Rajni Bector Leadership Traits

The focus of the present study was to explore the leadership traits of an Indian woman leader. The leader chosen for the study was Rajni Bector. Using Table 1 of leadership traits, secondary data was qualitatively analyzed to identify most of the traits in the list and some which were unique to this leader. As is evident from Table 2, the present leader, Rajni Bector’s dominant traits include drive, creativity, and, self confidence. The frequency of these prevailing traits is 4 (See Table 2). Besides these, other traits too were identified for her such as emotional stability, interpersonal skills, strategic nature, high energy level, sincerity, perfectionism, social work advocate, and more. The result reflects that the present leader does identify

For the trait ‘drive’, its supremacy is clearly reflected from the sources identified. For example, Source 1 mentioned in reference to her social work, that she was quite enthusiastic and energetic to do things (“So much was the energy and enthusiasm Rajni brought in. To whatever she did.”). Her never give up attitude too was reflected again through this source (“It seemed impossible but somehow I did it.”). Also, the fact that she went out and actively enrolled herself in a baking course in PAU speaks volumes about her drive (“I was very fond of cooking. So I enrolled for a course in baking at the Punjab Agricultural University.”). Moreover, it’s important to note here that she did not just keep her hobby restricted to her family and friends, but instead she served to a wider audience right from the start (“Using a hand-churner she started making different kinds of ice cream and putting up stalls at local fetes and funfairs.”). Drive is a trait reflected along the theoretical construct of trait leadership and has been identified by multiple theorists as an important trait for a leader. Kirkpatrick & Locke (1991) found evidence that effective leaders are indeed different from other people in certain key respects. They mentioned various key leader traits including drive which they defined as “a broad term which includes

Yukl (2001) felt that there are quite a few personality traits are considered especially relevant to successful leadership with self confidence being one of the most pertinent ones. Instances of her self confidence were highlighted in the various sources. For example, Source 1 focuses on the belief she had over her own abilities (“I never believed anyone else can do the job as well as me”). Source 2, 3 and 5 describe her confidence in terms of overcoming the “working female” stigma (“As I came from a well-off family, money was not the factor for which I was working. However, it could have been a reason strong enough to stop me from working, as women from affluent families did not work then. People talked a lot about it, but then all that didn’t bother me”; “This entrepreneur from Ludhiana established a huge empire when women from 'good' houses did not work.”; “Ludhiana sheher mein lady ko, ek aurat ka kaam karna bohot bura maante the, bohot hi zyada bura, shameful jisko kehte hain(….)pehli aurat hun jisne meine kaam karna shuru kiya”). A powerpoint presentation constructed by Panday (2012) listed various traits of Indian leaders (Mahatma Gandhi, E.Sridharan, etc) and self confidence was found to be an important trait in these