We’ve talked about the good aspects of being a narcissist, especially when climbing the corporate ladder, but what about humility? When placed side-by-side, the two qualities bring to mind arch nemeses – hubris, the ever-charming yet self-absorbed compatriot, and humility, the soft-spoken, humble negotiator.

While narcissists’ secret power is their compelling charisma which masks their weaknesses, the humble wield an arguably even greater power – the power of modesty.

People with low self-confidence and ambition constantly evaluate their weaknesses and work tirelessly to improve while individuals with narcissistic tendencies tend to listen to positive feedback and ignore the negative.

Jim Collins, a leading authority on management and author of Good to Great, spent more than 30 years investigating why certain organizations are more successful than others. Collins found that companies led by modest managers consistently outperformed their competitors, and tended to be the dominant players in their sectors. He also found that humble leaders tended to stay at their organizations longer than their arrogant counterparts, and that their companies continue to perform well even after they leave because humble leaders often ensure a succession plan before they depart.

Learn more about the secret powers of both narcissistic and humble leaders and judge for yourself which side you’re on in our ebook Hubris or Humility?

There are more than 80 million Millennials in the U.S.; about one million more than there are baby boomers. Experts predict that individuals born between 1980 and the early 200s will make up more than 40% of the labor force by 2020. That’s a lot of high-potential Millennials stuck working as individual contributors, and that’s a big problem.

Although it temporarily alleviates the skills gap HR managers expected, Boomers’ lagging retirement is creating a new kind of skills gap: a gap in soft skills.

Fortunately, soft skills can be learned, it just takes a more innovative approach.  Check out these 5 keys for developing your Millennial employees and keeping them engaged in a multi-generational workforce.

We combined Hogan’s experience developing executives at more than half of the Fortune 500 with research on Millennial learning styles to come up with five keys for developing your millennial employees.

1.     Start with science: Tools like valid personality assessments and 360-degree feedback from not just a supervisor, but a peer and subordinate level can give participants a realistic view of their strengths and hidden blind spots. Without a basis in objective, scientific assessment, any type of development program will experience very limited success.

2.     Allow for self-gudiance: Millennials are digital natives. Forget about in-person courses and workshops. Instead, development tools should provide mobile, anytime access to a broad, but targeted library of resources that participants can work into an action plan.

To continue reading the next three steps and learn about the new skills gap HR managers are facing, check out our ebook, The Kids (Millennials) are All Right.

With content ranging from 17 Maya Angelou Quotes That Will Inspire You To Be A Better Person to quizzes like Which Sandwich Are You?, BuzzFeed continues to gain followers and disrupt work flow.

“We love lists: they produce a fake sense of logic and rationality, as if they presented a formulaic argument or tautology,” writes Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic in his latest Guardian article on the appealing aspects of BuzzFeed. How does this media sharing phenomenon continue to be the envy of marketers and media outlets everywhere? Check out Chamorro-Premuzic’s reasoning on 18 human traits that explain why readers can’t get enough of BuzzFeed.

With technology and organizations more advanced and complex than they’ve ever been, HR is struggling to keep up the good fight. “Unfortunately, what we see is HR systems developed ad-hoc; one set of tools for selection, another for middle managers, and another for high-level leadership development, and none of those systems communicate,” said Ryan Ross, vice president of Global Alliances at Hogan.

The problem is that this information often comes from divergent systems, and therefore lacks context or common language. If HR wants to act strategically, it needs to consolidate those systems so that data can be viewed in context. The key to getting quality people in all levels of an organization is to “put a system in place that stays relevant throughout the entire employee lifecycle,” said Ross.

Check out the 4 other issues HR is running up against in our ebook How to Conquer the 5 Things Keeping HR up at Night.

With a college background in literature, I tend to relate ideas and concepts to narrative forms deriving anywhere from the classics to contemporary rom-coms (I don’t discriminate). So, when I see narcissism trending in the news, I inevitably search my story database for an exaggerated narcissistic character for comparison. And who should pop into my head other than that dastardly fink, Daniel Cleaver from Bridget Jones’s Diary, a contemporary version of Jane Austen’s antagonist, the rakish Mr. Wickham.

It’s rather obvious that what the poor sod lacks in self-awareness, he makes up for in smiles and charm. In fact, he charms his charismatic self right into the heart of his employee, the love-struck Bridget Jones. Though Jones, who makes some missteps and judgment follies of her own, eventually wises up to his masquerade, Cleaver never does. He’s so good at impression management and making others buy into his winning personality, that he dupes even himself. In a recent Harvard Review blog, Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic explains that “such delusions of grandeur allow narcissists to be more effective manipulators than individuals who are politically savvy but inhibited by their inability to distort reality or morality in their favor. It is always easier to fool others when you have already fooled yourself.”

Fortunately, “one of the unique characteristics of narcissistic individuals,” says Chamorro-Premuzic, “is their inability to prolong their seductive powers for too long…Their initial flamboyance, charm and confidence soon morphs into deluded self-admiration, defensive arrogance, and moral disengagement.” Well, that’s spot on for Cleaver. His charismatic and charming illusion fades along with his control of the situation, and his true colors – deceit, questionable morals, and unmitigated arrogance – begin to peek through his carefully manicured exterior.

While narcissism can help individuals get ahead in their career and isn’t necessarily a bad characteristic to embody, Chamorro-Premuzic says that “the critical ingredients for success are competence rather than confidence, altruism rather than egotism, and integrity rather than charisma.” In the end, I almost feel sorry for Daniel Cleaver. While he may bounce back quickly due to his narcissistic never-at-fault attitude, without proper self-awareness, he’ll just keep making the same mistakes over and over and over again.

As Big Data and technology swoop in to change the face of HR forever, it’s no wonder HR practitioners are having a few nightmares about their future. We’ve identified 5 problem children for the HR industry this year:

1)     Recruiting – Every time a new employee fails (which is, according to our research, half of them), the cost to the employer is more than 150% of the candidate’s salary.

2)     Retaining Talent – Voluntary turnover is on the rise. A survey by Future Workplace showed that 91% of Millennials expected to stay at a job for fewer than three years.

3)     Millennials – A survey of more than 37,000 college students showed that narcissistic personality traits rose as fast as obesity rates from the 1980s to the present. That’s a lot of ego for one entry-level employee.

4)     Succession Planning – According to a SilkRoad survey, only 38 percent of companies are prepared for the sudden retirement of a top executive.

5)     HR Business Function – Fifty-three percent of SilkRoad’s survey respondents were most concerned about developing an HR organization that acts strategically rather than tactically.

But wait, there’s hope! Find out how to keep HR nightmares at bay in our ebook, How to Conquer the 5 Things Keeping HR up at Night.

“You don’t have to be a total narcissist to be a successful executive – but a solid dash of ego can help,” Rachel Feintzeig, a management reporter for the Wall Street Journal, writes in WSJ’s At Work blog. And she’s right. Citing sources from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and Hogan Assessments, she delves into the controversial topic of narcissism in the workplace. Hogan’s managing partner Rodney Warrenfeltz discusses the implications of Bold scores in the 70-90 range and above on the Hogan Development Survey. Despite its stigma, narcissism and “being able to influence people is a crucial part of effective leadership” writes Feintzeig.

Read the whole article here.

Hiring managers live in the most technologically advanced age yet. We’ve gone digital – our complete work and life experience all neatly splayed out on LinkedIn and Facebook. So why has recruitment not progressed beyond the interview? In his latest blog for The Guardian, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic offers 4 reasons the digital age has yet to revolutionize recruitment.
 
Reason 1: “You can only predict what you can measure.” Many companies rely on gut instincts in their hiring process which leads to what Chamorro-Premuzic calls “a game of untested predictions, which turns recruitment into a leap of faith.” If companies want a more reliable hiring system, they should take advantage of measurement tools that process the mass of data available in the digital age. Hogan’s assessment suite uncovers the hidden attributes of the shy researcher and removes the mask of charm from a less-skilled candidate so employers can make more informed hiring decisions through psychometric assessments.
 
Check out reasons 2, 3, and 4 which deal with crowdsourcing talent, data scraping, and gamification in the full blog post.

Are you good at reading people? How about reading your boss? In his Huffington Post article “Reversed Leadership: How to Manage Your Boss,” Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic offers a crash course in behavioral analysis.
 
Is your boss the quiet type? Impulsive? Creative? A hedonistic workaholic? Once you’ve profiled him like the BAU squad in Criminal Minds, check out Chamorro-Premuzic’s advice for how to get around his quirks and idiosyncrasies. “Figure out who he is, what he wants, and why he does what he does; work out the bright- and the dark-side aspects of his personality. Then, adjust your behaviors to fit with his style, values, and interests,” suggests Chamorro-Premuzic. Check out the full article and learn a few helpful tips on dealing with your boss.