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The Big 5 and Employee Performance: The Value of Self Awareness
Receiving negative feedback in never easy, unless of course you have attained the epitome of consciousness. I am not there yet and for many of us, it’s certainly a goal worth aiming for.
In one of my recent interventions, a leader faced some negative feedback on a 360-degree assessment. To this manager, it felt like the “end of the world” and let’s just say that he reacted badly. Unfortunately, this reaction wasn’t new to me as I have seen this a few times before and I know that I will see it again. The issue here lies in the perception of such feedback as being entirely negative. However, it’s important to understand that this is not “failure”, it’s simply “feedback” and it has the power to guide us toward the path we need to tread.
This is all about self-awareness which brings me to a valuable tool that I have used for years: The Big 5 Model. This tool has had a positive influence on both individuals and teams.
The Big 5 Model of Personality
In the realm of contemporary personality psychology, there exists a belief in the existence of five fundamental dimensions of personality, appropriately dubbed the “Big 5” personality traits. These are: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. Many suggest using the acronym OCEAN to remember the Big 5 personality traits.
Delving into the essence of each personality trait and comprehending the implications of scoring high or low on the spectrum can provide illuminating insights into one’s own personality. Furthermore, it fosters a deeper understanding of others, rooted in their placement along the continuum for each of the personality traits.
History of The Big 5
The Big 5 construct of personality identifies individual differences. It is revered as the world’s most researched and utilized personality construct to date. This esteemed tool did not stumble upon its robustness and universal acclaim by chance; it was by design.
The 5 traits were a theory developed by D.W. Fiske in 1949. Its resilience is a testament to the myriad of research methodologies and sophisticated quantitative analyses meticulously employed by researchers ever the last few decades. Moreover, the abundance of cross-cultural research endeavors surrounding the Big Five Model further supports its reputation for its use around the world.
An Explanation of Big 5 Personality Traits
Each of the five primary personality traits encompasses a spectrum between two extremes. For instance, extraversion spans from extreme extraversion to extreme introversion. In reality, most individuals fall somewhere in the middle.
For those interested in doing the Big 5 test, there is a FREE version here:
https://www.truity.com/test/big-five-personality-test
These five traits are typically described as follows:
Openness
This personality trait, known as openness, embodies qualities such as imagination and insight. Individuals who possess high levels of openness are creative and exhibit a diverse array of interests. They harbor curiosity about the world and people, eagerly seeking out new knowledge and relishing novel experiences and new challenges.
Furthermore, those with high openness tend to embrace adventure and creativity. In contrast, individuals low in this trait often dislike change, adhere to tradition and may find abstract thinking challenging.
Conscientiousness
This personality trait, known as conscientiousness, is characterized by several key attributes. Individuals high in conscientiousness typically exhibit a high level of thoughtfulness, exercise good impulse control, and engage in goal-directed behaviors. They are organized and meticulous, paying close attention to details. These individuals plan ahead, consider the impact of their actions on others, and are vigilant about meeting deadlines.
In contrast, those scoring lower in conscientiousness tend to be less structured and organized. They may procrastinate when completing tasks, occasionally missing deadlines altogether.
Extraversion
Extraversion embodies a personality trait marked by enthusiasm, sociability, chattiness, assertiveness, and considerable emotional expressiveness. Individuals with high extraversion thrive in social environments, finding energy and excitement in interactions with others.
Conversely, those low in extraversion, or introverted, typically exhibit more reserved tendencies and like being by themselves. Social situations may have them feeling insecure or deplete their energy, leaving them feeling drained.
Agreeableness
This personality trait encompasses qualities like trust, altruism, kindness, affection, and other prosocial behaviours. Individuals high in agreeableness have a great deal of interest in other people and typically exhibit cooperative tendencies, while those low in this trait takes little interest in others, often lean towards competitiveness and occasionally even manipulative behaviours.
Neuroticism
Neuroticism embodies a personality trait characterized by sadness, moodiness, and emotional instability. Individuals who possess a high degree of neuroticism get upset easily and often undergo mood swings, anxiety, irritability, and sadness. In contrast, those with lower levels of this personality trait tend not to worry much and exhibit greater stability and emotional resilience.
NOTE: Research suggests that both biological and environmental influences contribute to shaping our personalities. Twin studies imply that nature and nurture both have a hand in sculpting the development of each of the five personality traits.
Linking The Big 5 to performance
So what does this mean for employee performance? Since this tool gives us a clear idea of personality, we can now use it to see how each individual aligns with what the company want in terms of core behaviours (what you want to observe from your people).
The challenge then becomes defining what developmental actions we need to take to align more closely with the core behaviours and how honest or vulnerable each individual is when assessing themselves.
Insights from this tool lay the groundwork for change and sheds light on existing challenges, paving the way for personal development and solutions in a variety of areas:
1. Understand employee relationships: In addition to self awareness, we will now have a increased knowledge of others on the team so that we can improve overall communication. i.e. social-awareness
2. More effective team building: Improving the individual habits needed for building effective teams.
3. Identification of employee developmental gaps: To create alignment with organizational expectations.
For example:
A leader who scores high on Agreeableness may struggle to give negative feedback to their direct reports and this may be in direct conflict with the type of leadership behaviours required within the company.
An individual who score low of Conscientiousness may be constantly procrastinating for whatever reason and this may be in conflict with a behaviour such as initiative which is a defined behaviour required by the company.
4. Clarity on the way forward: Individuals now need support so that we get the right behaviours since behaviours drive culture. Therefore some questions that we need to ask may be:
- What feedback do we need to give each individual?
- How can we coach them?
- How can we use this to get more synergy with the team?
- Do they feel supported?
These questions also help to ensure that we can create the right environment for the employee.
Mastering performance management has long been a challenging puzzle for many but the Big 5 Model of Personality has remained a formidable guide, and a key solution for empowering individuals to not only understand themselves but also to define, with the assistance of their leader, the appropriate actions required to progress, fulfill their commitments, work within their teams and stay aligned with organizational objectives.
Tony Ragoonanan is the Founder of V-Formation Training & Development. As a Trainer and Performance Management Specialist, he helps individuals and organizations to align emotion, skill, and behaviour with outcomes. Outside of this, it’s all about family, football, and fitness!!
868-681-3492 | tonyr0909@gmail.com
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