Understanding one’s personality matters for many reasons. A person’s distinct pattern of thinking, emotions and behaviour determines how well they fit in their role and the organisation’s goals at large.
The potential of one’s earnings and career trajectory altogether can be determined by their personality, according to Vestine Uwamahoro, a procurement officer.
She says for the time she has been in the workplace, she has seen people earn promotions or demotions depending on how they carry themselves at work.
"Of course one’s performance is a large determinant of their success at work, but relations too have a critical role to play. Both of these aspects are widely determined by a person’s character,” she says.
She goes on to observe that personality traits such as optimism, discipline, self-confidence are what affect one’s career path.
"The ability or inability to be flexible with changing work environments, or bending to different social settings can affect your career advancement,” she notes.
Salomon Mutabazi, a programs’ director, believes there is no wrong or right character for success at the workplace. It’s all about awareness and working towards what you need as an individual to perform to the best of your abilities.
He agrees, however, that how one behaves, their beliefs and norms are great determinants for a person’s success at work.
"For instance an employee who lacks organisation and planning skills is bound to miss out on deadlines, and this obviously affects their work. On the other hand, a person who lacks respect and discipline has little chance for growth regardless of how good their performance can be,” he adds.
The ‘Big Five’ model
A study on ‘Affect of Personality on Work Performance’ indicates that every rational employer is constantly looking for highly effective and productive individuals. At this point, personality can have implications not only on an individual performance level but also on a team level. Individuals and collective dimensions are relevant because currently employees tend to combine both types, individual work and team work in the organisation.
Personality affects all aspects of a person’s performance, even how they react to situations on the job. Not every personality is suited for every job position, so it’s important to recognise personality traits and pair employees with the duties that fit their personalities the best. This can lead to increased productivity and job satisfaction, helping your organisation to function more efficiently, the study shows.
It goes on to indicate that personality can be seen as the motor which drives behaviour. It’s consistent over time and across situations, and has been proven to predict one’s success at work over the course of 50 or more years.
The most widely accepted model of personality – the ‘Big Five’ model – uses five distinct scales to describe personality: conscientiousness (the extent to which one is dependable and persistent), emotional stability (one’s calmness and self-control), extraversion (a measure of sociability, ambition and narcissism), agreeableness (the extent to which one is cooperative and altruistic), and openness to experience (a measure of creativity and novelty-seeking).
It takes a diverse number of personalities for a company to succeed. When it comes to being attentive to details for example, some people are wired to think of the big picture, to see not only where the company is now but where it could or should be in the future.
They make creative, broad plans designed to keep the company moving forward, and they think of new initiatives to solve existing problems. However, they aren’t usually good at executing the broad plans. That’s where the detail-oriented people come in; these people sometimes have trouble seeing a direction for the company that’s different from the existing direction, but if you give them a project, they execute the project to its smallest detail. They are often highly organised and keep excellent records, so projects can be recreated later if necessary.