Leadership personality traits can be influenced by your birth order – only child, firstborn, middle born, or last born. Leadership is the social influence of an individual to gain the support and help of others to accomplish a common goal. The way you influence your team is affected by the way you were raised according to your birth order. Although firstborn and only children are famous for being great leaders, the other birth orders also have unique leadership personality traits, and can successfully lead a team in their own unique way.
The well-known fact is that firstborn children make great leaders. First born birth order traits include being reliable, well-organized, hard driven, serious and a natural leader.
64% of the US Presidents have been firstborns, if not psychological firstborns.
Firstborn children have no elder sibling to look up to as role models, and so look up to the adults, mom and dad as role models. As a result they develop more grown-up characteristics, including leadership personality traits such as being organized, in control of things, and being reliable. They grow up seeing adults who tend to do everything perfectly. By the age of 5 a firstborn child would already have his personality well-formed.
There will also be a disadvantageous side, and in the case of hard driven high achieving firstborns, it is either their bodies that will break down, or their relationships with loved ones. It would make sense, as often traits that help you succeed outside of home – at work and other organizations, often do not help you the same way at home.
Naturally, the only child who is also known as a Super Firstborn would have no problem being a leader as well. In fact, most of the leadership personality traits of a firstborn would be emphasized more so in an Only Child. They are also assertive and know exactly what they want and naturally have high expectations of themselves as well as others around them, which drives them to strive for the best.
Only Children these days also exhibit high confidence, high self-esteem and are initiative, which also makes them ideal for leading.
It is not the end of the world if you are a middle born or last born wanting to climb to the top of the social ladder. In fact if you are one you would not really be thinking about going to the top anyway.
Middle borns may not necessarily have the assertiveness, nor perfectionist trait in them, but middle borns have grown up adopting both their eldest and youngest sibling’s best traits (the ones that obtain approval from the parents). They develop a good blend of the good “attractive” traits, which may serve advantageous to them later in life. In fact middle borns may also strive to outdo their eldest sibling, although they may not necessarily succeed in doing so. They may develop a milder version of the firstborn leadership personality traits, and can STILL succeed as a leader. Another strength of the middle born is his ability to mediate through conflicts. A leader not only has to well, lead a team of people, but also has to resolve disputes with others, and among his followers. A middle born child will have the ability to do this well.
The mediating middle born dislikes conflicts, which is why he always strives to make peace. If the middle born is not dealing with a dispute head on, he is most likely avoiding it, which does not serve well for a leader. Leaders tend to go head on with conflicts and try to resolve them in order to advance, whether or not they manage it well enough. But for a middle born to avoid an argument, and gradually pent-up feelings of discontent, there will come a day when the bottled up feelings erupt into an ugly situation.
Last born leadership personality traits are almost nothing like the firstborn leadership personality traits. They are a spontaneous group of people who do not appreciate rules and laws as well as the firstborn. They enjoy making changes and are more likely to take risks.
Over the years, experts have identified that risk-taking is one of the core leadership personality traits, and who more well-equipped with that than the last born! He grew up with relaxed rules, and often got away with trouble, which have possibly enhanced his risk-taking behavior. “Maybe I get away with trouble again this time!” He thinks to himself.
With great risk comes great responsibility, and when things do not necessarily turn out as expected, the last born needs to learn to take responsibility for his decision and face the consequences. This is something that needs to be improved on, as a last born is more likely to run away from it, thinking that he can perhaps get away with it. When he DOES face up to the music, he may not seek the approval from his superiors with his lax spontaneous attitude to the situation, which can often by mistaken by them (most likely firstborns) as not being serious. This is definitely one leadership personality trait that needs to be worked on!
It can be seen that there is no one birth order who makes a perfect leader. One has to recognize his strengths and weaknesses which he can try identifying from his birth order. A good leader is one who has the power to influence, but in doing also recognizes and admits his weaknesses as well. Only then can he gain the respect of his followers.
The various birth orders have their own leadership personality traits and by identifying them and using them to his advantage, one can achieve so much more!
