Leadership in Africa today is insightful and innovative. Where is African leadership heading in the future?

Recently on The Science of Personality, cohosts Ryne Sherman, PhD, and Blake Loepp held a panel discussion with three of Africa’s top experts in leadership development from our authorized distributors in Africa.

Seniora El-Hage is the managing partner and head of consulting at Phoenix Consulting, which serves the region of North Africa and the Middle East. She is fascinated by team dynamics and global leadership and has represented Hogan for six years.

Gicheha Gitau is the senior principal and head of people analytics at Career Connections, based out of Kenya. Accredited in Hogan assessments and a facilitator in Hogan certification, he is on a journey to leave the world a better place than he found it using IO psychology.

Jani Wiggett is an IO psychologist and director at JVR Psychometrics, which serves South Africa. An avid runner who grew up in a family of psychologists, she has been associated with Hogan Assessments for 15 years.

Let’s dive into the evolving landscape of leadership in Africa, characteristics of African leaders, and the outlook for future leadership development in Africa.

The Landscape of Leadership in Africa

Our three experts all observed that leadership development is viewed as more important than ever throughout many African countries. In fact, Career Connections assesses 4,000 leaders annually across different sectors. “Africa is a talent hub competing on a global scale,” Gitau said. “Organizations are realizing the direct impact of leadership on employee engagement, productivity, diversity, and the overall organizational culture.”

Leadership development is and will remain critically important to organizations across industries and nations. Wiggett mentioned that corporate and political leadership can cause either great good or great harm. Because of this, many African organizations are aware of the implications of effective leadership for culture, community, and employee well-being. El-Hage also commented on the recent shift toward recognizing the importance of leadership development in Africa: “African companies now prioritize leadership assessments and invest in continuous development programs to grow leaders who can drive their organization.”

The landscape of leadership in Africa has evolved within the last few years in response to changes in the labor market. Our experts walked us through the context for these changes and trends they have seen in their regions.

Political, Economic, and Social Change in Africa

Knowing the political, economic, and social context of an organization’s country is essential to understanding its perceptions of leadership. Wiggett referenced South Africa’s former apartheid regime, which excluded millions of people from access to basic human rights. She also mentioned the country’s current economic disparities, social inequalities, and unemployment rate. El-Hage pointed out that transformational leadership, including transparency, accountability, and ethics, has been a significant trend in the North African region.

Data-Based Decision-Making and Artificial Intelligence

Although this trend isn’t necessarily unique to the African continent, leaders in Africa have certainly been giving more attention to data-based decision-making. As well as embracing technological innovation, African leaders also want to invest in leadership development using well-validated personality assessments.

Understanding digital innovation, especially how to leverage artificial intelligence, is top of mind for organizational leaders in Africa. Gitau described this prevalent attitude as entrepreneurial aspiration for sustainable growth and inclusive prosperity. El-Hage added that some leaders question the effect that artificial intelligence will have on human employees, a reflection of their focus on ethics and community.

Personality Characteristics of African Leaders

African leaders remain strong in the global leadership characteristics of creating trust, setting vision, using good judgment, and building an environment that fosters well-being, among others. A cultural aspect that may differentiate African leaders from those in other parts of the globe is their interpersonal sensitivity. “African leaders tend to excel in interpersonal skills and show their genuine interest in their team members’ well-being and their relationships,” said El-Hage, who also emphasized African adaptability and resilience.

Universal concepts of leadership, such as demonstrating integrity, might appear different in one organization or culture versus another. Exactly how a leader behaves to display integrity can be somewhat context dependent, while valuing integrity itself is not.

Leaders may be more likely to excel in their respective countries or industries given specific personality strengths. For example, JvR Psychometrics recently studied more than 320 South African managers and found that the highest performers also had high scores on the Hogan Personality Inventory scales Ambition and Inquisitive.¹

As well, Gitau commented that the generally higher HPI Ambition scores among African leaders likely help them to establish and communicate strategic vision. “Storytelling is deeply ingrained in our culture, so leaders in this region often use narrative to inspire and motivate their teams for that shared vision to be able to drive change,” he said.

How Organizations Can Invest in Leaders

With increased focus on leadership effectiveness, many African organizations are seeking to improve their talent strategy and leadership development programs even more. “Effective leadership is crucial for organizations that are seeking long-term success and sustainability,” said Gitau. He recommended a talent strategy based on personality assessment, robust succession planning, and executive coaching with 360-degree feedback.

Wiggett emphasized the importance of both defining and measuring effective leadership. “A leader needs to know what their team requires, and the only way in which they know is to have self-insight and good judgment,” she said. Leadership development based on this principle should begin early in a leader’s career. El-Hage added that development is a continuous cycle. “Once areas of development are identified, organizations could also encourage executive coaching and mentoring,” she said. “Regular feedback and performance evaluations are vital for leadership growth.”

The Future of African Leadership

Each of our experts was asked to describe the future of African leadership. Their answers showed their optimism and excitement for the rising generations of African leaders:

• El-Hage – “The future of African leadership holds great potential. With the ongoing education, the technology, the inclusion, the flexibility and resilience, African leaders have a great opportunity to shape a brighter and more prosperous continent for the generations to come.”
• Gitau – “I see a shift towards more purpose-driven leadership. The future of leadership in Africa will generally drive positive change to position the region as a significant player on the global stage.”
• Wiggett – “The future of African leadership is bright. The longer-term implications of the complexity, the hardship, the inequality, the environment that we find ourselves in in many countries in Africa is going to result in people being more resilient.”

Listen to this conversation in full on episode 80 of The Science of Personality. Never miss an episode by following us anywhere you get podcasts. Cheers, everybody!

Reference

1. van Lill, X., Stols, A., Rajab, P., & Wiggett, J. (2023). The Validity of a General Factor of Emotional Intelligence in the South African Context. African Journal of Psychological Assessment, 5(0), a123. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajopa.v5i0.123

In the quest for professional success, people often wonder which careers or industries might best suit their personalities. Research suggests that personality-industry alignment—that is, the match between an individual’s personality characteristics and a specific industry’s requirements and demands—plays a significant role in shaping an individual’s professional journey. Person-environment alignment theories, for instance, indicate that certain personality characteristics may be better suited for certain industries or occupations, leading to better job performance, satisfaction, and career success.^1,2

For example, individuals who possess characteristics such as creativity, adaptability, and a willingness to take calculated risks may be better suited to industries that emphasize innovation and risk taking, such as technology or entrepreneurship. Similarly, individuals who exhibit compassion, patience, and strong communication abilities may work better in industries that require high levels of empathy and interpersonal finesse, such as healthcare or customer service.

Recognizing the significance of personality-industry alignment, Experd, Hogan’s authorized distributor in Indonesia, used Hogan’s extensive database of personality research to examine the relationship between personality and industry-specific success in Indonesia.

This blog post will explain how different personality characteristics align with the oil and gas and banking and finance industries in Indonesia. It will also explore the implications of these findings for organizations striving to improve their recruitment and talent management practices. Lastly, it will share some unique personality characteristics of the Indonesian workforce.

Oil and Gas Industry

The oil and gas industry is typically divided into two main sectors: upstream and downstream. The upstream sector deals with identifying, extracting, and producing raw materials, while the downstream sector focuses on refining, distributing, and marketing products.

Experd found clear personality differences between people working in these two sectors in Indonesia. People employed in the upstream sector tend to score high on the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) Prudence scale. People who score high on Prudence are described as organized, structured in their approach to work, meticulous in following rules, and planful. They are ideal for roles requiring high safety standards since they generally follow the rules and will likely follow safety procedures.

In contrast, the downstream sector prioritizes achieving business targets and the agility to make changes at any moment. Indonesian employees in this environment tend to score lower on Prudence. These types of employees tend to be described as tolerant to ambiguity and flexible in adapting work plans based on changing conditions.

Understanding these personality differences can help organizations optimize talent acquisition and development strategies within the oil and gas industry.

Banking and Finance Industry

The banking and finance industry can be divided into two main categories: regulatory organizations and commercial organizations. Regulatory organizations ensure the stability and integrity of the financial system, while commercial organizations provide the necessary financial services to meet the needs of individuals, businesses, and governments.

Experd observed distinct personality differences between people working in regulatory and commercial organizations in Indonesia. The work culture in regulatory organizations usually emphasizes collaboration, compliance, and process orientation. Employees must consider the interests of numerous stakeholders and develop policies and guidelines to minimize risk. As a result, high scores on the HPI’s Interpersonal Sensitivity scale and low scores on the Hogan Development Survey (HDS) Mischievous scale are the most prevalent characteristics of Indonesians working in these regulatory organizations. People with high scores on Interpersonal Sensitivity tend to be described as agreeable, personable, and diplomatic in their communication style. Those with low Mischievous scores are described as responsible and rule abiding, even in times of stress, pressure, or boredom. Employees with these scores may tend to develop high-quality relationships with various stakeholders while following the rules, matching the requirements for regulatory organizations.

Meanwhile, in commercial organizations, the emphasis is on competition, business, and results. Employees must establish relationships with various stakeholders and achieve strategic business goals, including taking risks to advance the business. Because of these demands, people working in commercial organizations tend to score high on HPI Ambition, HPI Sociability, and HDS Mischievous. People who score high on Ambition and Sociability tend to be described as assertive, competitive, and outgoing, while those who score high on Mischievous are described as charming but limit testing.

Understanding these distinct personality profiles can improve hiring decisions, team dynamics, and overall organizational effectiveness, enabling both regulatory and commercial organizations to harness the strengths of their employees for success in their respective domains.

Personality Characteristics of the Indonesian Workforce

While individual personalities across any population are unique and show a broad range of differences, some common characteristics can be observed among Indonesian employees, according to Experd’s research. The Indonesian culture places great value on compassion, generosity, and mutual assistance, known as gotong royong. This cultural aspect contributes to higher scores on the Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI) Altruistic scale, highlighting Indonesians’ inclination to help others. High scorers on the Altruistic scale tend to be described as good-natured and concerned for the well-being of others. This value supports teamwork as an important culture characteristic in most organizations.

Politeness, respect, loyalty, and reverence for elders are also deeply ingrained in the culture. This is consistent with higher scores on the MVPI Tradition scale. People who score high on the Tradition scale typically care deeply about traditions and customs. Indonesians also tend to score high on the MVPI Security scale, indicating a preference for certainty and clear expectations, rather than taking risks or embracing an entrepreneurial spirit. This suggests that the spirit of entrepreneurship might not be as prevalent within Indonesian culture and that some organizations might find it challenging to implement a culture of agility.

Another prevalent high score among Indonesians is on the HDS Leisurely scale. People who score high on the Leisurely scale are described as cooperative and agreeable but privately resentful and passively resistant in times of pressure. Social harmony is highly valued in Indonesia, which can lead to indirect communication and the avoidance of direct confrontation. The cultural concept of ewuh pakewuh, or indirectness, is still prominent in the workplace. Many individuals are hesitant to voice their objections directly, preferring to express their disagreement behind the scenes to maintain harmony and avoid conflict. This can create challenges in fostering a productive work environment and constructive collaboration within a company or organization. Consequently, employees in Indonesia could consider working on developing assertive communication skills with the goal of effectively expressing their opinions in a more direct manner but without causing offense.

Lessons from Experd’s Research

Assessing personality-industry alignment can help organizations make informed decisions during the talent acquisition process, ensuring they can identify candidates with suitable personality characteristics for a particular industry or job role. Moreover, employees and leaders who have self-awareness about their personalities can improve their job satisfaction, performance, and career success long-term.

In addition, understanding these characteristics can provide valuable insights for organizations and people navigating the workplace in Indonesia. Embracing the values of compassion, respect, and indirect communication can help individuals foster harmonious and successful relationships in the Indonesian workforce. Working, however, on effective communication that proactively addresses problems will be important for organizations and individuals in Indonesia to succeed in the marketplace.

Finally, personal values play a significant role in shaping organizational culture. By being aware of employees’ values, organizations can take proactive measures to address discrepancies and align personal values with the desired culture. Ultimately, recognizing the influence of personal values and actively managing them can help build a strong organizational culture.

References

1. Dawis, R. V., & Lofquist, L. H. (1984). A Psychological Theory of Work Adjustment. University of Minnesota Press.
2. Holland, J. L. (1997). Making Vocational Choices: A Theory of Vocational Personalities and Work Environments (3rd ed.). Psychological Assessment Resources.

Assessment-based coaching is transformative, far superior to traditional coaching because it is grounded in objective data essential to the coach and the participant.

Recently on The Science of Personality, cohosts Ryne Sherman, PhD, and Blake Loepp spoke with four-time guest Jackie VanBroekhoven Sahm, MS, Hogan’s director of product development, about why assessment-based coaching is better than any other kind.

In her nearly 15 years at Hogan, Jackie has witnessed coaching evolve in the world of work and knows the impact it can have on people—when it’s done the right way.

Coaching Market Trends

According to Jackie, the executive coaching market is valued at around $9.3 billion—and growing at roughly 12% annually. “In the past, executive coaching was seen as an intervention,” Jackie said. “Now it’s seen as a performance enhancer, a signal to the executive that the organization wants to continue investing in them.” She also explained that executive coaching has gained a recent emphasis on well-being.

Other trends include the democratization of coaching, where coaching is provided for people at all levels, not just executives and high potentials. Technology has reduced some barriers to providing a coach to everyone. Artificial intelligence in the coaching space shows potential and seems to be gaining influence too.

The coaching market is absolutely flooded, which poses challenges for finding quality coaching. Approximately 93,000 coaches are certified by the International Coaching Federation alone. Many other credentialing providers are available, but there are no regulatory bodies for coaching. Given the quantity of coaches, their quality can be as variable as their rates. “Consumers should be skeptical of bargain basement pricing for coaching because you really do get what you pay for in this space,” Jackie cautioned.

Evaluating Coaching Outcomes

“The way coaching outcomes are evaluated today is mostly what some people refer to as ‘happy sheets,’ which basically means asking people how they liked the experience,” Jackie said. As many as 86% to 96% of people say they enjoyed the coaching experience, were satisfied, and would recommend coaching to others. This doesn’t mean that most coaches are excellent but that most people enjoy talking about themselves.

Satisfaction and enjoyment are easy to measure. Measuring the business outcomes of coaching is more challenging. At Hogan, we look for outcomes, or the effectiveness of coaching, in the performance of the leader and their team, most importantly in their organizational function.

Instead of just giving advice or the space for participants to talk, quality coaches will focus on behavioral modification that affects measurable business outcomes. Like athletic coaches who emphasize practice, evaluation, and refinement, an executive coach should give practice assignments, expect the participant to obtain feedback, help the participant to analyze the results, and set new practice goals. The coach keeps the participant accountable for their progress within the scope of organizational performance.

Assessment-Based Coaching

The key difference between traditional coaching and assessment-based coaching is the use of a validated, quality diagnostic assessment of any kind. At Hogan, our best-in-class personality assessments are designed to predict workplace performance, or the way a leader or individual’s behavior will affect those around them. That’s not all that distinguishes assessment-based coaching, however.

Measurable

Assessment-based coaching is measurable. It’s not enough for a coach to look at performance reviews and ask the participant, for example, how many hours of sleep they are getting. Just as a physician shouldn’t treat a patient without running diagnostic tests, a coach shouldn’t coach a leader without assessment data. Coaching that is based on assessment establishes a benchmark for where the person is beginning their development. It is also an objective evaluation that allows for clear goal setting integral to a proper coaching plan. To paraphrase Lewis Carroll, if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.

Insightful

Coaches need data on the behavioral strengths and potential weaknesses that a person brings to their environment. The participant needs to know that too. “Assessments like Hogan can be a powerful source of self-insight that a leader cannot get from any other place,” Jackie pointed out. Often, people aren’t willing to speak truth to power, so executives receive feedback that is partial, indirect, or even distorted. Assessments can help identify maladaptive behaviors and opportunities for improvement.

Differentiating

Assessment-based coaching is also differentiating. Given the lack of a regulatory body in executive coaching, clients often use certification credentials to identify expertise in a coach or coaching firm. They expect coaches to have specific certifications that address their organizational needs. “If you don’t have those certifications, it can be a barrier to entry for large enterprise companies that have industrial-organizational psychologists on staff who know what they’re looking for in a coaching provider,” Jackie explained. “In other words, it’s not optional.”

Transformative

A high-quality assessment can dramatically improve the quality of coaching for both the leader and the coach. Long-lasting, meaningful, and deeply powerful coaching comes from valid assessments that represent the richness and complexity of individual differences—not those that reduce personality to a handful of types. Valid, reliable assessments such as Hogan’s (when used properly by an expert) can transform a leader’s understanding of themselves and their relationships with other people. “End users say things like, ‘This was life-changing. I wish I had had this assessment earlier in my career. Thank you for giving me this gift,’” Jackie said.

Assessment-Based Coaching and AI

With the democratization of coaching likely to continue, coaching tech will help to shape the future of the space. “I hope we will see coaching become more outcome oriented with more measurable results and that we can take advantage of the big data we have available,” Jackie said.

Even if AI coaches don’t prove equal to human coaches, Jackie pointed out that AI could help automate some of a coach’s preparation, interpretation, or analysis. “What I don’t think AI will necessarily be able to do is replicate what I think is one of the most important aspects of coaching, which is human connection,” she said.

Listen to this conversation in full on episode 79 of The Science of Personality. Never miss an episode by following us anywhere you get podcasts. Cheers, everybody!

The recent US Supreme Court decision invalidating race-conscious admissions programs at colleges and universities marks a significant change for affirmative action. The implications of this decision extend beyond higher education to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workforce.

At Hogan Assessments, we are completely committed to our founding principles of social justice and fair hiring practices, irrespective of changes in affirmative action legislation. Our core purpose is to help people and organizations succeed using data-driven talent insights. Implicit in our purpose is that success should be accessible to all rather than a select few.

Aligned with these values, we will continue to use our assessments to provide unbiased evaluations of potential and predict workplace performance. We will continue to enable organizations to make equitable decisions about people, and we will continue to help organizations identify and develop leaders who will create and sustain inclusive workplaces.

We will always prioritize equal opportunity in our business practices. We urge all our clients, partners, and stakeholders to join us in advocating for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The link between personality and relationships is complex, to say the least. What compatible personality characteristics help us form positive, long-term human connections?

Recently on The Science of Personality, cohosts Ryne Sherman, PhD, and Blake Loepp, discussed personality, relationships, and the psychology of connection.

Most of what we feature on our podcast revolves around work and business, but there’s so much more to life than work. Our personalities heavily influence our personal and romantic relationships.

Let’s explore that further.

Personality and Finding Meaning

When a reporter asked Sigmund Freud to define the meaning of life, the psychologist gave two answers: love and work. Personality affects both in ways that aren’t always apparent. For instance, it can be hard to understand exactly why people fall in or out of love with each other.

At Hogan, we talk about three fundamental motives that drive human behavior: getting along, getting ahead, and finding meaning. Getting along corresponds to forming personal relationships, getting ahead corresponds to gaining social status, and finding meaning corresponds to life purpose. Some find purpose in love, others in work, and others in ideologies such as religion, philosophy, or politics. “How we find that meaning is an essential part of what it means to be human,” Ryne said.

According to Freud, the unconscious part of our minds dictates many of our values and choices about getting along and getting ahead. Compatible personality characteristics and individual preferences play a crucial role in determining our relationships in both love and work.

Compatible Personality Characteristics and Positive Relationships

“There are certain personality characteristics related to positive relationship outcomes,” Ryne explained. “If you have these certain personality characteristics, you’re more likely to have more frequent and more positive relationships.” These are the ones he identified:

• Extraversion – Extraverted individuals tend to have a high number of relationships and lifestyles focused on creating social connections.
• Agreeableness – A high level of agreeableness contributes to healthy and positive relationships. In Hogan terms, the Interpersonal Sensitivity scale on the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) relates to the tendency to get along, avoid disputes, defuse conflicts, and make compromises.
• Trustworthiness – Trust is seen as the foundation of any relationship; it is highly valued in friendships and romantic connections. People who are perceived as warm and trustful are more likely to be liked by others. Conversely, deviousness can hinder relationship formation and create difficulties in building connections.

Two Common Sayings About Relationships

Is there any basis in personality psychology to the two sayings that opposites attract and that birds of a feather flock together? The answer to one has to do with the concept of complementarity. The answer to the other relates to values.

Opposites Attract

The common interpretation of the proverb that opposites attract is a romantic partnership in which the partners significantly differ. For example, one person is an introvert and one an extravert. “There’s really no evidence for this theory that opposites attract, particularly when we talk about personality traits,” Ryne said.

It’s silly to assume that someone with a low score on the HPI Sociability scale is more likely to be attracted to someone with a high score on Sociability. An opposite attraction in that sense just isn’t how love works.

However, long-term personal relationships do tend to function well if the partners have complementarity. Complementarity in relationships refers to how two individuals complement each other in ways that make them stronger together. It is about finding areas where they enhance each other’s strengths, support each other’s weaknesses, and share each other’s values.

Complementarity is not necessarily about being complete opposites, but rather about relating in a way that combines individual strengths to create unity or harmony. To use another saying to explain complementarity, we might say that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Birds of a Feather Flock Together

The second saying implies that romantic relationships should succeed based on similar personality characteristics. However, just like opposites, there is no empirical evidence to support this. People do tend to seek similarities in values, though. “We tend to have more successful longer romantic relationships with people who share our values,” Ryne said.

We’re not often consciously aware of values alignment, but we use values to assess others and build relationships. These include personal and business relationships, plus relationships with brands and public figures. Ryne noted that among Republican voters in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, those who shared values with then-candidate Donald Trump were more likely to vote for him than Republicans who did not.

At Hogan, we use our Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI) to provide insight into relationships in the workplace, particularly between organizations and employees. Ryne referenced how values affect talent attraction, selection, and retention.¹ Based on an organization’s published values, candidates who share those values will apply. And based on an organization’s cultural alignment with its values, employees who share those values will remain. In the same way, birds of a feather are likely to flock together in personal relationships by seeking out and remaining with partners who share their values.

Blake provided validation for values alignment from his own career history. He worked at a financial institution for about a year and a half before joining Hogan, where he learned that his MVPI Commerce score was very low. Because he didn’t value a lifestyle that reflected the pursuit of financial interests, Blake didn’t feel satisfied or fulfilled by work in which financial gain was important.

Personality-Based Relationship Advice

When asked to share one thing everyone should know about relationships and personality, Ryne answered, “There’s a lot of ways that our personalities affect the relationships that we have with others. But if you could only pick one trait to base a positive relationship with someone, you would want to have agreeableness. On average, if you want to have positive romantic relationships, it’s really about trying to be more agreeable, trying to get along.”

Listen to this conversation in full on episode 78 of The Science of Personality. Never miss an episode by following us anywhere you get podcasts. Cheers, everybody!

Reference

1. Schneider, B. (1987). The People Make the Place. Personnel Psychology, 40(3), 437-453. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1987.tb00609.x

On July 5, 2023, the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection will begin enforcing the updated NYC Local Law 144, which requires employers to obtain a third-party bias audit for “automated employment decision tools.”

NYC Local Law 144 does not apply to Hogan’s tools. This law only applies to automated employment decision tools. The law states:

“The term ‘automated employment decision tool’ means any computational process, derived from machine learning, statistical modeling, data analytics, or artificial intelligence, that issues simplified output, including a score, classification, or recommendation, that is used to substantially assist or replace discretionary decision-making for making employment decisions that impact natural persons. The term ‘automated employment decision tool’ does not include a tool that does not automate, support, substantially assist or replace discretionary decision-making processes and that does not materially impact natural persons, including, but not limited to, a junk email filter, firewall, antivirus software, calculator, spreadsheet, database, data set, or other compilation of data.”

Importantly,

“the phrase ‘to substantially assist or replace discretionary decision-making’ means to rely solely on a simplified output (score, tag, classification, ranking, etc.), with no other factors considered, or to use a simplified output as one of a set of criteria where the output is weighted more than any other criterion in the set, or to use a simplified output to overrule or modify conclusions derived from other factors including human decision-making.”

In other words, NYC Local Law 144 only applies to decision tools that serve as the primary factor upon which decisions are based. Hogan does not recommend using its tools to serve as the only criteria or to override other important criteria in personnel decision-making processes. Rather, Hogan’s tools should be used as one consideration among many. For example, no matter how impressive a candidate’s personality profile, many jobs also require a certain level of job knowledge, which is difficult to determine with personality scores alone.

Furthermore,

“’Machine learning, statistical modeling, data analytics, or artificial intelligence’ means a group of mathematical, computer-based techniques:

i. that generate a prediction, meaning an expected outcome for an observation, such as an assessment of a candidate’s fit or likelihood of success, or that generate a classification, meaning an assignment of an observation to a group, such as categorizations based on skill sets or aptitude; and

ii. for which a computer at least in part identifies the inputs, the relative importance placed on those inputs, and, if applicable, other parameters for the models in order to improve the accuracy of the prediction or classification.”

Here, both bullets must be met for purposes of meeting this definition. Although Hogan’s tools can be used to generate predictions (i), humans at Hogan, not computers, identify the inputs and importance of such inputs (ii). Therefore, Hogan’s tools do not meet the second bullet.

In sum, Hogan’s tools are not “automated employment decision tools” under NYC Local Law 144 because they are not used to “substantially assist or replace discretionary decision-making” and they do not use “machine learning, statistical modeling, data analytics, or artificial intelligence” as defined by the law.

Over the past couple of years, a trend has emerged in research and articles about the importance of so-called “soft” skills for leaders. Recently, that thinking seems to be accelerating. Some have suggested that soft skills are the new “hard” skills for leaders.¹ Others have suggested that soft skills deserve a rebrand because of their importance in the workplace.² But whether they are called soft skills, power skills, core skills, interpersonal skills, or as we’ve referred to them, socioemotional skills, it is fair to say they are having a moment.

This popularity is not surprising given the increase in employee power in the job market, the talent shortage, increased unionization, widespread remote work, and a greater focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. It is understandable that some conclude that socioemotional skills are new skills for a new world³ or that there has been a fundamental shift⁴ in what it takes to be an effective leader. These conclusions are well intentioned but incorrect.

Soft Skills Aren’t Just a Fad

These skills have always been important for leaders. Consider socioanalytic theory, which posits that humans are driven by core needs of getting along, getting ahead, and making sense of the world. Early human groups faced threats from the environment and animals, as well as threats from other human groups. More cohesive groups tended to survive, meaning they were skilled at getting along. Successful groups also excelled at getting ahead together, meaning they performed better than other groups. Leadership is an evolved solution to the problem of group coordination (getting along) and survival (getting ahead).

More (relatively) recent research established the importance of socioemotional skills in leadership. For example, the famous Ohio State studies,⁵ which began in the 1940s, identified two important categories of leader behaviors:

• Initiation of structure includes critiquing others’ work, setting performance standards, and setting uniform procedures.
• Consideration includes behaviors such as doing personal favors for group members, taking time to listen, treating people equally, and being friendly and approachable.

Later, in the 1970s, V. Jon Bentz, a vice president of human resources at Sears, conducted research about managerial failure.⁶ He found that most leaders fail due to interpersonal incompetence, not IQ or technical skills (a.k.a. hard skills). Similarly, our research at Hogan in the past several decades highlights the importance of socioemotional skills for leaders and others. The data show that good judgment, humility, integrity, vision, and drive, to name just a few characteristics, are critical for selecting high-performing leaders.

Selecting Leaders with Socioemotional Skills

In the past few years, so-called soft skills have been critical to help leaders effectively navigate the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world we all face. Despite the recent attention, the truth is that socioemotional skills have always been an important part of leader effectiveness.  For organizations, using a scientific, research-based approach to talent acquisition—rather than trend chasing—will always yield the best results. 

This blog post was written by Scott Gregory, PhD, a renowned expert in IO psychology.

References

1. Trudeau-Poskas, D. (2020, January 29). Soft Skills Are 2020’s Hard Skills—Here’s How to Master Them. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2020/01/29/soft-skills-are-2020s-hard-skills-heres-how-to-master-them/?sh=aa0ea0d70f27
2. Bersin, J. (2019, October 31). Let’s Stop Talking About Soft Skills: They’re Power Skills. Josh Bersin. https://joshbersin.com/2019/10/lets-stop-talking-about-soft-skills-theyre-power-skills/
3. Patnaik, D. (2022, December 16). The Disney Effect: How CEOs Can Fortify Against The Panic-Button Era. Chief Executive.https://chiefexecutive.net/the-disney-effect-how-ceos-can-fortify-against-the-panic-button-era/
4. Pontefract, D. (2022, December 6). The Seismic Shift in Leadership. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/danpontefract/2022/12/06/the-seismic-shift-in-leadership/?sh=2b372d948485
5. Li, M. (2018, June 8). What Have We Learned from the 100-Year History of Leadership Research? (Part II). The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business. https://fisher.osu.edu/blogs/leadreadtoday/blog/what-have-we-learned-from-the-100-year-history-of-leadership-research-part-ii
6. Bentz, V. J. (1985). A view of the top: a thirty-year perspective of research devoted to the discovery, description and prediction of executive behavior [Conference presentation]. Division 14, 93rd Annual Convention, American Psychological Association, Los Angeles, CA, United States.

How should we approach leadership development for college students? How can we use such efforts to empower the next generation of women leaders?

Recently on The Science of Personality, cohosts Ryne Sherman, PhD, and Blake Loepp spoke with Jennifer Tackett, PhD, professor and director of clinical training, and Haoqi Zhang, PhD, associate professor of computer science, both at Northwestern University. The conversation focused on their collaborative effort aimed at empowering the next generation of women leaders through the Northwestern Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs.

Let’s dive into the need to reimagine what a leader looks like, the role of socioemotional skills in leadership, and what it takes to scale a successful leadership development program.

Women as Successful Leaders

Jennifer and Haoqi began collaborating through a mutual friend working at an interdisciplinary entrepreneurship center at Northwestern University. Though Jennifer is a clinical psychologist and Haoqi is a computer scientist, both found a connection through a shared interest in fostering growth in individual college students. Now they are coleaders of a new Northwestern Buffett Global Working Group, Empowering the Next Generation of Women Leaders.

“For students to do well in research or really anything, they needed to understand themselves better,” Haoqi said. Jennifer provided a personal example about the perspective shift that is necessary for someone to view themselves as a leader. After taking the Hogan assessments, Jennifer learned that her Hogan Personality Inventory Ambition score is below the 10th percentile. As a tenured professor in numerous leadership roles, she was at first surprised by that data point.

But as Jennifer learned more about what the Ambition scale represented, she realized that her drive and energy to succeed tended to emphasize collaboration over competition and quality over achievement. “Low ambition scores do not mean that you cannot be a successful leader. They mean that your leadership motivations and potential are coming from somewhere else in your profile,” she said.

This insight aligns with our research at Hogan about the difference between leadership emergence and leadership effectiveness. “We need to be more curious about what a successful leadership profile looks like for women and for people who don’t fit that specific demographic prototype,” Jennifer added.

Women Leaders in Education

Descriptive data show that women perform better than men by nearly every educational metric. For the last couple of decades, the differences have been increasing steadily. “It’s not a fluke,” Jennifer said. “It’s clear that female college students are outperforming their male counterparts.” Yet the top leadership roles are still predominantly held by men. “How do we understand why women who are performing so well and clearly showing great potential and achievement aren’t moving into societal leadership roles down the line?” she asked.

That question has motivated her and Haoqi’s research. It’s a complicated puzzle that isn’t likely to be solved with just a few data points. “Sometimes we can be rather narrow in what we measure,” Haoqi pointed out. “We want to think about student development on educational metrics but in other ways as well.” Education is an important route to leadership success, but it isn’t an exclusive one.

Leadership Development for College Students

Women and members of other historically excluded groups at universities tend to have less access to leadership development programs than white men with high socioeconomic status. “Leadership development programming in university settings is both ubiquitous and unsystematic,” Jennifer said. Different programs for different people may be designed for different outcomes, but all are likely built on the pervasive concept of a leader as a cisgender white man. “Ultimately, if we are interested in diversification of the leadership pipeline, we’re going to have to dismantle that system and expand our understanding of what a leadership development program looks like.”

“Broadening a perspective is needed if we’re going to make a change,” Haoqi affirmed. He told a story about a dance professor who teaches students to fall in various ways so that they may gain alternative perspectives. When Haoqi applied that mindset to an engineering and computer science setting, he perceived that vulnerability, honesty, and accepting mistakes can help leaders learn alternate perspectives from their failures. “When we start to see leadership to be inclusive of those things, we’ll also see that the opportunities to teach the skills, the mindsets, or the dispositions that good leaders should have opens the doors to think about leadership development not just out of leadership centers but also in all parts of campus,” he explained.

At Hogan, we identify having good judgment as a core aspect of leadership. Good judgment involves being able to make reasonable decisions based on the available information, as well as learning from failure. In addition to gaining better judgment and critical thinking skills, Haoqi wants future leaders to see themselves as being fallible and to recognize that making mistakes is OK. “Part of my work with students is helping them to look inside and learn this kindness toward themselves,” he said.

Gender Discrepancy in Top Leadership Roles

Only a small fraction of global CEOs are women. Through his work developing students, Haoqi has noticed that certain socioemotional skills are among the most important to overcome systemic barriers. These include risk assessment, critical thinking, dealing with failure, experimentation, and asking for help, which would help distinguish future leaders for advancement.

Jennifer pointed out that a strength of the Roberta Buffett Institute is its interdisciplinary, global nature. “That international perspective both complicates things but also allows you to start dissecting some of these systemic issues in a very different way,” she explained. She also speaks with successful women leaders to seek contextual nuance and psychological themes in their collective leadership journeys. “The retrospective aspect could be a very fruitful compliment to this work,” she said.

Jennifer and Haoqi’s initiative has made meaningful gains and shown significant promise. But to continue to flourish, it will need the following:

• Space for innovation – Student leaders need the creative latitude for experimentation to grow socioemotional skills.
• Resources – It takes time, money, and effort to run an initiative focused on empowering women leaders.
• Community support – Finding instructors willing to coach and mentor student leaders can also be challenging.
• Mindset shift – Investment in a development program means rejecting the most profitable, streamlined path for university education and reimagining what the university experience can mean for women leaders.

In looking to the future, Jennifer and Haoqi agree that scalability is likely one of the next hurdles. They also want to create a more nuanced definition of leadership to dismantle how people think about leaders—and how we build leadership development efforts for college students.

“A lot of what becoming a leader is about starts with people looking at themselves differently than they did before,” Haoqi said.

Listen to this conversation in full on episode 77 of The Science of Personality. Never miss an episode by following us anywhere you get podcasts. Cheers, everybody!

Every organization experiences some degree of change. It’s a constant in business. This fact makes change management a key capability for leaders. How they lead through change affects their personal, team, and organizational success. It also makes responding to change a key theme in leadership coaching. Hogan practitioners can coach leaders through it by helping them build a repertoire of behavioral skills specific to a context of change.

While change is prevalent, it doesn’t always arise from the same circumstances. Some leaders face mergers or acquisitions, some face role changes, and some face new organizational strategy or culture. When delivering development feedback to a leader, Hogan practitioners need to understand the context. For example, a leader who was hired to address a specific problem and a leader who is part of a high potential program have two distinctly different contexts for development.

The Hogan practitioner’s role is to help leaders build strategic self-awareness about their approach to change management so they can enable their teams to succeed. To explore the best practices for coaching leaders through change, we interviewed three experienced coaches in the Hogan Coaching Network. These experts in personality assessment interpretation and feedback shared insights about how to prep for leadership coaching sessions, tried-and-true techniques for feedback delivery, and how they advise leaders about change management.

How to Prepare for Coaching Through Change

The first step is understanding the leader’s personality assessment data. When interpreting the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) in a change management context, it is important to consider Adjustment and Interpersonal Sensitivity. Adjustment can indicate a leader’s stress tolerance and resilience, while Interpersonal Sensitivity can describe their communication style and approach. A leader with a low Interpersonal Sensitivity score might be oblivious to morale, while one with a high score might avoid necessary conflict. These two HPI scales can also reveal a leader’s socioemotional skills, such as perceiving and influencing others’ emotions or responding to stress with composure. This matters because a leader whose team is undergoing change will need to cope personally while also guiding team members through a similar experience.

Regarding the Hogan Development Survey (HDS), a Hogan practitioner should assess the leader’s broad category of derailers: Moving Away, Moving Against, or Moving Toward. This can indicate whether the leader’s tendency during stress is to withdraw, manipulate or persuade, or seek approval, respectively.

Practitioners should also read assessment results across the HPI, HDS, and the Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI) to evaluate the leader’s likelihood to embrace change. HPI Prudence and Inquisitive, HDS Skeptical and Cautious, and MVPI Tradition and Security can all suggest how a leader might respond to the need for change. “People don’t resist change as much as they fear their ability to cope with it,” explained HCN Coach Ray Harrison.

In addition to interpreting assessment results through a lens of change, Hogan practitioners should also gather additional data for leadership coaching. Harrison emphasized the need to be explicit about the details of the appointment charter. Other data might include the critical few objectives of the role, identification of what person or group is driving the change, employment history and education, stakeholder analyses, 360-degree interviews, previous performance assessments, employee survey data about culture, leadership and organizational values, and more. Contextual research can be effective for leadership coaching when paired with Hogan Leadership Forecast Series (LFS) results, which provide robust feedback about a leader’s performance capabilities, challenges, and core drivers.

Hogan practitioners should keep the big picture in mind when prepping for a development session. It’s important to encourage leaders because change initiatives are stressful. Emphasize positivity to counteract fears. Help them understand the strengths and skills they already possess to succeed.

How to Deliver Feedback About Leading Through Change

Ideally, the assessment debriefing and developmental coaching should take place over several sessions over several weeks or months. The sessions will likely move through three broad phases: (1) advance data gathering, (2) the Hogan debrief, and (3) leadership coaching. The advance phase with the leader is one or two sessions to get to know them and discuss their expectations for coaching. The debriefing phase might also take place over two sessions, the first to present the data and the second to discuss their response and takeaways. The leadership coaching phase could be six to eight sessions in which the practitioner and the leader build the leader’s development plan and evaluate its implementation.

As in other types of debriefing sessions, a practitioner’s main approach should be asking a lot of open, nonjudgmental questions to elicit self-reflection. What characteristics of your personality do you see as assets? What expectations does your organization hold for you? What is your biggest concern about success? What alignment do you notice between your values and the organization’s values? What do you think the effects of the change will be on your team? How do you tend to feel or respond when . . . ? What surprises you? What resonates with you? What messages are you hearing? What have we not talked about yet?

“In times of massive change, there are dangerous opportunities to grow,” said HCN Coach Brian Chitester. Hogan practitioners can give leaders a behavioral repertoire to help them moderate overused strengths and manage their derailers. Personality data can help identify occasions when leaders might need to act against their inclinations. For instance, a leader with an extremely low Interpersonal Sensitivity score can learn how to balance their direct, candid communication style with sensitivity and active listening skills. Leaders who understand how behavioral change can affect their reputations positively will be most motivated to grow.

Above all, practitioners should start and stay positive. Chitester advised practitioners to help the leader see which characteristics give them natural advantages in achieving their goals.

Change Management Advice for Leaders

Although each leader’s personality is unique, some common pieces of change management advice are likely to apply to leaders in nearly every situation. “Just about every leader is leading through change. Most organizations are trying to change in one way or another,” HCN Coach Betsy Reeder pointed out.

1. Use a change model.

Having a model for change is helpful to keep leaders and teams on track. Leaders should adopt a model and stick with it. While there are numerous effective change frameworks, each of the three HCN coaches separately mentioned Leading Change by John Kotter. Kotter presents an eight-step process for organizational transformation founded on the viewpoint that “only leadership can motivate the actions needed to alter behavior in any significant way.”¹

2. Build up the team.

Effective change starts with team alignment and grows from there. Communicating well with the team is necessary throughout every phase of change management. Of particular importance is securing the team’s commitment. Instead of imposing a unilateral decision, leaders should allow team members to participate in decision-making whenever possible. This will increase the team’s sense of ownership and control of the change initiatives.

3. Listen, listen, listen.

Reeder advised leaders to be intentional about listening to and understanding the team. Team members who are heard can become positive change agents within their organizations. Leaders also need to listen to feedback about themselves. Strategic self-awareness is developed through understanding, commitment, and action, a process that relies on listening.

4. Be optimistic.

Everyone handles change differently. Leaders who choose to speak and act with positivity can leverage what makes them successful with confidence. Optimism is catching, after all.

Contributors

We thank our HCN contributors for sharing their collective decades of experience in using Hogan assessments to help leaders navigate change:

• Brian Chitester is the president at Chitester Leadership and Executive Development.
• Ray Harrison is the managing director at Executive TransforMetrics.
• Elizabeth “Betsy” Reeder is the regional vice president at The Leader’s Edge/Leaders by Design and executive coach at A.J. O’Connor Associates.

Reference

1. Kotter, J. (2012). Leading Change. Harvard Business Review Press.

After 75 full episodes, several bonus episodes, and three live video episodes, here we are three years after the launch of The Science of Personality with more than 100,000 downloads and an active, engaged listener base. None of that would be possible without you, our listeners. Thank you.

Join The Science of Personality cohost Blake Loepp for this special countdown of highlights from our top five episodes of all time.

Let’s dive in.

5. Personality Change

Episode 35, “Personality Change,” featured Jackie VanBroekhoven Sahm, MS, director of product development at Hogan Assessments. Jackie responds to this question: Given that personality tends to remain stable over time, can people change their personalities?

“People can change their personality,” Jackie said. “But how are we defining personality?” She revisited the differences between identity and reputation and between biology and behavior. “We have to be clear about what we mean when we say yes to that question,” she said.

Another complicating factor in personality change is comparing changes in personality assessment scores to reputational changes. “Even if we could hypothetically change your personality or change your test scores, it’s hard to know if the changes that we see there are based on real change that an outsider could perceive,” Jackie concluded.

Click here to listen to the full episode.

4. Michael Jordan and Leadership Effectiveness

Episode 1, “Michael Jordan and Leadership Effectiveness,” was a discussion between cohosts Blake and Ryne Sherman, PhD, chief science officer at Hogan Assessments. They noted parallels between leadership in sports and leadership in business.

“Michael Jordan was such a well-known personality that he put professional basketball on a global scene,” Blake said. He then asked Ryne to explain the background of why a larger-than-life personality like Jordan’s matters so much in leadership effectiveness.

“Leadership is critical,” Ryne said. “CEOs account for somewhere between 17% and 35% of the variance in firm performance. CEOs and their average tenure in major companies add or subtract up to $40 million in revenue for a business. Who’s in charge of organizations has a huge impact, and there’s all kinds of research now showing this.”

Click here to listen to the full episode.

3. Personality: Frequently Asked Questions

Episode 3 of The Science of Personality, “Personality: Frequently Asked Questions,” also featured Jackie VanBroekhoven Sahm. Jackie responds to this question: How does Hogan compare to other personality assessments, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) or DiSC?

“Hogan and tools like Myers-Briggs and DiSC are similar in that they are all personality assessments. That’s where a lot of the similarities end,” Jackie said. She explained that other assessments differ greatly from Hogan’s in how they were developed and how they are applied. “Whereas Hogan has been the first workplace assessment that was designed to predict performance and therefore can be used in selection contexts where you’re making decisions about a person based on their scores, tools like the Myers-Briggs and DiSC are generally not validated for that purpose.”

Hogan’s assessments also differ from others in their underlying theory. “[The Hogan Personality Inventory] is based on the five-factor model of personality, which is one of the most well-researched and robust models of personality out there,” she continued. “What the Myers-Briggs claims to measure is quite different from what the Hogan tools claim to measure.” When we compare the Extraversion-Introversion scale on the MBTI or the outgoing and reserved elements of the DiSC with the Sociability scale on the Hogan Personality Inventory, they cannot be truly reconciled because they are built on different foundations.

Click here to listen to the full episode.

2. Organizational Culture

Episode 37, “Organizational Culture,” features Daniel Denison, PhD, chair at Denison Consulting. Daniel responds to this question: How do you change organizational culture?

“Successful culture change almost always starts with the recognition that the environment that we operate in requires something different today that we don’t have,” Daniel said. “Our behavior is a complex set of habits built up over time, routines that are rooted in past experience, and lessons that we learn. You have to intervene both at that micro level and at the big-picture level of the organization,” he said, adding that there must be a strong connection between executives and front-line workers.

Leaders must take the initiative in implementing change by starting small and nurturing a new mindset, Daniel explained. “The future is moving fast,” he pointed out. “We’ve got to get better as leaders at managing the culture and the transformation process so that you’re not only staying abreast of the changes in the marketplace, but you are the disruptor. You are the one that’s creating the new way of doing things so that everybody else needs to follow you.”

Click here to listen to the full episode.

1. The Dark Side of Personality

The Science of Personality‘s most popular episode to date is episode 4, “The Dark Side of Personality,” which features Peter Harms, PhD, professor of management at the University of Alabama. While most assessments focus on one’s strengths, or bright side, we think understanding one’s challenges, or dark side, is vital in predicting workplace performance. Peter responds to this question: What are common dark-side personality characteristics of leaders?

First, Peter defines an effective leader, pointing out the difference between emergent leaders who tend to network with the people above them and effective leaders who tend to talk to their teams and workers. “Organizations are not very good at detecting dark-side personality characteristics,” he said. “They put these people in a position of power where it’s harder to get rid of them. Quite often what you see with these characteristics is that all their negative actions are downward to the people underneath them, so it can end up producing toxic cultures.”

In certain circumstances, in certain cultures, certain dark-side characteristics can be positive. “We see characteristics like narcissism quite often being associated with becoming a leader,” Peter said. “They’re the ones with their hands in the air first. Moderate levels of narcissism—that’s just confidence, and you definitely need confidence if you’re going to be a leader.”

Click here to listen to the full episode.

What’s Next for The Science of Personality?

Thank you so much for listening to The Science of Personality podcast. We look forward to taking this podcast to another level in the weeks, months, and years ahead.

Listen to these highlights in full on episode 76 of The Science of Personality. Never miss an episode by following us anywhere you get podcasts. Cheers, everybody!