Great minds like a think

You might have noticed that some people seem to fly up the career ladder quickly, while others perpetually hover around the lower rungs. Studies have revealed that personality type is a key factor in career trajectory – in other words, your personality traits can help predict your career success. The lesson from this is that by coming to understand your personality you can modify your behaviour at work, play to your strengths, improve on any weaknesses, interact with co-workers more effectively and enhance your career success.

So what do we mean by personality’? Psychology Today defines personality as “a person’s distinctive patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. It derives from a mix of innate dispositions and inclinations along with environmental factors and experiences.” Generally, a person’s core personality traits do not change drastically in adulthood but then again, most people don’t examine or question this aspect of themselves, so their personality is hardly likely to change, is it?  Others, such as PeopleHawk users for example, have a vested interest in understanding their personality –– so that they can use these insights to benefit their career and their everyday lives.

Change? Yes you can

Here’s an interesting thought. Contrary to popular belief, your personality is not fixed and unchangeable. Research shows that you can make intentional adjustments to your personality. For example, if you want to become more organised, you can do so through goal setting and effort. In fact you can achieve some degree of change in even a two-week intervention, targeting a specific aspect of your personality. But in order to do this, you need an honest, impartial and quantifiable assessment of your personality type, so that you know the areas to address. And this is where your free PeopleHawk Personality Test is invaluable.

The Big 5 plus 1

The subject of Personality has been widely explored at a clinical level and most psychologists agree that it derives from five key factors, known as The Big Five personality traits.  These are Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Emotional stability. More recently, another factor, Emotional Intelligence (EQ), has become of great interest to recruiters as it is a strong factor in leadership. And unlike virtually every other test you may take, PeopleHawk’s science-based Personality Test will give you a quantifiable insight to your EQ.

Big 5

Openness: this reflects characteristics such as imagination and insight. Those with high scores tend to be adventurous and creative; low scorers tend to be disciplined and careful.

Conscientiousness: high levels indicate a systematic and conscientious nature. People with low scores tend to be more easy-going and calm.  It’s a useful measure of how reliable, goal-directed and organised you are.

Extraversion: those high in extraversion are outgoing and tend to feel energized and excited being around others. Those low in extraversion tend to be more private and reserved.

Agreeableness: are you helpful and collaborative or uncompromising and demanding? People who are high in agreeableness tend to be more cooperative while those low in this trait tend to be more competitive.

Emotional stability: this is a measure of the extent to which you are sensitive and emotionally invested or, alternatively, unflappable and stable. High scores indicate a tendency towards emotion, whereas low scores suggest an ability to deal well with stress.

 

Plus 1

Emotional intelligence: are you cool and analytical or perceptive and insightful? This trait is closely tied to how emotionally grounded you are and how you perceive yourself and recognise others’ emotions.

Use your Personality Guide

If you have not already taken your free PeopleHawk Personality test then why not complete it online now? It only takes about 10 minutes.  Make sure to download your Personality Guide, because it will give you real insights to your personality scores. And remember that there are no winners or losers. Understanding your personality type is an important investment in yourself, so take the time to understanding who you are.

You will start to understand what activities energise or drain you and help with improving your decision-making. It can make working with other people with a different type of personality much smoother. And understanding your strengths can help lead you to have a reputation for excelling at things that you enjoy doing at work – which is a positive step towards building a strong career.