The Personality Performance Connection and What It Means to Productivity

Considering how many companies rely on personality assessment in the hiring process, it might be sensible to stop and think twice about the mechanics behind them and how your employee’s personality really affects your company. For starters, many popular personality tests are based on psychological theories that are almost hundred years old. And while this fact alone does not mean they will not bring any useful information, it might mean they will not bring you the information you were actually looking for.

In the recent years, there have been many researches on the link between personality and work performance. The findings vary slightly, but all agree that personality accounts for less than 10% of work performance. So what dwells outside those 10%?

Personality + EI = Performance

According to Prof. Robin Stuart-Kotze, if you want to predict job performance, personality is the wrong place to start. He says, ‘personality is what you are; behaviour is what you do, and it’s what you do that makes the difference’.

In other words, being an extravert does not necessarily make a person effective at doing extraverted things such as pitching a sale. Also, having an introverted trait does not make someone ineffective in the same situation. How effectively an individual handles certain problems has more to do with their attitudes and emotional state than their personality.

But do not condemn personality just yet. It is crucial for an individual to know themselves in order to consciously manage the traits that are potentially negative. Yes, as far as personal development goes, personality is relatively fixed, but behaviour is changeable. Emotional intelligence focuses not on person’s temperament, but on their habits and attitudes – both of which are variable and can be managed. EI is about being self-aware in the given moment and making conscious choices about how to behave.

If your hiring criterion is for a person to have a strong personality, you might find yourself in a room full of 'bold' characters, creating a Wolf of Wall street type of culture – impossible to manage or challenge in a positive way.Therefore, you should not forget to have a look at how your candidates deal with their personalities.

So, if Personality Tests Do Not Quite Do the Job, What Does?

There are tests that will give you the idea about how an individual chooses their behaviour. Brain mapping, for example, measures behavioural preferences. It is based on hard science of neurobiology and it seems to be well validated by HR professionals. If your company uses one of the standard personality tests and is not keen on switching it for anything else, there is still something you can do to give your candidate assessment a boost. Look at their achievements, not their CV, and measure their behavioural preferences, not their ‘personality’.
Tom Peters, who wrote In Search of Excellence, said that employers should ‘recruit for attitude and train for skills’. This makes sense. People with a ‘can do’ attitude will thrive in any environment you throw them into and will become an invaluable asset. The trick is to recognise such attitude. After all, by understanding people, we can in essence predict performance and influence bottom line.

Veronika Bacova