The Relationships Between Leadership Styles and Personality Types of Texas Elementary Administrators

The purposes of this study were to explore the leadership styles and personality types of Texas elementary administrators. The Leader Effectiveness and Adaptability Description-Self (LEAD-Self) assessed the leadership style and adaptability of the administrators. The four identified styles were Telling/Directing, Selling/Coaching, Participating/Supporting, and Delegating. The MBTI measured 16 combinations of 4 personality types which included Extrovert or Introvert, Sensing or Intuition, Thinking or Feeling, and Judging or Perceiving. \ud The sample was 200 Texas elementary administrators: 100 with early childhood certification and 100 without early childhood certification. A chi-square test of independence was utilized. \ud Findings included: (a) A majority of Texas elementary administrators in both groups had a Selling/Coaching or Participating/Supporting leadership style; (b) Leadership adaptability scores of both groups were equivalent; (c) Most Texas elementary administrators had Introvert/Sensing/Thinking/Judging and Extrovert/Sensing/Thinking/Judging personality types; (d) Administrators with early childhood certification had a higher percentage of Intuitive personality types, while administrators without early childhood certification had a predominance of Sensing types; (e) A large percentage of administrators which had Participating/Supporting leadership styles had Feeling personality types; (f) No significant relationship between leadership styles and personality types was found in either group; and (g) No significant relationship between leadership adaptability and personality types was found in either group. Recommendations included: (a) further study to investigate the role of gender in leadership style and personality type; (b) further study to determine if elementary administrators have higher adaptability scores than secondary administrators; (c) further study to determine if elementary administrators have different leadership styles than secondary administrators; (d) further study to determine if elementary administrators have different personality types than secondary administrators; (e) further study to determine if leadership adaptability scores accurately portray an administrator's effectiveness; and (f) provide opportunities for future and practicing administrators to assess their leadership style, leadership adaptability, and personality type