What
are the personality traits of a top performer? How can hiring managers
and recruiters identify the makings of a successful employee? What does a
true dream team look like? Don Fornes can tell you.
In the following Q&A, the founder and CEO of Software Advice discusses
the research his company recently conducted that identifies the
personality traits of successful employees, the four types of top
performers, the roles they excel in and how to hire more people like
them.
Q: What was the inspiration for your research around the “Psychological Profiles of the Dream Team”?
Fornes: In the eight years we’ve been in business, I’ve
picked up on some of the characteristics that make our top performers
successful. I wanted to develop a more sophisticated understanding of
our employees and applicants, so that we could hire the right people,
put them in the right roles and manage them more effectively.
Q: How did you conduct this research and/or come up with these profiles?
Fornes: Through my day-to-day interactions with some of
our top performers, I started to get an idea of their personality
types, but I wasn’t sure if my ideas were quite right. So I commissioned
a local psychologist, Dr. James Maynard, to help us. He met with each
of these top performers and talked with them about their backgrounds,
what makes them tick and how they prefer to be managed. It was an
informative exercise, and the team seemed to really enjoy it. I think
they liked getting the opportunity to explore their own minds. From
there, Dr. Maynard shared his findings with me, and, with the help of
our managing editor, Holly Regan, we researched each personality type
further. Together, we published our “Psychological Profiles of the Dream
Team.”
Q: How many different profiles did you identify?
Fornes: So far we’ve identified four unique profiles: The Giver, The Champ, The Matrix Thinker andThe Savant.
But there are a lot more out there. For the sake of what’s manageable
and effective, however, we wanted to focus on profiles of the top
performers who really make a difference in our business.
Q: Can a person fit more than one profile?
Fornes: I think so. Dr. Maynard mentioned that, at the
highest level of the organization, you have senior executives who fit
multiple profiles. For example, you might have a CEO who is a Matrix
Thinker but also exhibits many of the characteristics of a Champ. And,
perhaps most importantly, senior executives have maturity, which allows
them to leverage their unique strengths while keeping their weaknesses
in check.
Q: Are there profiles hiring managers should avoid entirely?
Fornes: Of course. Sociopath comes to mind. But we
haven’t really dug into those profiles. We’re trying to identify the
ones that improve our business. In terms of the profiles we developed,
hiring managers shouldn’t avoid any specific one. Instead, they should
assess the maturity level of the candidate, where they fit on their
spectrum and determine whether or not they’d fit the role and company
culture.
Q: In undertaking this research, did you learn anything that surprised you?
Fornes: One thing that surprised me was how every
personality type is sitting within a spectrum, where one end is powerful
and positive, and the other can be destructive and negative. For
example, The Champ is driven by a twinge of narcissism. Their
self-confidence empowers them to do great things, but it doesn’t take
much for that narcissism to become too strong and manifest itself in
damaging behaviors. Again, their ability to control these negative
impulses comes down to maturity. We found that the same is true for
Savants who struggle with interpersonal skills, Givers who can be
passive-aggressive and Matrix Thinkers who can devolve into chaos.