What a 1948 study of leadership traits and one of the oldest leadership stories agree on.
If you're weak at the one skill your business leans on most, you've probably wondered whether you're the wrong person for the job. Maybe you're the founder and you hate selling. Maybe you love the big idea and lose steam on the details. It's easy to treat that gap as a verdict. It's more useful to treat it as a hiring brief.
When I started my MBA, one of the first assignments was the Leadership Trait Questionnaire from Northouse's textbook. I scored a 5 out of 5 on trustworthy and friendly, and a 3 on persistence and diligence. None of it surprised me. I'm at my best with the big picture and a new idea, and the small details take real effort. And if I'm honest, I've leaned on other people to carry a lot of my ideas to the finish line. So my plan is to build a team whose strengths cover mine, and to set up simple ways to make sure I follow through, like calendar reminders and a to-do list built around actions.
The leader who said he couldn't talk
Picture a man handed the biggest assignment of his life. A whole people are stuck in a crushing situation, and he's the one chosen to lead them out. The job means walking into the office of the most powerful ruler around and making the case, again and again, and then speaking for the people the whole way.
His first response is about his weakness. He's never been good with words, not before and not now. He's slow of speech. Surely someone else would be better.
He's promised help with exactly that. He'll be told what to say. And he still asks for someone else to be sent.
The one sending him is frustrated, and says so. Instead of replacing him, he gives him a partner. The man's brother speaks well, and he's already on his way to meet him. The brother will do the talking to the people. The leader will carry the direction. And both of them will be taught what to do.
It works. When they arrive, the brother speaks, the people listen, and the long work of leading them out begins.
What business school calls it
For a long time, people believed leaders were born with a special set of traits, and researchers set out to find them. A handful keep showing up across the studies. Northouse lists five as the core:
- Intelligence: good judgment and the ability to work through problems.
- Self-confidence: belief in your own skills and choices.
- Determination: the drive to get the job done, persistence included.
- Integrity: honesty and trustworthiness.
- Sociability: being friendly, easy to work with and good with people.
The catch showed up early. Traits alone don't make a leader, and the situation decides which ones matter. Ralph Stogdill pulled that out of decades of studies back in 1948, and it still holds. Peter Northouse makes the same point in Leadership: Theory and Practice: the trait approach is good for self-awareness and weak at predicting who will lead well.
So the trait approach works best as a mirror. Tools like the Leadership Trait Questionnaire show you where you're strong and where you're thin. What you do about the thin spots is the part that counts.
The leader in the story did the most practical thing with his. He named the gap, and someone strong was put in that exact spot.
The leader in that story is Moses, and you'll find it in Exodus 4, written thousands of years earlier.
If you know your Bible, you probably recognized him a few paragraphs ago. Here's how the passage tells it (ESV).
Moses says, "Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue" (Exodus 4:10). Even after he's promised help, he says, "Oh, my Lord, please send someone else" (4:13).
Then comes the answer: "Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well" (4:14).
God's plan for the gap
- Name the gap honestly. "I am slow of speech and of tongue" (4:10).
- Put a strong partner in that spot. "He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth" (4:16).
- Keep one plan for both. "I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do" (4:15).
And it works: "Aaron spoke all the words that the LORD had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people" (4:30).
Then and now
| Exodus 4 | Business today |
|---|
| "I am slow of speech" (4:10) | Know your weakest trait |
|---|
| "Is there not Aaron?" (4:14) | Partner or hire for the gap |
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| "He shall be your mouth" (4:16) | Split the roles clearly |
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| "Teach you both what to do" (4:15) | One plan the whole team shares |
|---|
Notice what changes and what stays. Moses still isn't a speaker. He keeps the role, and the speaking goes to someone built for it.
Why we hide our gaps
Why do so many leaders try to cover every base themselves? Admitting a weakness feels risky when people are counting on you. Many of us got where we are by being good at whatever was in front of us, so asking for help can feel like going backwards. And handing over the part you're bad at means trusting someone with work you can't easily check.
But a gap you won't name still shows up. It shows up in the projects that stall, the follow-ups that slip and the people who quietly carry the extra load.
Try this week
Rank yourself honestly on the five traits: intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity and sociability. For a sharper read, ask two people who know your work to rank you too. Then take your lowest one and ask:
- Where is this gap costing my business or team the most right now?
- Who around me is strongest exactly here?
- What's one piece of work I could hand them this week?
Pick one and hand it over.
Which of your gaps could someone else cover this week?
