Cognitive Factors

1. Exam Q: Describe all cognitive traits of an effective leader?

Exam Q: Describe mental ability and cognitive resource of an effective
leader?
Cognition refers to the mental process or faculty (ability) by which
knowledge is gathered.
Leaders must have problem-solving and intellectual skills to effectively
gather, process, and store essential information.
Six cognitive factors related to leadership effectiveness have been
identified. They are:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)

General Mental Ability (Cognitive Intelligence)

Knowledge of the Business or Group Task
Creativity
Insight Into People and Situations
Farsightedness and Conceptual Thinking
Openness to Experience

a) General Mental Ability (Cognitive Intelligence)

Leaders need to have cognitive ability to formulate suitable strategies,
solve problems, and make correct decisions
Effective leaders have good problem solving ability.
Intellectual ability strongly related to leadership.
b) Knowledge of the Business or Group Task
Intellectual ability is closely related to having knowledge of the business.
An effective leader has to be technically or professionally competent in
some discipline, particularly when leading a group of specialists.
It is difficult for the leader to establish rapport with group members when
he or she does not know what they are doing and when the group does not
respect the leaders technical skills.
The importance of knowledge of the business is increasingly being
organized as an attribute of executive leadership.

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c) Creativity
Many effective leaders are creative in the sense that they arrive at
imaginative and original solutions to complex problems.
Creative ability lies on a continuum (range, field, variety), with some
leaders being more creative than others.
At one end of the creative continuum are business leaders who think of
innovative products and services.
At the middle of the creative continuum are leaders who explore
imaginativebut not breakthroughsolutions to business problems.
At the low end of the creative continuum are leaders who inspire group
members to push forward with standard solutions to organizational
problems.
d) Insight Into People and Situations
Another important cognitive trait of effective leaders is insight, a depth of
understanding that requires considerable intuition and common sense.
A manager with keen insight is able to make wise choices in selecting
people for key assignments.
Another major advantage of being insightful is that the leader cab size up
the situation and adapt his or her leadership approach accordingly.
Insight is also closely linked to perceiving trends in the environment.
Leader must be able to process many different types of information, and
use their perceptions to predict the direction of environmental forces.
e) Farsightedness and Conceptual Thinking
To develop vision and corporate strategy, a leader needs farsightedness,
the ability to understand the long-range implications of actions and
policies.
Ray J. Friant, Jr., recommends that to develop as future business leaders,
junior executives should be given long-term assignment in long-range
planning and implementation.
At the same time they should go through their usual developmental
rotations such as intermediate-term assignments in marketing and
manufacturing.
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f) Openness to Experience
Yet another important cognitive characteristic of leaders is their openness
to experience, or their positive orientation toward learning.
People who have great deal of openness to experience have welldeveloped intellects.
Traits commonly associated with the dimension of the intellect include
being imaginative, cultured, curious, original, broad-minded, intelligent and
artistically sensitive.

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