Derailers are important because they are the habitual behavioral patterns that can get in our way. Typically operating below the level of conscious awareness, these behaviors are often easy to ignore. But when overused, they hinder performance. Coaching people to learn to work with derailers and manage stress can be a gateway into new understanding and help them increase their effectiveness.

The Stress-performance Curve

The relationship between stress and performance level can be summarized by the bell-shaped stress-performance curve, also referred to as Yerkes-Dodson law (figure 1).

At very low levels of stress, a person may feel lethargic and not very motivated. This is a zone of too little stress. As a person climbs the stress-performance curve, the amount of stress increases, and the level of productivity also climbs. This is a zone where the level of stress may be motivating and energizing. A positive relationship exists between the level of challenge and the positive reward cycle of getting things done, accomplishing things, concentration, and feedback. One may experience in this zone even a state of optimal experience or what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls flow.¹

However, as the amount of stress continues to rise, performance level ultimately peaks and then begins to decrease. When a person enters a zone of too much stress, his or her performance can be characterized by reduced capacity and narrowed judgment and behavioral resources. A person in this zone tends to rely on habitual patterns and go-to behaviors with limited attunement to circumstances and to others. As stress continues to increase, a person will increasingly enter a state of overwhelm and the range of resources contract to fight, flight, or freeze responses in order to address and minimize perceived danger.

The Hogan Development Survey (HDS)

Helping people understand where they are on the stress-performance curve is a starting point for helping them manage their derailing behavioral tendencies and their reputations under conditions of stress.

The Hogan Development Survey (HDS) captures common patterns of behavior and coping mechanisms that emerge under stress and pressure. Each behavioral pattern, or HDS dimension, has an adaptive and functional feature. Each also has a maladaptive quality, which is typically an exaggerated response or an automatic, inflexible response to situations. The top of the stress-performance curve is a place where these behaviors become more prominent and tend to dominate responses. As an important note, HDS behaviors can also be present when someone is relaxed (i.e., not self-managing), and some people might even have HDS traits present most of the time. The focus for this article, however, is on behavioral responses triggered by stress.

What happens for a person at the top of the stress-performance curve has a significant impact on that person’s ability to lead and collaborate. This is because each HDS tendency has a way of hindering the ability to “get along” with others and maintain effective interpersonal relationships. This is a zone that is important for awareness, and it can be a gateway into greater versatility and effectiveness.

Behavioral Modification

Many people talk about behavioral modification, yet behavior does not change because someone wants it to. In other words, it isn’t a matter of will. Behavioral modification comes from shifting patterns and responses to habitual stimuli. This involves a change in perceptions and a change in the internal responses that drive behavior. It is only the latter can be observed by others.

Working with the Hogan Development Survey (HDS) in combination with coaching techniques of self-observations and practices can be powerful methods for growing self-awareness. This makes it possible to shift into more effective responses and behaviors under pressure.

The Role of Coaching

I am trained in Integral Coaching, an approach that uses self-observation and practices for developing ways of responding to situations and developing more versatile ways of being in the world.

To describe these two techniques,

• self-observations involve a semistructured process for taking time to observe oneself and reflecting on what behaviors arise in particular situations, and
• practices are repetitive and intentional actions aimed at building a new ability.

Self-observations are effective in discovering unconscious behavioral patterns and habitual responses. Practices allow a person to introduce and build familiarity with a new behavior.

HDS behaviors can be challenging to work with, in large part because most stress responses lie below the level of conscious awareness. The power of self-observation and practices is that, once we can see how we are disposed to respond, we have the opportunity to introduce alternatives.

Working with Stress and Derailer Tendencies in Coaching

In working with a client, I may introduce the stress-performance curve and ask the person to mark an X on the part of the curve that matches his or her stress level. I may have the person take this diagram into the workday and stop multiple times a day (e.g., three times a day) for a fixed period of time (e.g., two weeks) to mark the stress-performance curve. The exercise gets a person to stop and notice their regulation state. It also creates familiarity with the concept of the curve. Through this activity, people are usually able to start to see where their energy and stress levels are during the day and bring this into discussion. This can help determine which behaviors a client may want to focus on based on their actual experiences.

Once someone can notice their state, then they have the possibility to look more closely at stress-based patterns. Here is where I may introduce a self-observation. I may ask the person to observe themselves in a specific stress behavior-inducing situation. I ask them to take notes afterwards on three areas: the context (i.e., who was there and the kind of event), their perceptions (i.e., their thoughts, interpretation, and emotions), and the kinds of actions that the situations provoked them to want to take. These reflections are often insightful to the client and increases their awareness about internal perceptions, habitual responses, and contextual triggers.

This process of self-observation creates a space to possibly introduce a new behavioral practice. A coach can help design a customized practice for a person and gauge readiness.

Practices may include the following:

• A productive alternative and a new behavior to use more frequently (“do more of”)
• A repair behavior (to mitigate impacts of habitual patterns)
• A stress management practice to re-regulate and move down the stress-performance curve (to recharge and minimize spending time in the too-much-stress zone)

As an example, a leader with a high Bold tendency, who is known for not listening to feedback during meetings, may benefit from a self-observation in instances when they are the only person in the room talking. Via a semistructured self-observation, they may look to see if they could self-observe in a real instance. Using the three questions, they can independently reflect on what this observation reveals. Observing first on their own and then discussing this in session may open up new awareness and catalyze greater choice in how to respond (versus react). One example practice which may be fruitful would be to experiment with asking one to three questions, listening, and corroborating prior to sharing a new idea. A component of the practice would be to observe the impact of this new behavior on themselves and others in the real-time behavior practice.

Developing awareness of patterns and stepping into practicing new behaviors is an individualized process. It is supported by curiosity, experimentation, and nonjudgment. New patterns require multiple forms of feedback to develop. The attention of a focused coach and a big dose of curiosity can allow a person to work with derailers and have significant payoffs.

Summary

Managing one’s derailers means growing a capacity to observe oneself, respond differently, and develop practices that are more productive. Growing this capability will increase a person’s effectiveness and their ability to work with others under pressure.

While behavioral change takes attention, self-reflection, and ongoing practice, it is something people can take with them into their lives outside of work, and derailer behaviors are a powerful area to target. The HDS in combination with coaching can help to build this capacity and improve performance.

Reference

1. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper Perennial: New York.

*This post was authored by Rebecca Ghanadan, PhD, founder of Aspis Coaching Group member of the Hogan Coaching Network.

Businesses have long used the powerful information contained in personality assessments to facilitate leadership performance and outcomes. Understanding an individual’s personality—or their unique characteristic ways of being—can be helpful when seeking to identify those who may be well-suited to leadership roles (i.e., selection), as well as to improve the performance and outcomes of those already inhabiting leadership roles (i.e., development).

Of personality tests available for these purposes, the Hogan Leadership Forecast Series (LFS) is far-and-away the most scientifically sound measure, and thus the most likely to facilitate measurable outcomes and predictions.* Given this, it’s unsurprising that the LFS assessments are used by over 75% of Fortune 500 companies and have been extensively used for leadership selection and development at the highest levels of these businesses. However, what is surprising is that very little is known about how the LFS might generalize to other types of business contexts—such as entrepreneurship. We set out to address this innovative and important question: when given to successful entrepreneurial leaders, are we able to identify key aspects of personality that might characterize successful entrepreneurs more broadly?

In an ongoing research project focusing on this question, we have collected data from 26 successful entrepreneurs so far (data collection is ongoing and we are actively looking for more successful entrepreneurs interested in participating in the study!). Even from this early sample, we can identify some key characteristics of the “Successful Entrepreneur Personality” (SEP).

Findings

In terms of normal-range personality traits, or those characteristics that define how people usually are day-to-day, the SEP is someone who is likely very ambitious and sociable. Ambitious individuals tend to be high in aspects of self-confidence, identification as a leader, they tend to be competitive and highly energetic. Sociable individuals tend to be high in their individual needs for social interaction, and tend to enjoy social situations such as group meetings and parties. It makes sense that our SEP is high in both – these characteristics are likely very adaptive in the fast-paced, competitive startup world in which success is also very dependent on interpersonal interaction (e.g., speaking to and building the customer base, expanding one’s own professional network, pitching a project to investors).

Even more dramatic than the high scores for ambition and sociability, though, is what appears to be the quintessential SEP trait—by far, the overwhelming majority of our successful entrepreneurs were very low on the personality trait labeled “Prudence”. High prudence reflects the degree to which an individual is conscientious, dependable, structured, and rule-following. How do we then understand our low prudence SEP? The highly successful entrepreneurial leader is a risk taker, they think outside the box, they push the envelope, they pivot quickly, and when innovating, the sky is the limit.

Some of our other normal-range personality traits did not necessarily seem to characterize the SEP at the mean level – that is, it wasn’t necessarily the case that a certain level of the trait was found for the majority of the sample. However, we don’t just look at overall levels across the group, we are also interested in variability – that is, are there some traits that are so highly variable in our sample that they point to places where sometimes being high might work for one successful entrepreneur, whereas another one succeeds via a low level on the same trait.

Two traits like this, in our data, were adjustment and interpersonal sensitivity.

Adjustment reflects the extent to which someone tends to stay cool, calm, and collected and does not react quickly to stress (versus low scores, who tend to respond more quickly to threats in the environment and manifest stress). In our sample of successful entrepreneurs, we found that both high and low levels of adjustment may result in a successful entrepreneurial leader. Low scores on adjustment may be quite adaptive in certain contexts – the ability to quickly spot a problem in a new product prototype or to get activated when presented with highly negative feedback from an early focus group – may allow the successful entrepreneur to more quickly pivot, to mobilize the necessary resources to correct errors and ultimately lead to a more successful launch.

The other trait that showed this kind of variability – with some of our successful entrepreneurs scoring very high and others scoring low – was interpersonal sensitivity. High scores on interpersonal sensitivity typically describe people who are empathic, warm, and trusting. Whereas high scores on interpersonal sensitivity can be helpful in certain situations – it may be easier for leaders high on this dimension to communicate care for subordinates, and to earn their trust and loyalty in return – low scores on interpersonal sensitivity can also facilitate effective leadership behavior. Leaders scoring low on interpersonal sensitivity, for example, may be more successful at challenging interpersonal tasks such as delivering critical feedback or even firing a subordinate, that are critical for a company’s ultimate success.

These early findings suggest that there may be some ways in which successful entrepreneurs are largely similar – high ambition and sociability, and low prudence – and other areas where being either high or low could lead to a successful outcome, perhaps depending on a combination of factors including the leader’s other personality traits, the personality of their cofounder and other team members, and the company’s industry.

Beyond these normal-range personality traits – or how we usually are – the LFS is a powerful tool to highlight our potential “danger zones” as well – or how we respond under stress. Are some stress responses advantageous for SEPs? This is the topic we will explore in our next briefing.

About the Successful Entrepreneur Personality (SEP) Study

The SEP study is a collaboration between Jennifer L. Tackett, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Northwestern, and Melissa Kaufman, executive director of The Garage at Northwestern. Participants in our study have founded or co-founded a company and scaled it from a startup to multi-million dollars in revenue. Most have experienced either a significant exit or taken the company public. Data collection is ongoing and we are actively looking for more successful entrepreneurs interested in participating in the study! If you’d like to participate, please email thegarage@northwestern.edu.

To download a PDF of the report, please visit http://thegarage.nu/sep.

*This is a guest post authored by Jennifer L. Tackett, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Northwestern University, and Melissa Kaufman, executive director of The Garage at Northwestern University. This article was originally published on Psychology Today.

* The authors of this study are not compensated by or affiliated with Hogan Assessments beyond a research relationship.

Some personality traits can pose risks to companies’ success. These traits, which Hogan calls derailers, tend to arise when people are stressed, fatigued, or bored (that is, when we do not exercise self-control). These are the most challenging elements of personality to work with, and they are the most damaging to our careers. Because crises such as the one we are currently experiencing cause almost constant stress, these characteristics are particularly notable right now.

The Leader in Times of Crisis Program

The Hogan Development Survey, or HDS, measures the 11 aspects of personality that can derail performance during times like these. As part of the Leader in Times of Crisis program, Hogan’s strategic partner Thuoper collaborated with the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce to study the personality traits of more than 200 CEOs in Colombia. The program’s main objective was help leaders achieve a higher level of strategic self-awareness, understand how to manage the crisis, and emerge stronger than before.

As part of the program, the CEOs completed Hogan’s personality tests — the Hogan Personality Inventory, the Hogan Development Survey, and the Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory — and attended a webinar during which Liliana López, CEO of Thuoper and expert in organizational leadership, explained the methodology and key personality characteristics for handling crisis effectively.

Subsequently, Thuoper’s research and development team analyzed the CEOs’ personality test results and found important patterns between their results and their companies’ economic sectors. This article, the second in a three-part series, will focus on how the CEOs scored on the HDS.

Financial

In the financial sector, we found that the greatest risk involves behaviors associated with the Colorful scale. People who score high on this scale seem gregarious, entertaining, and jovial, and they enjoy being the center of attention. The crucial risk with this scale lies in a tendency to exaggerate the facts and, as a consequence, create panic in the team. As is evident, this characteristic can be disastrous in a sector as delicate and with as much social impact as this.

Industrial

Among CEOs in the industrial sector, we found two main risk factors: Excitable and Reserved. People who score high on the Excitable scale work with passion and enthusiasm, but they can also become easily frustrated, irritated, upset, and inclined to abandon projects or remove support from people. The main problem is difficulty with emotional self-control, which can lead to hurt relationships or put projects, processes, or ideas at risk when they do not go as expected. An industrial sector CEO with these characteristics may have difficulties managing the current situation and effectively leading a team.

Those who score high on the Reserved scale, on the other hand, may appear mentally strong, distant, and unconcerned for other people’s feelings. For leadership to be effective, regular communication with the team (especially in critical circumstances) is essential, and CEOs who are high on the Reserved scale might tend to cut this communication under stress.

Health

The results from the health sector were very interesting. We found three primary risk factors: Bold, Mischievous, and Diligent. High scorers on the Bold scale tend to appear confident, fearless, self-promoting, and unable to admit mistakes or learn from experience. Obviously this is a very high-risk scale for this sector because the ability to learn from experience and correct mistakes is required (and to correct them, you must first admit them).

The Mischievous scale refers to seeming bright, charming, adventurous, risk inclined, and limit testing. If we look at it from this perspective, it can seem positive for this high-pressure sector. However, the risk factor lies in exceeding the limits and overlooking security protocols or basic nonnegotiable principles.

Finally, high scorers on the Diligent scale appear to be hardworking and detail oriented, with high performance standards for themselves and others. Like the Mischievous scale, this may sound positive; however, the risk factor is reflected in “paralysis” behaviors. That is, when this trait arises, the leader (or the team, under the leader’s direction) might not produce the necessary results, because they are not ideal.

Services

CEOs in the services sector also tended to score high on the Bold and Mischievous scales. Obviously, it will always be a risk to have difficulty with accepting feedback or with owning mistakes (Bold) and the possibility of blurring the limits in every sense of the word (Mischievous).

Technology

Technology sector CEOs tended to have high scores on the Bold and Imaginative scales. As it may be evident, arrogance is one of the most common personality traits of people under stress. The Imaginative scale refers to appearing innovative, creative, possibly eccentric, and sometimes self-focused. The risk factor stems from behaviors such as difficulty landing or executing ideas and difficulty communicating in a practical and easily understandable way. In circumstances like these, it is of great importance to work from practicality, because theorizing, analyzing, thinking and rethinking projects will not monetize what little you can.

Textiles

In the textiles sector, the Leisurely scale is the main risk. This refers to appearing friendly and cooperative but actually acting on personal priorities while resisting the priorities of others in a passive but stubborn way. Real and open synergy is a necessary condition for the survival of teams and companies, and behaviors such as being privately uncooperative can put synergy at risk. For leadership to be effective, it is important to control these types of scenarios.

Transportation

Turning to the transportation sector, we found behaviors associated with the Colorful scale to be the main risk factor. Just as in the financial sector, a high score on this scale can be a double-edged sword that leads to making one-sided decisions or generating panic in teams.

Tourism

Finally, in the tourism sector, we identified three main derailers: Cautious, Bold, and Diligent. The Cautious scale measures risk aversion, fear of failure, and avoidance of criticism. This scale can be challenging because it can lead to difficulties in making risky decisions or decisions without all the necessary information (which is every day in these new conditions).

It is important to emphasize that these are behaviors that arise only under stress, tiredness, or boredom, and do not determine leadership skills, but they can negatively influence results (both human and financial).

Please look out for the third installment of this series to learn about the motivators and values ​​of these CEOs.

*This post was authored by Sara Ruiz, Research and Development Talent Management Model Lead at THUOPER, Hogan’s authorized distributor in Colombia.

“Creativity is intelligence having fun” -Albert Einstein

Globally, since the pandemic began, we are working more hours, engaged in more meetings, sending even more emails, and finding the performance-like nature of video calls exhausting.  As many of us adapt to new environments, it can be difficult to find the time or energy for creativity. However, creativity is what’s needed most if our businesses and organizations are going to survive.

Creative leadership is one of the most critical and sought-after skills for leading in uncertain times. Read on for four tips to get you started in unleashing the creativity of you and your team in a virtual world.

#1  Rely on your Strengths

You don’t need to be a creative person to nurture a creative environment. The Leadership Forecast Series can help you identify your personal leadership strengths; and all of those strengths can be used to drive creativity on your team. Perhaps you are known for creating detailed and organized processes. If so, ensure your process contains a window for creative ideas that positively impact the overall result. Perhaps you’re a great listener. Set up a virtual listening tour with consumers, employees, or other stakeholders to gather their ideas on how to solve a challenging problem. Building a creative environment requires prioritizing creativity, not just being creative. Use the strengths you have to nurture a creative environment and outcome.

#2  Ask For It

When we need a higher degree of innovation, one strategy we can employ is to ensure we have creative people on the team. Hogan has identified a set of personality characteristics that are most likely to contribute to innovation. While people are one element, so is permissibility.  Studies have shown that simply asking people to be more creative can increase the number of ideas they produce. In a virtual world, along with asking for it, you need to create space. Some organizations are setting defined meeting hours, eliminating Friday meetings, or eliminating the video component to reduce exhaustion – specifically to give people more space and time to lean in on creativity. If creativity is needed for your team to win, you’ll need to value it and prioritize it. That means asking for it, setting clear goals, ensuring people have the time, and rewarding it when you see it.

#3   Get Out…

…of the house that is. The pandemic has many of us spending more time indoors than usual. However, research shows that a change of scenery and doing nothing are critical for creative thinking. Take control of your virtual environment by scheduling time to get out of the house for walks, gardening, or just sitting on the steps. Time doing nothing isn’t time wasted. It’s actually when the best ideas are formulated and stirred. The Institute for Advanced Studies, known for numerous scientific breakthroughs and a place where Albert Einstein spent a great deal of time on faculty, is known for nurturing creativity. They describe their environment as “simple…comfortable…quiet…and [full of] tranquility.”  If that doesn’t sound like your work environment, find time every day to create that level of quiet and tranquility for yourself, and encourage your team to do the same.

#4   Honor Your Curiosity

Nurture your creativity by following your curiosity. A new idea may not present itself in a fully formed state. Instead, it often starts out as a curiosity that leads to a path of innovation. So next time you are curious about something, honor it by following it. As kids we did this instinctually. We followed whatever was interesting at the moment. As we mature, many of us learn to ignore our curiosities in service to efficiency and productivity. “I don’t have time to look into that – I have to complete Project X.”  While that may be true, at least write down your curiosities when you have them so you can fully explore them later. Ignoring them may be ignoring the beginning of your next and most important innovation – for you or your business.

*This post was authored by Arlene Pace Green, Ph.D. – Executive Coach & Consultant, Enelra Talent Solutions, LLC, and member of the Hogan Coaching Network.

With many workers returning to their offices, preventing the spread of COVID-19 and protecting employee health is a top priority for business leaders. While initiatives like enhanced sanitation and social distancing policies are a must, the biggest threat to workplace health and safety is often overlooked by managers—recruiting safety-conscious staff.

The Hogan Safety Report, which scores candidates on several components of safety-conscious behavior, has identified six personality traits that recruiters should look for in new candidates.

Compliant

The Compliant scale measures a candidate’s willingness to follow rules and guidelines. Those scoring highly here follow rules effortlessly and tend to adhere closely to instructions set out by management. In the post-COVID workspace, it is important to have team members who respect new health and safety policies without exception. Compliant individuals are reliable and thoughtful additions to the team, following instructions closely to protect their own health and the health of their team.

Strong

People make mistakes when they are under pressure. Protective measures like social distancing are new concepts in the workplace, so employees will need to stay alert and maintain safety standards – even under stress. When it comes to health and safety, even small mishaps like forgetting to wipe surfaces can have a tremendous impact on others. High scorers on the Strong scale remain steady and composed under pressure and can navigate stressful situations without compromising on health and safety.

Poised

The Poised scale measures an individual’s ability to remain calm and level-headed in adverse situations. High scorers can manage their anger well and are less likely to lose their temper and make mistakes. New health and safety measures like hand-washing and wearing face masks may create obstacles in some professions, making daily activities more challenging at first. It is important to hire individuals who are well-equipped to deal with small ‘nuisances’ calmly without becoming frustrated and careless.

Vigilant 

The Vigilant scale is a robust predictor of safety-conscious behavior in candidates. Vigilant individuals are focused workers and are not easily distracted by their surroundings. Individuals that are concise and attentive to details are less likely to make mistakes that place their team at risk, which makes them valuable in the post-COVID workspace.

Cautious

The Cautious scale measures an individual’s risk-taking tendencies. Cautious scorers make sure to pause and evaluate their options before making risky decisions. Now more than ever, people are being encouraged to think twice about everyday activities and interactions, like shaking hands, to mitigate the risk of spreading COVID-19. Leaders will benefit greatly from hiring cautious and considerate candidates who think twice about how their actions impact their entire team.

Trainable

Finally, it is important to note that when faced with great change, humans make mistakes. As businesses reopen, the post-COVID workplace will present many new challenges for workers and training will be necessary. Trainable candidates are receptive to feedback and easily coached on new initiatives. Having team members who enjoy learning and are willing to correct their mistakes and take advice will be an asset to leaders moving forward. Trainable candidates will make the most out of this new approach to work and will be a positive and uplifting addition to the team.

“Unsafe employee behaviors can have many negative impacts on businesses, costing them billions and placing the health and safety of fellow employees at risk” says now-former Hogan CEO Scott Gregory. “This is particularly salient in a post-COVID business climate, where occupational health and safety is a major concern for employees and business leaders alike. When the health of your business and the general public is at stake, it is time to ensure you are hiring and coaching employees who will be attentive to their own, their co-workers’, and their customers’ safety. The key to this lies in personality.”

Many of our clients use Hogan Assessments to support selection and talent development programs. Due to the pandemic, however, selection has (understandably) been cut back dramatically. Now, HR teams have to focus on more difficult people issues while learning and development programs may be put on hold.

However, we still speak to HR professionals and coaches on a daily basis about support for different types of people initiatives. Not surprisingly, at a time when leaders are making decisions in high-pressure circumstances, and with budgets tighter than ever, addressing difficult people issues is extra complicated. As a result, we are keen to encourage clients to use valuable resources that are already available to them.

Many have not thought about using existing resources to support pressing, often unavoidable interventions. Here are three of the most common situations where we have been able to recommend organizations take another look at the Hogan Assessment data they already hold.

Leaders Under Pressure

The last three months have caused unprecedented stress for those in senior positions, who have had to balance the future survival of their organizations with the welfare and motivation of their workforces. Many leaders are showing signs of derailers, or performance risks, which are starting to impede their effectiveness and create problems with relationships. But we have also seen many leaders who appear to thrive despite what is happening because they see present problems as new and interesting challenges. Revisiting Hogan Development Survey (HDS) scores can provide real insight for leaders about how their natural coping mechanisms may be showing up and help identify strategies to manage them.

Virtual Teams

While there was already a push to more remote working and less travel, teams meeting virtually with little or no face-to-face contact have increased exponentially. Some people enjoy the independence, while others miss the close collaboration. Some teams must completely adapt how they work to stand still, let alone become high performing. Collective Hogan data can help teams understand their collective strengths and skill gaps; how they are likely to communicate, innovate, and adapt; and how their culture and values might influence their approach.

Organizational Restructuring

We have been hearing about more cases of downsizing and mergers of departments and functions, which mean people are being displaced and roles are disappearing. Existing Hogan results can serve as additional objective data during times of difficult decisions. Hogan results provide information to help identify candidates who will be best placed to succeed in new roles with changed responsibilities and requirements. For those who find themselves in the really unfortunate position of losing their jobs, Hogan profiles can be used to support outplacement by helping to identify how people work through the emotional rollercoaster and by highlighting roles and environments that are likely to play to their strengths and values in future.

While the dynamics and focus may have changed, HR professionals and coaches are still supporting people on a daily basis. Hogan’s suite of tools identifies how people are likely to show up at their best and, in times of pressure, at their worst — providing insights during difficult, ambiguous, and complex times. It’s time to take another look at existing Hogan reports.

*This post was authored by Melvyn Payne, Commercial Director for Advanced People Strategies.

The new realities shaped by the disruptive and complex moment we are experiencing are completely different for each organization. This situation is forcing some companies to completely reinvent themselves, while others are unable to operate as needed. Others (the least common group, especially in Colombia) are seeing turnover grow at unexpected levels. The personality characteristics of the CEOs of the companies influence the consequences that each of the companies is experiencing as a result of the pandemic.

The Leader in Times of Crisis Program

In alliance with the Bogota Chamber of Commerce, Thuoper, one of Hogan’s strategic partners, built the Leader in Times of Crisis program to study the personality traits of more than 200 CEOs in Colombia. The program’s main objective was help leaders achieve a higher level of strategic self-awareness, understand how to manage the crisis, and emerge stronger than before.

As part of the program, the CEOs completed Hogan’s personality tests — the Hogan Personality Inventory, the Hogan Development Survey, and the Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory — and attended a webinar during which Liliana López, CEO of Thuoper and expert in organizational leadership, explained the methodology and key personality characteristics for handling crisis effectively.

Subsequently, Thuoper’s research and development team analyzed the CEOs’ personality test results and found important patterns between their results and their companies’ economic sectors. This article, the first in a three-part series, will focus on how the CEOs scored on the Hogan Personality Inventory, or HPI, which evaluates seven aspects of personality that tend to appear during everyday situations.

Financial

Among CEOs in the financial sector, we saw a pattern involving the Sociability and Inquisitive scales. Sociability refers to interest in frequent and varied social interaction — these are leaders who facilitate and promote communication and socialization in virtual spaces with their teams. Inquisitive refers to creativity and openness to new ideas, which is highly positive for this sector, as the sector is typically rigid without much change. This shows that they are leaders willing to rethink the way they do business and create new strategies different from the traditional ones.

Industrial

In the industrial sector, CEOs scored similarly on the Prudence, Inquisitive, and Learning Approach scales. Prudence has to do with self-control, being conscientious, and having a good work ethic. The CEOs’ overall results demonstrate that they can make good decisions guided by planning and structure, while balancing flexibility and challenging traditional paradigms. The Learning Approach scale describes a person’s learning style. In these particular results, CEOs demonstrate a good balance between learning through practical experience, which is key during times of uncertainty, and an interest in learning in academic spaces, which today are virtual. Curiosity, one of the characteristics measured by the Inquisitive scale, also plays a key role in this sector due to the creativity and willingness to rethink problems that this crisis requires.

Health

We found that Interpersonal Sensitivity, Prudence, and Learning Approach were the scales on which CEOs in the health sector scored highest. It is not a surprise to find that the Interpersonal Sensitivity scale appeared in this sector. This scale measures warmth and social ability, which are of great importance during this difficult time for humanity. Our analysis shows that CEOs of companies in this sector have the ability to transmit these skills as values ​​within their organizations.

Services

Our findings were equally as interesting within the services sector. We found that the Inquisitive and Adjustment scales prevailed among these CEOs. Adjustment is particularly important during these times, as it has to do with the ability to manage stress, control emotions, and listen to feedback. These results show that these CEOs have the ability to maintain a balance between acting with a sense of urgency, openly listening to feedback from the environment, and managing their emotions in the face of the crisis to avoid creating panic in their companies.

Technology

Technology CEOs’ most notable scores were on the Prudence, Inquisitive, and Interpersonal Sensitivity scales. For this sector, the importance of the Inquisitive scale is highlighted because it is the one that allows the industry to remain at the forefront under realistic and achievable parameters. The scale of Interpersonal Sensitivity is also striking in this sector, as one might think that technology companies would be removed from people and the human factor. This demonstrates the ability of these CEOs to integrate technology and innovation with the human side. From a team perspective, these CEOs should also be able to keep their teams engaged.

Textiles

In the textiles sector, we noticed a pattern in the leaders’ Inquisitive and Interpersonal Sensitivity scores. This sector will be one of the ones that will have to reinvent itself the most, given the new commercial and market conditions caused by the pandemic. Consumer habits are changing, and this turn will be even more marked post-pandemic, so curiosity will help these CEOs design new, nontraditional strategies.

Transportation

Among CEOs in the Transportation sector, scores on the Sociability and Prudence scales prevailed. This sector is one of those that will have significant reinvention challenges since it requires people to be face to face. Sociability will play a crucial role within organizational culture to keep employees involved and connected to each other.

Tourism

Finally, in the tourism sector, we obtained very interesting findings. Given that this is one of the sectors hit hardest by COVID-19, these CEOs are facing challenges never before imagined. We found their Ambition and Adjustment scores to be their main strengths. The Ambition scale predicts leadership, drive, competitiveness, and initiative — which are essential to getting out of a situation as complicated as the one many tourism companies find themselves in. These results indicate a good prognosis. Surely many of these organizations be strong enough to withstand the impact of this crisis once it has passed.

We invite you to stay connected with us for the second part of this series to learn about these CEOs’ behavioral risks, which could derail their companies’ survival goals in this time of crisis.

*This post was authored by Sara Ruiz, Research and Development Talent Management Model Lead at THUOPER, Hogan’s authorized distributor in Colombia.

Earlier this year, before the global pandemic, I returned to the office after an extended business trip. When I walked into the building, the environment felt different. The building was the same, the furniture was where it had been before, and my colleagues were still the same lovely people, but the atmosphere felt somewhat unfamiliar. It was because there had been a break in my routine. Humans are creatures of habit — we rely on routines to help us manage our busy schedules, remain productive, and keep us sane. When our routines change, we must adapt, create new strategies, or run the risk of being ineffective, unproductive, or even misaligned.

COVID-19 has significantly impacted team functioning. In our work with organizations during the pandemic, we have observed three common challenges that teams are facing today:

1. Teams that were once co-located are now dispersed and working virtually.
2. Teams have lost or added new team members due to layoffs and reorganization.
3. Teams have been asked to put annual business plans aside and focus efforts on new priorities.

Regardless of the challenge your team is facing, spending time realigning the team’s values and norms, recommitting to desired behaviors, and remaining agile and adaptable can make all the difference in your team’s ability to remain effective and competitive. Spending this time together can help make the unfamiliar feel familiar again.

Accelerating Team Effectiveness

At Hogan, we believe that the following measures can accelerate your team’s long-term effectiveness.

Acknowledge the Impact

• How has the global pandemic affected you personally?
• How has the global pandemic affected your team?

Your team must first create a safe space for each member to accept that things have changed and acknowledge the impact that these changes have had, recognizing that the impact will differ for each team member. Additionally, the sudden departure from face-to-face team interactions to operating virtually has likely created challenges that the team must overcome. Be honest about the challenges and reaffirm trust by regularly setting aside time to have open and honest conversations.

Revisit Team Values and the Culture Values Create

• What did our team culture look like before the pandemic?
• What does it look like today?
• What does it need to look like in the future?

Every team member has individual values that guide his or her actions. When most team members share the same values, the team is likely to experience increased cohesion. Values form the basis for the team’s culture and norms; therefore, culture is the sum of what we value. Using data from Hogan’s Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI), your team can begin to explore values to determine the impact to the current team culture and discuss the culture the team would like to create in the future. While your individual and team values might not have changed as a result of the pandemic, the ways in which those values are being met might have.

Adjust Team Norms

• What are our rules for interacting and communicating with one another?
• What adjustments do we need to make to our team norms?

Over time, teams create norms and behavioral standards that accrue into a team’s culture and reputation. Often these norms operate at the unconscious level, guiding our daily behaviors. Teams operate more effectively when clear and consistent rules guide their interactions and processes. Using data from the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI), your team can begin to explore behaviors that inform the team’s standards of operating and team culture.

Practice Adaptability

• How do we need to pivot to meet the needs of the organization?
• What might get in our way?

Organizations are making dramatic efforts to stay relevant during the global pandemic. Many are expanding parts of their business (e.g., manufacturing) and reskilling talent to support new priorities. Effective organizations and teams need to focus on driving and adapting business strategy to derive competitive advantage. As such, your team must respond to the changing needs of the business by rethinking its goals and priorities. But change can induce stress, and stress can cause counterproductive behaviors to emerge. Using data from the Hogan Development Survey (HDS), your team can begin to explore behaviors that could interfere with the team’s ability to manage change, drive results, and remain agile in the changing business environment.

In summary, given our current environment, it is critical for you to identify any challenges your team is facing. Are you a dispersed team, a newly formed team, or a team facing new or changing priorities? Once you are aware of the challenges, consider how you can apply the concepts we discussed in this blog. You’ll likely find that your team has strengths that can be leveraged and gaps that need to be addressed in order to accelerate effectiveness.

*This post was co-authored by Hogan’s Erin Laxson, Holly Paine Magnuson, and Jessie McClure.

Entrepreneurs tend to have a heroic status around the globe — and for good reason. Entrepreneurialism encourages individual proactivity, creativity, and economic vitality, yet a significant number of startups fail for many well-documented reasons. The organizational psychologist in me wonders: What does personality psychology have to say about derailed entrepreneurial enterprises?

As noted, entrepreneurs play a key role in keeping economies competitive. They are known for removing the old and inefficient and replacing it with the new and improved, which suggests that entrepreneurs are creative people. Michael Kirton’s work on creative problem-solving shows how entrepreneurial people often take an innovative approach by questioning assumptions, redefining the problem, and introducing different solutions.

The Dark Side of the Entrepreneurial Personality

But is there a downside to the entrepreneurial personality? In a study examining dark-side personality characteristics, 256 entrepreneurs, who were in the early stages of building technology companies in the United States, completed the Hogan Development Survey (HDS). The results showed that average scores were particularly high for the Leisurely, Mischievous, and Imaginative scales. On the upside, this indicates that others are likely to see entrepreneurs as people who march to the beat of their own drum, are willing to move quickly, break the rules, and think in novel or unusual ways. This aligns nicely with the literature on entrepreneurship and the characteristics of creative people in general. Furthermore, it reconfirms the reputation that entrepreneurs have in the world at large as rebels, disruptors, and innovators.

The HDS predicts how derailment is likely to take shape by pinpointing the Janus faces of positive personality characteristics. Entrepreneurs are likely to have an overemphasized sense of autonomy and a tendency to be stubborn or indifferent (high Leisurely). They are also susceptible to crossing the line that divides constructive rebelliousness from destructive recklessness (high Mischievous). Finally, they can go from proposing original ideas to suggesting ideas that may seem odd or rash (high Imaginative). Just like Icarus of the classic Greek fable, the entrepreneur’s greatest assets can become serious liabilities.

Derailment Among Entrepreneurs

What are the implications of this derailment pattern? The research of economist Danny Miller on the downfall of companies is instructive. Miller, the author of The Icarus Paradox: How Exceptional Companies Bring About Their Own Downfall, shows that when inventive entrepreneurs (he calls them pioneers) are in command, they bring about their own downfalls because they innovate too much and become what he calls escapists. This means a firm’s hot pursuit of technological advancement might lead an entrepreneur to introduce impractical or expensive products. Entrepreneurs are also prone to prematurely making their own offerings obsolete. Additionally, the organizational structure inside these firms can go from organic to chaotic. Miller identifies Minneapolis-based Control Data Corporation as emblematic of the pioneer-to-escapist trajectory. Now broken up, Control Data Corporation once excelled as a designer of supercomputers. Can pioneering entrepreneurs avoid the pull of this beaten downward path?

The first step to avoiding derailment is understanding how you are likely to derail in the first place. Hogan calls this “strategic self-awareness.” The key to self-improvement is understanding how you come across to others when at your best and at your worst. The second step is assembling a team that counteracts your counterproductive behaviors. Adam Lashinsky, author of Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired—And Secretive—Company Really Works, says that enlightened team building was a pivotal reason for the mercurial Steve Jobs’s successful second tenure. The moral of the story is this: First, seek to understand how you are most likely to overdo your strengths, then seek to build a team with complementary strengths. Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.

*This is a guest post authored by Jorge Fernandez, a member of the Hogan Coaching Network.

Automation has long been altering labor markets and eliminating jobs. Recent research suggests that up to 47% of U.S. jobs are at risk of becoming automated within the next 20 years.¹ That percentage varies from country to country, but it consistently falls above the 40% mark. Although automation is largely thought to threaten low-skill jobs, advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence have made advanced-skill jobs, such as contract lawyer or diagnostician, vulnerable.

Companies have focused on reskilling existing employees — and not simply hiring new employees for new skills — for two related reasons. First, recruiting, hiring, and onboarding new employees with in-demand skills is an expensive undertaking. Second, as the rate of technological change increases, the skills companies need also change more quickly. In other words, the skills a company requires today can quickly become obsolete.

Characteristics of Successful Employees

We examined what characteristics help immunize people from technology-driven job loss and what skills experts believe will help people in the future labor market. The former helps identify what draws people to jobs more resistant to automation. The latter helps identify what people need to succeed in a variety of jobs, if needed.

Rodica Damian, PhD, who was part of Hogan’s Distinguished Speaker Series last year, found that people with five characteristics were more likely to choose less automatable jobs: intelligence, maturity (largely Conscientiousness), extraversion, job interests focused on arts and science, and lack of job interests focused on things and people.

The World Bank argues that people need three skills for the upcoming workforce: advanced cognitive skills, sociobehavioral skills (such as interpersonal skills and teamwork), and adaptability.²

The National Research Council’s task force on 21st century work skills identified a similar set of skills: cognitive skills (such as problem solving), interpersonal skills (such as teamwork), and intrapersonal skills (such as adaptability and self-management).³

A large focus of reskilling efforts concern identifying skill gaps that companies can fill using traditional training, such as for data science techniques. Although these types of skills are helpful, the characteristics suggested in our research tend to converge around three relatively stable characteristics: having good interpersonal skills, being able to learn new skills as needed, and being dependable and hardworking. These three characteristics are the basis of the Hogan General Employability Report, which uses decades’ worth of Hogan research to predict successful performance across multiple types of jobs and industries.

Identifying Candidates for Reskilling

When trying to identify people who will be successful when reskilling or transferring to new jobs, we recommend the following:

• Go with a well-validated assessment – Many of the characteristics companies need are measured by personality or cognitive ability assessments. Understanding how these assessments predict meaningful outcomes helps guarantee you can make meaningful decisions.
• Use an assessment that’s up-to-date and recently validated – Job characteristics change over time. Working populations change over time. The point of reskilling is to overcome older job characteristics. Recent validation studies help show that an assessment continues to predict performance. Recent norms help you better understand and compare people.
• Look out for between-group differences – Reskilling or upskilling is an opportunity to give everyone a chance to succeed. A fair assessment can help ensure no group is left behind.

Click here to watch our on-demand webinar, “Future-Proofing Your Talent for Tomorrow’s Workplace.”

*This post was authored by Hogan’s Darin Nei, PhD, and Brandon Ferrell, PhD.

References

1. Frey, C. B., Osborne, M. (2013). The Future of Employment. Oxford Martin Programme on Technology and Employment. https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/future-of-employment.pdf
2. World Bank. (2018). World Development Report 2019: The Changing Nature of Work. doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-1328-3
3. National Research Council (US) Committee on the Assessment of 21st Century Skills. (2011). Assessing 21st Century Skills: Summary of a Workshop. National Academies Press. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK84218/