The new leadership differs from traditional leadership primarily in that it emphasises vision and change and focuses on attribution, charisma, transformation and related concepts.

Attribution leadership theory overlaps these two approaches, though it can be placed more on the new leadership side of such a model.

Great human/trait and leadership behaviour, the first of the traditional leadership approaches, argues that leader traits or behaviours have a major impact on leadership outcomes. Traits are considered more innate and harder to change than are behaviours. They are often the basis of selection for people in leadership positions. Leader behaviours have been the basis of several studies including the Michigan studies, the Ohio State studies and Blake and Mouton’s Leadership Grid®. Reward and punishment theory is based on reinforcement concepts discussed in chapter 5. It identifies leader behaviour dimensions that are contingent or non-contingent upon performance. Desired leader behaviours are often used as the basis for leadership training.

Traits and behaviours are also often used in situational contingency approaches, summarised below, or even new leadership approaches. The leader situational contingency thrust argues that leadership, in combination with various situational variables, has a major impact on outcomes. Sometimes, as in the case of the substitutes for leadership perspective, the role of the situational variables replaces that of leadership to the point that leadership has little or no impact in itself. Fiedler’s contingency theory, House’s path-goal theory, and Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership theory, in addition to the substitutes for leadership approach, are perspectives that consider the impact not just of leadership but of various situational contingencies.

These theories tend to assume that leadership and its substantive effects can be easily identified and measured, but this is not always the case. Attribution theory overlaps traditional and new leadership by emphasising the importance of the symbolic aspects of leadership. These aspects are an especially important part of the new leadership, charismatic, transformational and related orientations, according to which followers tend to attribute heroic or extraordinary leadership abilities to a leader when they observe certain behaviours from that leader. These attributions can then help transform followers to achieve goals that go beyond their own self-interest and, in turn, help transform the organisation.