What is leadership? As quoted by Alan Keith (2001), “Leadership is about creating a way for people to contribute for something extraordinary to happen.” Leadership is a process by which a member of a group or organization influences other associates to help the group or organization accomplish its goals. Leaders are individuals who exert influence to help achieve group goals.

There are two types of leaders, which are formal leaders and informal leaders. Formal leaders are managers who are given the authority to influence other associates in the organization to accomplish its goals. However, informal leaders are members of an organization with no formal authority but can exert just as much substantial influence in an organization because of their special skills or talents that will build the organization’s realization in helping them accomplish the goals.

From the research that I have made, I find that Arnold Schwarzenegger was an informal leader at first as he had no formal authority to influence others but he only had his special skills and talents as an actor and a bodybuilder. From an informal leader, he then managed to run for the governor of California and received authority to lead California, which makes him a formal leader. Arnold Schwarzenegger experienced what is it to be the greatest bodybuilder of all time. His reputation in the bodybuilding world and blockbuster films makes him an informal leader. In addition, the President of the United States also acknowledged him for his expertise in physical fitness and his one of a kind ability to create ideas and share it with citizens of America.

Furthermore, the leader trait approach sought to classify durable personal traits that differentiate leaders from non-leaders. There are eight relevant traits which are intelligence, task-relevant knowledge, dominance, self-confidence, energy/activity levels, tolerance for stress, integrity and honesty and lastly, emotional maturity.
In my opinion, I believe that Arnold Schwarzenegger traits are high energy/activity levels, self-confidence and integrity and honesty. Firstly, dominance is an individual’s need to have control over others and influence them. It will also help leaders to insert follower’s efforts to achieve organizational goals. Self-confidence can help leaders to influence followers and endure any obstructions or complications. High energy/activity level will manage to assist leaders to deal with many demands they face on an everyday basis. Based on the ‘Pumping Iron’ documentary, some of the traits that have been shown in the documentary is dominance, self-confidence and high energy levels. Dominance can really be noticed because in terms of size and height, Arnold was one of the most dominant males among his competitors. Therefore, Arnold always maintains his dominance and high level of self-confidence when interacting with his competitors in the documentary. The way he talks to the camera and with his friends, there will always be cocky-side of Arnold. Sometimes, his confidence level will go through the roof but behind the scenes he is just a humble loving guy. His high energy level displayed is also very inspiring. He will always put in full effort in most of his works.