Present study reports the impact of personality traits and emotional intelligence on leadership effectiveness. The study was conducted on 140 IT professionals working in firms located in northern India. It was hypothesized that neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness personality traits and emotional intelligence would significantly predict leadership effectiveness among IT professionals. NEO Five
Factor Inventory, Schutte’s emotional Intelligence scale and GE Leadership Effectiveness Survey were used to assess personality traits and leadership effectiveness among IT professionals. The findings revealed that openness to experience emerged as best predictor of leadership effectiveness followed by conscientiousness, emotional intelligence, agreeableness, and extraversion. The findings suggest that personality traits and emotional intelligence
are significant predictors of leadership effectiveness. However, different traits play differential role in predicting the leadership effectiveness.