time demands; and with inexperienced, but motivated people -Identifies problem(s) -Set(s) and defines roles -Develops action plan to solve problem(s) -Controls decision making about what, how, when, and with whom -Provides specific directions and engages largely in one-way communication -Initiates problem solving and decision making -Announces solutions and decisions -Supervises and evaluates the work of followers | When people lack commitment, and want to participate, but only have some of the skills they need to accomplish the task. -Identifies problem(s) -Develops action plan to solve problem(s), then consults followers -Explains decisions to follower and solicits ideas; two-way communication is increased -Supports and praises the follower’s initiative -Makes final decision about procedures and solutions after hearing follower’s ideas -Continues to direct the follower’s work -Evaluates follower’s work |
| When people are competent and committed, confident and motivated: -Defines problems with follower -Sets goals collaboratively -Allows follower to develop an action plan: control decision making about the problem and how it is to be solved -Only periodically monitors follower’s performance -Allows follower(s) to evaluate own work -Allows follower(s) to take responsibility and receive credit | When people are competent, but have variable commitment; they lack self-confidence and need support to accomplish the task: -Involves follower(s) in problem identification and goal setting -Asks the follower to define how the task is to be done -Provides assurance, support, resources, and ideas, if requested -Shares responsibility for problem solving and decision making with follower -Listens and facilitates follower’s problem solving and decision making -Works with follower to evaluate follower’s work |
| Low Directive / Low Supportive (Style 4 - Delegating) | Low Directive / High Supportive (Style 3 - Supporting |
Questionnaires
Click to open, then download the file to your computer to print.
