Hutch Morzaria — October 15, 2019 When talking about human resources management, it is highly likely to talk about personality. Whenever we talk about cultural fit, job fit, conflict resolution, and team productivity in an organization, personality is often a key talking point. Personality is therefore very important in an organization.
It makes sense that certain personalities make people more suitable for the company, certain jobs, and certain teams. So, what is so informative about personality? There are certain things you should look at when evaluating someone’s personality.
Learning Mode
The first thing to consider about the personality of your employees is how they learn.
- Do your employees assimilate information quickly or they are good with concrete data?
- Are your employees more methodical or analytical?
It is crucial for employers to know the learning mode of their employees because this helps them to know if the employees have what it takes to be the most effective people in certain positions. It will also tell managers the best approach to training, onboarding and development plans.
The Strength of Character
The strength of character is not the ability of a person to walk all over others. It is the tendency of a person to stick to things that they know. Are the people traditional in things that they do or are they adaptable? Do the employees do well in ambiguous situations or they prefer familiar situations with directives that are clearly defined.
There are numerous positions that require people to be adaptable, ones who love trying things out and thrives in environments that are not familiar to them. However, you would not want such people to be your accountants.
Behavior
Behavior involves people as being either organized or spontaneous. This dimension of personality is one of the easiest to understand. Employees are either more organized or spontaneous.
Organized employees plan things ahead of time and have well-structured action plans. Spontaneous employees don’t mind interruptions or are comfortable at improvising or not as detail-oriented as the organized employees.
There are, however, those who land in between the two as with other dimensions. Individuals typically have a tendency to be either organized or spontaneous regardless of the strength of the traits. It would be important for people to know when they want to plan for important meetings.
Competitiveness
Sometimes, we meet people who seem to be unmotivated and lazy at first but become a fiery ball of accomplishments when they are pitted against other people. On the other hand, there are people who seem to be motivated but end up failing when you ask them to compete against others.
We are all different, and managers should understand this. Some people are less competitive than others while others get their satisfaction when they are serving others and find themselves in work environments that are harmonious.
Motivation
It would be awesome to know what motivates your staff. It would be great if you know that your best workers want more stability and security and not the big corner workspace.
There are some people who move across the world for a prettier paycheck or a better title. There are also those employees who have everything they need in their benefits plan. There are different things that motivate different employees. It is, therefore, crucial to know where your staff lies and what motivates them.
Assurance
Assertive people are very assured of themselves, and they like to lead, to argue and are opinionated. They can also be very persuasive. On the other hand, conciliate individuals tend to appear more composed, avoid confrontations and find it hard to express their opinion.
We also have those who are in between, but the main point is to recognize the importance of distinguishing between the two. This is more important if your business requires too much teamwork. It is crucial to ensure that the team is complementary and compatible.
Level of Trust
When we talk about the level of trust we are not referring to the level of trust one has in other people when they are given information. We need to know whether they question everything or when they accept the things that are at face value. Managers or business owners should consider having a great employee who would be a great manager.
However, after a few months in the new role, you will notice that the projects of the employee are not going smoothly as you expected. Investigations also show that new managers are a little too trusting for their role and are not doing the control required to be a manager or following up. Employees and situations are different, and life would be easier and better if you know the things you are dealing with.
Sociability
I am sure you have heard a lot about employee sociability. If you have ever done a test about personality, then there are high chances that you have looked at your results on this scale and thought of the things you are and the things you are not as far as sociability is concerned.
It is crucial to understand that different things get measured when evaluating sociability. A lot of people don’t see the benefit of the scale as far as business is concerned. It is crucial to know which of your employees are willing to initiate contact with strangers.
You need to know employees that are best listeners and those that prefer being alone. This will help you know the employees to put at the front desk, and the employees to assign marketing tasks that involve talking to strangers.
Nervous tension
It is essential to know how your employees will react when they are under pressure or when they are under strict supervision. Are they cool, calm and collected? Are they affected by the pressure or are they anxious? This information should be used by managers to know the employees who can work under pressure, supervised and unsupervised. It is the best way to know who can lead and who cannot lead.
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