Two team leaders – both male, both in their 40s and both have been in the job for about 10 years. Team leader A is a good listener, efficient and accurate with paperwork and is not afraid to speak his mind to management. Team leader B is always too busy for a chat, sloppy with paperwork and a bit of a 'yes man'. Team A consistently outperforms team B. Sound familiar?

When hiring or promoting people, we often consider their skills and their experience but we don’t often think about their personality. That’s not to say skills, experience and past performance are not important – they are. But so are personality traits – in particular how that individual’s personality fits with the nature of the job and the working environment. In our example above, team leader A’s interest in others and attention to detail earn him the respect of both team members and management. Team leader B’s self-interest and lack of assertiveness make it difficult for him to fully meet or represent the needs of his team.

One way we can get a better handle on a personality is through the Work Personality Index (WPI). It is a measure of personality characteristics that influence a person’s work performance and task effectiveness. Specifically, the WPI measures the following 17 work performance-related personality traits:

Measuring these characteristics, the WPI helps describe an individual’s ‘personal style’ in relation to job related strengths and weaknesses. When you better understand the person’s style, you can get a better idea of:

• Personnel selection
• Job-match profiling
• Career development
• Personal effectiveness coaching
• Leadership development

The WPI is quite simple and only takes about 20 minutes to complete. It can be done either on-line or on paper. It can be conducted as a stand-alone assessment or as part of a pre-employment assessment. If you’d like to have more As and fewer Bs in your workplace, contact us at QOH for further details.