Review: The Owner’s Manual for Personality at Work
The Owner’s Manual for Personality at Work
Have you ever wondered if you have the right personality to be an entrepreneur? Is there even an ideal personality for an entrepreneur? If you watch business-themed reality television, you might conclude that an over-sized ego is the only requirement, but research shows that certain personality traits increase the likelihood of success as an entrepreneur.
“Know thyself”
Ancient Greek aphorism
Last month I wrote about The Millionaire Code and how it applies the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) as a framework to determine your easiest path to wealth. While searching for other opinions on the topic, I kept coming across another model: the Big Five also known as the Five-Factor Model (FFM). I started to review Instinct: Tapping Your Entrepreneurial DNA to Achieve Your Business Goals, but after reading it, I wanted more background in the model itself to understand its usefulness. That is how I came to read The Owner’s Manual for Personality at Work.
Although the Big Five and the MBTI are similar, there is a key difference in how they were conceived. Whereas the MBTI started with a framework that Carl Jung theorized and Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers refined, the Big Five started from the ground up with a very long list of personality traits. Gordon Allport and Harold Odberg challenged the research community “to find the smallest possible number of synonym clusters in the approximately 4,500 personality-descriptive words from the unabridged English dictionary.” It took nearly 50 years and the availability of PC-based statistical software, but in 1985 Paul Costa and Robert McCrae completed what was to become the Big Five. They identified five factors that comprise each person’s personality. In turn each of the five factors breaks down into six primary traits thereby rendering 35 traits in all. The Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R or often just NEO) is one of the most widely used versions of the Big Five.
Caveat: Different treatments of the Big Five use slightly different naming conventions for the factors and primary traits. Personality at Work uses its own work-specific names for each factor and primary trait, but includes the NEO PI-R’s names too. CentACS‘ WorkPlace Big Five ProFile (WorkPlace or WB5P) is a specific flavor of the Big Five focusing on its applicability to business.
Part One: An Overview of the Big Five
The first seven chapters of the book explain the WorkPlace Big Five ProFile personality model. There are five factors in the model with descriptions that include anchor words. Each chapter includes a detailed description of the factor, its primary traits and several case studies.
The Big Five Personality Dimensions with Anchors
| Factor |
Low |
Midrange |
High |
|
| N |
|
Resilient | Responsive | Reactive |
| E |
|
Introvert | Ambivert | Extravert |
| O |
|
Preserver | Moderate | Explorer |
| A |
|
Challenger | Negotiator | Adapter |
| C |
|
Flexible | Balanced | Focused |
- N, E & O tend to decrease between age 20 and 30.
- A & C tend to increase during the same period.
- From 30 years old onward, all five factors tend to be very stable.
Primary traits are identified by the first letter of the factor (e.g. E: Extraversion), plus a number between one and six. (e.g. E3: Energy mode or Assertiveness) Note: there are a few NEO PI-R traits that do not have a corresponding WorkPlace trait due to the inapplicability to work.
Example: Primary Traits of Extraversion (E)
|
WorkPlace |
NEO PI-R |
|
| E1 | Enthusiasm How much we express positive feelings to others |
Warmth Our capacity for affection; friendliness; cordiality |
| E2 | Sociability The degree to which we enjoy being with others |
Gregariousness Our preference for being around other people |
| E3 | Energy mode Our need for keeping on the move |
Assertiveness Our tendency to express ourselves forcefully and without reluctance |
| E4 | Taking charge The extent to which we want to lead others |
Activity Level of energy; our tendency toward a fast-paced lifestyle |
| E5 | Trust of others How easily we believe other people |
Excitement seeking Our appetite for the thrills of bright colors and noisy settings |
| E6 | Tact The degree of care we take in speaking |
Positive emotions Our capacity for laughter, joy, love, optimism, and happiness |
Each factor and primary trait is measured on a scale of 0 to 100. Traits are normally distributed, so very high or very low scores are the least common.
Big Five Scale
| Score (0 - 100) | Description | Sign |
| 0 - 35 | Very Low | – |
| 35 - 45 | Low | - |
| 45 - 55 | Medium | = |
| 55 - 65 | High | + |
| 65 - 100 | Very High | ++ |
- Midrange scores can represent
- an average of some highs and some lows indicating split preferences within a factor that balance each other out, or
- a true ambivert who prefers moderation and may exhibit traits situationally.
- Low or high scores indicate the strongest tendencies.
For a more in-depth overview of the Big Five, please visits the authors’ website.
Part Two: Real-World Applications
This section of the book applies the Big Five model to common business scenarios.
Leadership
Table 8.1 alone makes the chapter on leadership worth reading. It correlates data on all five factors plus each of the 30 primary traits with ten commonly identified leadership abilities.
- The ideal profile for leadership is N-E+O+A-C+ based on research.
- Individual traits are not mandatory, but their presence increases the probability of success.
- A leader can compensate for an excess or deficiency of a trait by having a related trait.
Selling and Influencing
This chapter tackles building rapport using the Big Five. Table 9.1 provides a framework for estimating someone else’s personality type. Then the authors outline “The Trait-Based Influence Process” and “Natural Influence Strategies” to create a customized influence strategy.
Career Planning
Building on the work of John Holland’s six career paths and Edgar Schein’s Career Anchors, the authors correlate Big Five data to specific jobs. The case studies are particularly interesting, because they delve into individual profiles and how specific traits affect performance. Note: DiscoverMe, a website that matched openings to Big Five profiles, is now defunct.
Examples of Big Five Profiles for Selected Jobs
N E O A C Consultant = = + = = Entrepreneur + + - + Manager - + - - + Project Manager = + = - + Visionary - + + - +
The profile for an entrepreneur is particularly interesting in that it varies slightly from the one described by Thomas Harrison in Instinct. Preview: He focuses much more on the importance of a low N score for the entrepreneur.
One-on-One
Perhaps more than any other chapter, this one has important implications for anyone considering a new business with a partner. The premise is that opposites may attract, but similarities are the basis for a strong partnership. It also covers strategies for troubleshooting relationships using compensation for trait deficits and acceptance of differences.
Team Development
This chapter seemed the least insightful if you already see the value in personality types. For those who don’t, the author lays out practical ways to use the tool to help teams by clustering their Big Five scores and identifying patterns.
Selection
In the final chapter of the section, Personality at Work outlines a selection process using the Big Five model. Table 13.1 lists the predictive validity of several tests and procedures many of which have surprisingly little predictive value for a successful hire.
Part Three: Developing People
Part Three is partly background information and partly tactical. It discusses nature versus nurture in trait theory and then highlights the differences between traits and competencies.
- Every trait is the combination of an inherited and learned elements.
- Traits and competencies are different, but can be closely correlated.
In the final chapters of this section, the advice becomes much more practical. The authors cover “Human Resource Optimization” which includes deciding whether to develop a missing trait, compensate for it or determine the gap is too large to address. The authors advocate a strengths management approach that aligns people with their natural gifts and personality type. (See Marcus Buckingham’s work or the book: StrengthsFinder 2.0.)
Lastly, Chapter 17 provides detailed suggestions for adapting training for each factor. These suggestions would be most useful when training a large group with very clustered traits.
Part Four: Personal Applications
The final part of the books is least applicable to entrepreneurship directly, but is interesting from a personal development perspective. Chapter 18 provides a listing of attributes and habits correlated to the Big Five covering everything from homesickness to TV watching. Then the book wraps up with the advice to “accept who you are, but don’t bow to fate.”
Buy, Borrow or Bypass?
Buy it; you will want to take notes in the margins. After Part One, I already felt like I had gotten my money’s worth. If you are even slightly interested in personality types or personal development as they relate to your career, you will enjoy this book. Unlike most books on personality typing, this book in incredibly practical for anyone in business. The authors support their WorkPlace model with extensive data by citing studies and surveys from across the business world. At only 266 pages and filled with useful tables and charts, this book is a nearly perfect balance of an introduction to the Big Five and a desk reference. Rarely would I describe a book as having such an economy of words that there was little room for cutting it down. This book would be that rare exception.
Next Review: Instinct: Tapping Your Entrepreneurial DNA to Achieve Your Business Goals.