Yesterday I wrote about the importance of knowing how to read personality and attitudes in our constituents (e.g. employees, peers) at work. For personality, I suggested that the key was to understand first your own personality and then the personalities of your constituents, so that you could adjust your own style and behavior, the thing you have the most control over at work. If you are sure what you are “reading” from someone is personality, don’t even think about trying to change either theirs or yours – we are who we are.
One set of personalities we could read for would be “the big five”, which I have briefly described here. I know some people find thinking in terms of the big five very useful, but I personally do not.
I like to evaluate myself and the folks I interact with along the dimensions of something called Core Self-Evaluations (CSE). CSE describes how individuals broadly evaluate themselves and their relationship to their environment in a variety of situations (Judge, Locke, & Durham, 1977). CSE incorporates and consolidates the four very familiar concepts of self-esteem, self-efficacy, locus of control, and emotional stability.
- Self-esteem is an individual’s overall self-acceptance, self-liking, and self-respect
- Self-efficacy is one’s belief in his or her capability to successfully execute and perform tasks
- Emotional stability, describes those who are not prone to worry or experience feelings of fear, stress or helplessness
- Locus of Control (LOC) is the belief one holds about who or what controls events – oneself (internal) or factors outside the control of oneself (external)
In a variety of samples, people who had positive CSE were more satisfied with work, performed better, and dealt with adverse conditions better than individuals lacking positive CSE (Erez & Judge, 2001).
For me personally, the most important personality trait I am interested in when I start new relationships with folks is locus of control. In a recent New York Times interview with Wendy Koop, founder and CEO of Teach for America, Wendy hit on locus of control:
We’ve done a lot of research on the characteristics of our teachers who are the most successful. The most predictive trait is still past demonstrated achievement, and all selection research basically points to that. But then there is a set of personal characteristics. And the No. 1 most predictive trait is perseverance, or what we would call internal locus of control. People who in the context of a challenge — you can’t see it unless you’re in the context of a challenge — have the instinct to figure out what they can control, and to own it, rather than to blame everyone else in the system.
I think her point about the context of challenge is very important. When things get tough or something goes wrong, are the people around us going to accept responsibility, or are they going to look for something or someone (us!) to blame.
I must confess that I do prefer to work with people that have a strong internal locus of control. But as leaders, the key is to remember that someone with an internal LOC is different than someone with an external LOC. Knowing that, we can then adjust our leadership style – the thing we are responsible for – and work appropriately with different people.
It’s also important to remember that personality is never an excuse for unproductive behavior. Whatever locus of control our folks have, it’s our job to help them learn more appropriate behaviors at work.
The key is help folks learn what to take responsibility for, and how they should go about doing it.
Stay tuned!
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As a former spokesperson for a large healthcare system in SoCal, I can totally relate to the locus of control on a professional level in that I had to know the context of the media situation from both sides—often with little time or preparation. I had to ascertain this very quickly and react appropriately so that all were served in a judicious and fair manner. Reporters needed the story/facts and I needed to make sure the right message went out from my organization. I trained my folks to think critically and to have the discipline to get the answers asap.
Before I went independent, I used to hire lots of folks in marketing and PR…what I always looked for was not so much the paper credentials—I know how many idiots truly have advanced degrees—but how they responded to a challenge, how they thought out different situations and what the outcomes were. I interviewed with that in mind and for 90% of the hires I was right.
This is a very thoughtful post with a message that is very much needed. Thanks, Bret!
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Alain:thanks once again for insightful feedback. As always, your opinion and voice are appreciated. Thanks! Bret
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[...] wrote an article recently that included a link to an interview with Wendy Koop, CEO of Teach for America. When [...]
[...] I’ve written previously about the value of understanding personalities and attitudes at work. The two most important attitudes we need to be developing in our employees are satisfaction and commitment, and the personality trait I find the most useful to look for is locus of control. [...]
[...] Making progress on meaningful goals can buttress our core self-evaluation [...]
Dear Bret,
I totally agree with you, but there are some things I would like to know. How do I know which type of locus of control do I have (it is easy to look to others and judge, but it is much more difficult to understand who we are).
And, do we only have one type of locus of control? Or, our locus of control changes, according to different situations and challenges?
Thanks,
Daniela (from Portugal)
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
May 31st, 2011 at 4:29 pm
Welcome, Daniela. Great questions! You can probably Google Locus of Control tests and find some free ones online. But just listen to yourself – do you hardly ever blame others, or does it happen frequently? I think LOC is relatively stable, which does not mean it can’t change. Never seen anything to suggest that it is situational. Thanks! Bret
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