In OPTO+ Leadership, Managerial Aspects refer to four personality traits where leaders consistently score higher than employees. These traits are Assertiveness, Drive, Confidence, and Ingenuity.
These 4 Aspects have been identified as especially characteristic of managerial roles based on data from over 17,000 respondents, including both managers (31%) and employees (69%) across 132 nationalities. The data was collected between 2020 and 2022.
While managers generally tend to score higher than employees across most of the 20 personality Aspects measured by OPTO, only nine show a meaningful difference - defined as a Cohen’s d effect size greater than 0.30. The four Managerial Aspects stand out with the largest effect sizes: Assertiveness: d = 0.72; Drive: d = 0.43; Ingenuity: d = 0.35; Confidence: d = 0.31.
These findings support the idea that effective leadership often draws on these key personality strengths. In OPTO+, they are referred to as Managerial Aspects to highlight their importance in leadership development and selection.
