11 Personality Traits that Can Hurt Productivity
October 11, 2017
The passion and enthusiasm of excitable workers are great, but the “dark side” of outbursts and volatility can be highly disruptive.
Team members who are stoic and calm under pressure can be considered insensitive or uncommunicative in other situations.
Businesses want workplaces to be relaxed and easygoing places to a certain extent, but an overabundance of this personality trait leads to passive-aggressive resistance to cooperation.
Entertaining and expressive personalities can help social cohesion and communication in the workplace, but people with this personality trait can also be “socially obtuse.”
Assertive workers with strong convictions can be very valuable, but arrogance is difficult to work with and can lead to mistakes.
Usually hard work and high standards are considered hallmarks of diligence, but the overly-diligent can cause friction with co-workers through perfectionism and micro-managing.
While the careful and precise work of cautious people can benefit businesses, too much leads to indecision and risk-aversion.
Skeptics tend to be politically astute and not easily fooled, according to researchers. When this trait tips over into cynicism, it results in mistrustful and argumentative behavior.
Leaders and employees who are dutiful can be too subservient and averse to conflict and confrontation from an excess of loyalty and desire to please others.
While often praised for creativity or visionary thinking, imaginative workers can also be prone to foolish ideas, and push for change when stability is more beneficial.
Mischievous people can be risk-tolerant, charming, and persuasive, but an overabundance of mischievousness can lead to impulsive and manipulative workplace behaviour.
Mischievous people can be risk-tolerant, charming, and persuasive, but an overabundance of mischievousness can lead to impulsive and manipulative workplace behaviour.
Identifying personality traits and evaluating how they will fit into a specific business environment is a commonly recognized yet often overlooked challenge. Effective teamwork can benefit productivity and customer satisfaction, while reducing cost and errors through effective communication.
Technical skills are easier to identify since they are listed in job applications, however, and are often the main criteria considered by a hiring company. In light of the persistent cloud skills shortage, this is understandable, but the risk of ignoring personality is significant.
Psychologists identified 11 “dark-side” personality traits in the late 90s that “resemble the most common personality disorders” when taken to the extreme, according to research by Hogan Assessments. As reported in the Harvard Business Review, the research shows that most people give indications of at least three dark-side traits, and 40 percent demonstrate one or two traits strongly enough “to put them at risk for disruption in their careers—even if they’re currently successful and effective. The result is pervasive dysfunctional behavior at work.”
The research suggests that leaders are often not sufficiently aware of their own dark-side traits, and that changing them after 30 years of age is difficult. It also suggests that it is possible, through self-awareness, persistence, and setting appropriate goals.
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