How personality impacts career trajectory and success

PERSONALITY is one of the most underrated predictors of career success.

- TOMAS CHAMORRO-PREMUZIC

High extraversion can be an advantageous personality trait in many leadership and sales roles.

(I Freepik)

Defined by scientists as the range of habits and typical behaviours that make us who we are - and different from others there is more than a century of robust academic evidence on how it impacts work and other real-life outcomes.The simplest and most reliable way to understand someone's personality is to look at their position along five universal traits, namely:

emotional stability how calm, composed and non-anxious you are,

extraversion how sociable, assertive and energetic you are,

agreeableness how kind, polite and friendly you are,

openness to experience how curious, intellectual and open-minded you are, and

conscientiousness how driven, organised and self-controlled you are.

In fact, every other character trait you may read about such as EQ, grit, empathy, resilience and overconfidence are nothing but a combination of these “big five” traits (if not some of them merely relabelled).

While it is hard to change your personality, it is entirely possible to change your behaviour: personality describes tendencies, not fixed scripts. It reflects what comes naturally and not what is possible.