Introduction
Leadership is the important factor of any leader or manager. The success and failure of an organization depends upon the leader’s ability and skills. Every leader has to manage and direct the people’s working schedule. A leader can motivate and evaluate his subordinates. He can find the major organizational problems of the subordinates and solve them. An effective leader or a manager has to plan the ideas and then implement the ideas. A leader has to identify the subordinates’ interest and working morale. A good leader can provide the clear cut ideas and suggestions to his subordinates. Communication skill is the important quality of a good leader such as the communication is the exchange or transferring the information of others. Leadership is defined as “the process of influencing the activities of an organized group toward goal achievement.” (Bryman 1986,p.2)
The main role of a leader is communication, sharing and motivating the people. In the case of politics the politician has to encourage and motivate the people and directly contact with each and every people and communicate with them. And he promises them so many things. This is the politician leadership. The leadership quality is related with the person’s personality, behaviour, attitude of others, direction, communication skill and ability, perception, nature of performance, educational knowledge and maturity. Different countries adopt or implement different leadership activities. The social, economical, geographical, behavioural, and political conditions are different in each country and as such the style of leadership is also different in different countries.
The scientist has formulated and implemented in leadership is broadly classified in to four categories such as “trait theory, behavioural theory, situational theory and contingency theory” (Bogardus 2007, p.38)
In this case we can concentrate on trait theory of leadership. The trait theory means the skill and abilities are got during the birth itself. Many qualities are got during the birth, like physical appearance, mental, psychological, interpersonal skills and personality. Height is related with leadership. The height is related with the trait theory. (Bogardus 2007, p.38)
In the case of United States Presidential elections we can see that except on two or three occasions, all succeeded persons are with more height. It is one of the thinking factors that whether it has any relation with trait theory. It is obliviously one factor that one with more height is noticed first than other with low height. They will always be a dominating personality among the people. Other one factor is that whether that dominating factor will have an effect in choosing a candidate for the post of President. Abraham Lincoln was a remarkably tall man. He stands an inspiring six feet, four inches tall. That is tall even for our day, but in his era, he must have been seen like a massive figure. He then would wear a tall top hat made of silk. When he had it on, he stand close to seven feet tall from toe to top hat. President Lincoln appreciated to stand back to back with people to quantify height. One day, President Lincoln stopped at Aquia Creek, Virginia in order to review some of his troops. Almost instantly the President’s notice gravitated towards a very tall young man. This young Pennsylvania seventeen year old seemed to shoot up over his companion. This is one of the main evidences where trait theory comes in existence. It’s the geographical trait related with height. This trait factor is always dominating in America and comes in the coming days also. As mentioned the three cases where height is not relevant are exceptional cases.(1924 presidential general election results 2005).
United States presidential election results 2005
In some cases like in the case of Napoleon and Hitler even though they are not taller they got a better place in history. In trait theory not only the height but also all inborn extra capabilities are counted. In case of American presidential election height can come as a main factor because their dominating trait characteristic is height. And also the perceptions related to height in the mind of people in America can be one factor. Here whoever elected as presidents they all performed well. It can also be one factor that affected the later presidential elections. It can also happen that a man with height and low performance can also be rejected.( Bowser 2009).
Conclusion
In conclusion we can say that trait theory has a somewhat good relation with presidential election. It can be found that most of them elected as president of America have good height. Height is one factor which can attract the audience easily and the same way audience responding back. Most of the Presidents of US are with a good height. The exceptional cases above mentioned may be because of their low performance as president.
Reference
Bryman, Alan 1986, Leadership and organizations, the idea of leadership, Routledge, 2009. Web.
Bogardus, Anne, M 2007, PHR/SPHR: professional in human resources certification study guide, leadership concepts, John Wiley and Sons, Web.
United States presidential election results 2005, Web.
Bowser, Mark 2009, Leadership- the true height of a leader, Ezine articles, Web.
1924 presidential general election results 2005, Web.