At the workplace there is the constant striving by individuals and teams for greater efficiency, teamwork and productivity. From a succession perspective, it is also important for organisations to have a talent pool with the potential to take on greater responsibility and move into leadership.
In this article we would like to share how information about personality traits can contribute to performance at the workplace and why it may be advantageous to consider the collection of information on personality traits .
Our premise is that individuals who either have the relevant personality traits and who are adaptable in their behaviour will tend to adjust and perform better in any role. With this premise, it should therefore be an advantage for leaders in organisations to find talented individuals who have the “best match” in personality to fill roles and also who will have potential to grow to be future leaders.
Key Areas of Application
There are many strategic programs and processes that are in place in organisations to ensure that people talents are sourced, appropriately allocated to suitable roles, and developed so as to ensure overall performance and the sustenance of business competitiveness.
Such programs would involve the identification of talents or “matching” talents to work. Typical examples of such programs are:
Change Management
Organisation Restructuring
Succession Planning
Talent Pooling
Job Rotation (assimilation)
Team Development (forming, bonding)
Culture Implementation
Talent Acquisition
Career Planning and Development
So the next question will be what information about personality traits do we need to know? We suggest the following steps:
Define the key personality trait requirements of the task/role/vocation being considered
Identify the personality traits of individuals and candidates
Find the best match, where individuals have personality traits that matches the task/role/vocation
What Personality Traits are we looking for?
Listed below, are some general groups of traits that may be relevant to work related performance:
Aptitude and cognitive ability
Solving problems, especially those not encountered before
Using trends and indicators to formulate strategic plans
Pace of learning new concepts/information
Management and analysis of situations and data
Work behaviour and approach to work
Influencing ability and people interactions
Need to take action and make decisions
Patience and focus on detail
Communication style and impact
Ability to set standards, processes and policies
Reaction to work situations and decision making
How one adjusts to different work situations and challenges
Adaptability to work environment, people and situation
Level of Self-confidence, Optimism, Empathy
Ability to assert ones view and social awareness in formal settings
Leveraging on talent potential and nurturing them
Dealing with ambiguity and complex situations
Willingness to learn and try new things and ideas
Conscientiousness - planning, organisation, following up
Courage to speak up and having the curiosity to adopt new ideas
What tools will provide the necessary data?
At Thomas International we have profiling assessments that are designed by psychologists to effectively identify the intensity or level of various traits and provide graphical representations of one’s profile for each of the categories.
It is important to note that the more important thing is what do we do with the data that the reports provides. It’s about how can the data be organised and grouped in ways that will reveal trends and indicate patterns of demography that will aid in the decision making. Such information will be very useful for the planning and development of strategies that we have defined earlier.
In the forth coming articles, we will be sharing more detail of what information the different profiling assessments from Thomas International can provide and how these information can be applied.
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