In the past, product and service delivery were expressed in abstract terms like “as soon as we can” or “the best we can.” Gradually, time of product and service delivery became metrics driven. Yet many organizational functions — specifically those guided by people and so-called “soft skills” — were still not considered to be measurable.

Leadership development, for example, was not easy to quantify because no one could be sure if the methods were actually effective, or if they simply “made sense” or were “thought provoking.” Metrics-driven leadership development makes the soft skills that are integral to organizational success measurable by tying them to critical business objectives.

Leadership Development Metrics Link Talent Strategy with Business Strategy

Metrics-driven leadership development is similar to metrics-driven waste reduction, metrics-driven capital investment and metrics-driven supply chain management. These and other business functions have the following in common:

1. The best competitors will be using metrics to optimize them.
2. Customers willing to pay a premium expect continuous improvement in all of them.
3. Leaders and employees want to be assured that tomorrow will be better than today.
4. Investors expect that leader effectiveness will be guided by processes that are just as disciplined as other major functions of the organization.

The quality revolution was inspired by defining quality more specifically, namely “what the customer expects and is willing to pay for.” If you deliver packages worldwide, you have a wealth of information about the locations and speed of transport of those packages, and your customers’ expectations are shaped by this knowledge.

Similarly, determining which leadership development metrics to track requires consideration of what makes a successful leader. In the past, leadership was defined as “those in power.” A definition of leadership at the heart of metrics-driven development is “the ability to build and sustain a team that succeeds in the marketplace.” Leadership development needs to be measured by a leader’s ability to enhance the effectiveness of the team at achieving low turnover, recruiting with ease, and improving the organization’s position in the market.

Team Performance: A Key Leadership Development Metric

A specific focus on team performance needs to be woven into every step of the leadership development process. When an organization implements a leadership development program, the decision-makers’ specific market expectations should be a central focus, both for those providing the leadership development and for participants. Too often, leaders see the development process as the next step in their individual journeys, without seeing the implications for their teams. It’s too easy to focus on whether the process was personally fulfilling, rather than on improved outcomes for team performance. But it’s team performance that affects an organization’s ability to achieve its goals in the market — and achieving these goals is the chief benefit of a metrics-driven leadership development process.

So, how can your organization ensure that a leadership development program will be successful? The best leadership development processes incorporate feedback loops. Organizations often say that they make decisions using data, but there is no feedback loop to assess the value of the data. In contrast, metrics-driven decision-makers use the feedback loops to learn about which aspects of the leader development process helped achieve the organization’s goals. Focusing on team performance allows the organization to shift from “This leadership development process looks good,” to “We can detect the impact of this process on our teams’ performance.”

This blog post was authored by James M. Fico, PhD, a member of the Hogan Coaching Network.

Becoming a manager for the first time is an exciting career milestone. But because of the magnitude of change involved, making the transition to management can also be nerve-racking for many people. If you’re a new manager or preparing to become a manager, here’s what you can expect as you enter this new phase of your career.

1. Leveraging Different Skills
   
   In the words of Marshall Goldsmith, “What got you here won’t get you there.” Recognize that the strengths that have enabled your success and the derailers that have hindered your effectiveness thus far are probably not the ones that will be important for a new manager. Your Hogan personality test reports are an ideal place to start on this analysis. Think through what strengths your new position requires and what derailers might get you into trouble. How will you alter your behaviors to accommodate these? Remember the importance of situational context (role, culture, manager, and team).
   
   
2. Becoming More Visible
   
   What you say and do matters more now. Because your position has changed, you are under greater scrutiny, and your words and actions have a greater impact. You might say the same thing in the same situation, but it carries more weight by virtue of your position.
   
   
3. Managing Former Peers (and Even Friends)
   
   Being promoted to a management position often means managing people who used to be your peers and, in some cases, your friends. Realize that your relationships with them have been inextricably altered. It’s OK to directly acknowledge this change — they are your direct reports. No matter how much you like them, you are now their manager, and the relationship between managers and reports is different from relationships between peers or friends. You can support them, advocate for them, develop them, provide advice and counsel, etc., but these need to be done from a manager perspective, not a peer or friend perspective. This may mean you’ll need to get out of the loop to some degree. Remember that you’ll also need to provide them with constructive feedback, performance reviews and salary treatment, and perhaps even discipline. These are managerial activities, not friend or peer activities.
   
   
4. Taking the Party Line
   
   Unless you’re being asked to do something illegal or immoral, you need to take the party line, even if you don’t agree with it. It’s fine to express disagreement when you’re discussing decisions with fellow managers, but once a decision is reached, the managers need to be a united front. You can’t say, “Well, I didn’t agree with this, but I was outvoted.”
   
   
5. Liaising Between Organizational Levels
   
   As part of management, you need to provide a buffer between your direct reports and senior managers when your direct reports don’t like a decision or question a policy. Typically, the decision-makers have more information, which influenced their decision, than the people questioning the decision. In other words, you need to be part of the solution and avoid fueling discontent or conflict. Don’t justify your desire to disagree by telling yourself that you’re not being authentic if you’re supporting a decision you don’t completely agree with. Reframe it as something you need to support because of your role.
   
   
6. Using Team Input Effectively
   
   You need to gather input and gain buy-in, but don’t let this result in “management by consensus.” With too much compromise, you can end up with a decision that no one supports. At some point, you might need to make the decision yourself, and it might not be popular with everyone, but at least it will be supported by some. As a manager, you are accountable for the success of the team, and as a result, you are also responsible for the decisions being made.
   
   
7. Making Challenging Decisions
   
   Sometimes you have to decide between right and right. It’s easy to decide between right and wrong, but it’s hard to decide between right and right. On occasion, you’ll be faced with several alternatives, all of which are right. You will need to decide among them and communicate the decision. Sometimes it may feel like there is not a right answer, so try thinking about these two things: First, what is the right answer for the business? Second, what is right for the customer? When these areas align, the tough decisions are easier to make.
   
   
8. Adapting Management Style to Employee Needs
   
   All direct reports are not created equal, and fair treatment does not mean identical treatment. An experienced veteran requires a very different management style from you than a new hire fresh out of college. As long as there’s no hint of favoritism, different treatment can be effective. Keep in mind that the way you previously communicated with someone on your team might need to be altered (that is, if you were formerly peers).
   
   
9. Providing Useful and Timely Feedback
   
   The longer you wait to give someone feedback, the more difficult it will be. When feedback is provided close to the time the coachable behavior was exhibited, everyone involved recalls more details, making it easier to provide coaching and change behavior. Also, it is far easier and more comfortable to receive one small piece of feedback than a lot of feedback that has accumulated over weeks or months. Practice daily (and balanced) feedback.
   
   
10. Keeping the Pace of Work
    
    Speed is your friend. Work will always expand to fill the time available, for both you and your team. Set aggressive deadlines, do the tough tasks first, and follow through consistently.
    
    
11. Asking for Help
    
    Don’t forget you have resources available. You don’t have to make this transition on your own. Utilize other managers and HR for support when you meet a challenge, regardless of how small or large the issue may seem. Your success is measured on the success of your team, so ask for help when you need it.

Congratulations on rising to meet these challenges! Leadership is not for the faint of heart, and some days it may feel like you are running in circles, but what you are doing is important work. Every seemingly minute conversation with a team member helps build trust and provides an opportunity for deeper connection, development opportunities, and growth.

March brings one of my favorite international holidays, International Women’s Day. March 8 is dedicated to celebrating the incredible accomplishments of women. While International Women’s Day reminds us of all the amazing things women can achieve, we should still remember we have a long way to go to achieve equality in the workforce.

To date, only 8.2% of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women, and women comprise only 7.3% of the Fortune 1000 CEOs.¹ Disappointing as these statistics may be, we can and should work actively to make a change. To understand how we can improve the situation, we should first look at some of the factors that cause women to have less opportunity for leadership.

Why Aren’t More Women in Leadership?

According to the paper, “Do Women Want to Lead? Gender Differences in Motivation and Values,” complex factors contribute to the lack of women in leadership roles.² Extensive research has been done on the topic, however, and the lack of women leaders can be boiled down to three main reasons.

The first is discrimination. Women who apply for leadership roles are rejected more often than men. This causes women to apply for fewer leadership roles, reinforcing the idea that women do not want to be in positions of leadership.

The second is gender stereotypes. Women who are more assertive, display more agency, and are more directive tend to be viewed as aggressive and in a more negative light when compared to male counterparts. Women are often encouraged to “lean in” (in reference to the Sheryl Sandberg book). But when women do show more self-confidence — such as in negotiating, for example — they are often penalized.³

Third, women often fail to succeed because of the work environment. Working long hours and networking after hours are more difficult for many women. Work-life balance is an increasingly popular concept, but women with families and children still find it more difficult than men to strike a fair balance. Research from the U.S. Federal Reserve Board found that the pandemic disrupted childcare and the ability to perform in-person work for 70% of American families, and 25% of mothers reported having to quit work or work less due to these disruptions.⁴

According to a report from McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org, “Women in the Workplace 2021,” senior executive women are now more significantly burnt out than their male counterparts.⁵ On a positive note, the report notes that women are doing more than men at their level for improving diversity, equity, and inclusion, and for providing support to teams. Unfortunately, their work is going unrecognized and unrewarded by their companies.

Closing the Gender Gap

By taking proactive steps to recognize and support women in leadership positions, organizations can start changing the environment to build a pathway to success for future women leaders. Addressing burnout, providing recognition and rewards for women leaders, and fostering inclusion and belonging are all necessary measures for organizations to take.⁵

A diverse pipeline for executive talent is also critical to putting more women in leadership roles.¹ Hogan has often preached using personality assessments to build these pipelines. Research shows that personality assessment scores do not differ in any meaningful way across demographics, making them useful for organizations seeking to make more equitable talent decisions. Not to mention, Hogan was founded with the goal of producing discrimination-free assessments that would predict occupational performance as well as or better than traditional methods (such as IQ testing or interviews).  

Call to Action

Back in 2008, I worked on a high-potential mentoring project for a major oil company based in the Middle East whose headquarters only employed men for leadership roles. The CEO of this Fortune 500 company spoke frankly to the room of 20-plus high potentials, all men. He told them that the biggest weakness their company faced was the lack of diversity. He said that by eliminating 50% of the potential workforce (women), they were automatically less competitive and setting themselves up for failure.

I would propose that we are all not using the full potential of our workforce, as evidenced by women comprising only 7.3% of the Fortune 1000 CEOs even though research tells us that women are just as capable as (if not more than) men in leadership positions. By not supporting, promoting, and affording leadership opportunities to women, our organizations are not reaching peak performance potential.

At Hogan, we encourage companies to raise the bar for everyone. Using objective personality data to select and develop the best possible talent will not only help companies improve performance, but it will also have the additional benefit of supporting their diversity, equity, and inclusion goals. By including everyone, we all win.

This blog post was authored by Hogan Director of Asia-Pacific Business Development Krista Pederson.

References

1. Women CEOs in America: Changing the Face of Business Leadership. (2021). Women Business Collaborative. https://www.wbcollaborative.org/women-ceo-report 

Early in my career, a friend and mentor shared sage advice with me. When you begin exploring other job or career opportunities, be certain you are running toward the new opportunity and not away from your current situation. Since then, I’ve always approached career growth and transition with intention, asking myself: Will this new opportunity fulfill me? Will I be challenged? Will it teach me something I want, should, or need to know?

The current working climate, shaped by technology, generational differences, and the global pandemic, has caused staggering numbers of individuals to evaluate their current working conditions. Because it has resulted in so many choosing to leave their jobs and organizations, this phenomenon has been coined the Great Resignation (aka the Big Quit, Great Reprioritization, Extraordinary Exodus, Great Renegotiation … you get the idea!).

So, why are people quitting their jobs? In my experience, individuals make career decisions based on two primary drivers: empowerment and burnout.

Empowerment:

“Now is the time for me to make a bold move. I’ve worked hard, and I deserve this. I’m ready!”

Individuals who feel empowered tend to be running toward a new opportunity. They may be experiencing a heightened sense of self-worth and confidence. Psychological empowerment represents intrinsic task motivation that reflects a sense of self-control and active involvement in one’s work. People who feel empowered feel in control of their career destiny. The feeling of control can lead to intentional action.

I was recently speaking with a senior executive of a Fortune 100 company who made the decision to trade her six-figure salary for a career as an artist. She began painting during the pandemic and realized that life was just too short to spend it doing something that made her only marginally happy.

Burnout:

“I’m overwhelmed. I can no longer do this! There has to be something better out there for me!”

Individuals experiencing burnout are likely feeling exhaustion and frustration, causing them to run from their current situations and seek solace in new jobs or organizations. Running from (versus toward) a job could lead to a poor employment decision. Individuals with the “grass is always greener” mentality may move quickly into new jobs that fulfill some basic needs but may not fit well long-term.

In a recent blog, my Hogan colleagues defined burnout as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. Further, they point out that people who experience burnout are not typically poor performers but instead those who were once highly engaged in the organization.

I’ve had many conversations in the past year with leaders who feel stuck. Burnout is not just an employee problem; it is an organizational problem. Research shows that individuals experiencing burnout are more likely to take a sick day, have lower confidence in their performance, be less productive, and actively seek new job opportunities.

What Can We Learn from Personality?

Psychological empowerment has not been examined extensively with respect to personality, but a few hypotheses can be made. Previous research has demonstrated a link between feelings of empowerment and two of the Big Five dimensions, extraversion and conscientiousness. This means that individuals who are described as confident, engaging, driven, and communicative tend to be optimistic about their work and therefore may feel more empowered. Additionally, individuals who work hard, are dependable and capable, and plan work in advance may be more comfortable seeking out new opportunities.

There has been more research (due to the current climate and interest) on the relationship between personality and burnout. Research using Hogan’s three measures of personality — Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI), Hogan Development Survey (HDS), and Motives, Values, and Preferences Inventory (MVPI) — has demonstrated a link between personality and burnout. Most notably, individuals who tend to be stress prone and prefer to follow others (versus desiring leadership roles) may be more susceptible to burnout. Additionally, burnout is more common among individuals who are task oriented, have greater concern for productivity (rather than a concern for people), and are more independent.

In summary, the two primary drivers for the Great Resignation are feelings of empowerment and burnout. Now that we’ve explored what may be driving people to seek other opportunities and how personality may shed light on the drivers, we can better plan for a response. In Part 2, we will explore what organizations can do to retain talent and what individuals can do to find meaning in their work.

This blog post was authored by Erin Crane, PhD, international distributors principal consultant. Click here to register for her upcoming webinar, “What’s Driving the Big Quit? A Look at Personality in the Workplace,” on Thursday, April 7.

References

1. Burn-out an “Occupational Phenomenon”: International Classification of Diseases. (2019, May 28). World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases
2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2022, January 4). Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary – November 2021 [Press release]. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/jolts_01042022.pdf
3. Bersin, J., Enderes, K., Mertens, J., & Nangia, N. (2021, December). HR Predictions for 2022. The Josh Bersin Company. https://joshbersin.com/hr-predictions-for-2022/
4. Spreitzer, G. M. (1995). Psychological Empowerment in the Workplace: Dimensions, Measurement, and Validation. Academy of Management Journal, 38(5), 1442-1465. doi.org/10.5465/256865
5. Yazdi, A. M., & Mustamil, N. (2015). Empowerment Potential: Big-Five Personality Traits and Psychological Empowerment. International Business and Management, 11(3), 62-66. doi.org/10.3968/7938

As COVID-19 cases surge once again, organizations that were eager to have employees return to the office are delaying those plans — in many cases, indefinitely. This means that many employees will continue to work from home, whether they like it or not.

There are pros and cons of working from home, both for employees and employers. For example, one common concern among company leadership is about distractions at home and reduced productivity. Some have gone so far as to determine how to monitor employees working from home. On the other hand, working from home has revolutionized the employment perks enjoyed by many workers, offering more flexibility and fewer formalities compared to the office.

Maintaining productivity while ensuring employees stay happy in their roles is a balancing act that organizations strive to perfect. However, as the world’s progress toward ending the pandemic fluctuates, it’s important that both sides of this discussion — employer and employee — take steps to ensure a healthy and prosperous partnership.

Tips for Employees

How to Stay Motivated Working from Home

One of the best ways to stay motivated and avoid burnout is setting goals. But not all goals are made equal. Large, abstract goals that are difficult or time-consuming can be more harmful than helpful, leaving you feeling inadequate as you fail to meet milestones. Instead, set small, attainable goals that can be accomplished steadily over the course of a project or period of time.

How to Stay Focused Working from Home

Distractions are present in any working environment, but working from home can often pose even greater challenges to remaining focused. Aside from removing distractions, such as phones, televisions, and other entertainment sources, one of the most effective strategies is creating a dedicated workspace that helps divide work from home. In the absence of a commute, having a workspace that is detached from the areas of your home where you relax and unwind will help you mentally “clock out” when work ends.

Tips for Employers

How to Keep Employees on Track

Similar to how employees can set goals for individual growth, good leaders can set goals for their teams that will help keep people across job functions aligned and motivated. To support these goals, leaders should remember to encourage their employees at every milestone and make sure to be present to support them as needed.

How to Avoid Becoming an Absentee Leader

Absentee leaders are those who are disengaged from their teams. Absentee leaders don’t communicate with or actively lead the employees who rely on their guidance. To evaluate the strength of your leadership, look at the effectiveness of your team to gauge if your employees are effective, communicative, and empowered in their roles. Other strategies for avoiding absentee leadership include setting up open-door time or one-on-one check-in meetings, creating agendas to structure meetings, offering opportunities for employees to share feedback and ideas, and investing in team building.

While 2022 is already starting off with uncertainty, organizations around the world are taking forward the lessons of the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic and adapting to the new realities of doing business. Both employee and employer will play a role in the success of this ever-evolving, work-from-home environment, and flexibility and understanding on both sides are our best tools in building success.

Many paths lead up the mountain of career success, and each one comes with unique advantages and potential pitfalls. Professional development coaches know this terrain well. They routinely provide individualized support for the development of leaders who wish to ascend in their careers. They’ve also watched many self-made types who opt to forgo business coaching slip and fall on their career journeys because they miscalculate the quality of their own work performance. This miscalculation is common.While many may be vaguely aware of their strengths and challenges, they don’t always realize that their helpful behaviors can (depending on the context) become unhelpful, derailing them from their individual and organizational objectives. Therefore, we all could benefit from a professional development coach. 

Reputable business coaches use well-validated personality assessment as a map to identify their clients’ strengths and challenges to help them achieve strategic self-awareness. This concept is like a base camp that every professional must reach to begin the developmental journey. Reviewing personality data with the guidance of a professional coach allows leaders to understand the scenarios in which they overuse their strengths and develop strategies to self-manage. Business coach Brian Chitester says that when he has a high-potential client who appears to be in danger of derailing, he uses personality data to diagnose the situation, provide poignant feedback, and help a struggling employee go from good to great.

Without reputational feedback, many leaders may not understand what stands between them and their professional ambitions. Business coach Elaine Kamm collaborated with a client who was a successful manager on a sales and marketing team. He was well-known for being bright and charismatic, but his reputation had become an obstacle on his path to becoming a senior-level general manager, which was a surprise to him. Helping him become more aware of how others perceived him, his coach worked with him to figure out how to leverage his reputation strategically so it would align more with his career goals.

There’s no one-size-fits-all recipe for behavioral adjustment, so every coaching initiative must be tailored to a person’s specific personality and career context. For example, business coach Kristie Wright, PhD, recently worked with a client who was expanding her position as CIO to include the role of CTO as her company prepared to go public. Dr. Wright and her client worked together to determine which behaviors had made her successful in her infrastructure position and what development would be necessary to ensure her future success as her role evolved to include more of a focus on products to drive market differentiation.

Individualized coaching initiatives like these can enhance any organization’s talent development strategy. Encouraging employees to practice strategic self-awareness can reduce behavioral slips, help them lead more effectively to achieve professional highs, and amplify the success of the organization. Join us on October 21 for a webinar featuring three experts from the Hogan Coaching Network — Brian Chitester, Elaine Kamm, and Dr. Kristie Wright — and their compelling coaching case studies. Register here!

Leadership development is a $366 billion dollar industry, with $166 billion spent in the U.S. alone.¹ ATD reports that 70% of companies use personality tests to develop senior leaders and high potentials, with another 10% to 15% in the process of building a system to do so.² Yet most leadership development interventions fail to produce organizational results.³

Nearly all leadership development programs target individual growth and the development of soft skills,⁴ which are personality-based behaviors such as emotional intelligence, influencing skills, relationship management, etc., and 63% of organizations use executive coaching to support leader growth.¹ Efforts to change or improve soft skills are hard to quantify, study, and measure, making ROI difficult to calculate.

This raises a question that we get from clients every day: Can you really change your personality? If so, how much? What strategies or interventions work best?

The only way to talk about personality change is first to define personality. Unfortunately, academic psychology is little help because the definitions vary wildly. Even the Wikipedia page on personality begins with, “While there is no generally agreed upon definition of personality … ”

If you can’t define it, how can you tell if it’s changed? As experts in the field of personality testing, we consider personality to consist of four interrelated parts:

1. Biology: your genes, physiology, nervous system, hormones, etc.
2. Identity: how you see yourself
3. Behavior: what you do
4. Reputation: how others see you

You can change your biology to some extent through medical interventions such as pharmaceutical drugs, or even unintended influences such as traumatic brain injury. You may recall the story of medical celebrity Phineas Gage, whose personality changed dramatically after surviving an unfortunate head injury. Otherwise, our core biology doesn’t change much.

Theoretically, it is possible to change one’s identity, and this is often the focus of psychotherapy or other intentional efforts. The magnitude of identity change effort is unknown, as any effect is subjective and impossible to measure in any meaningful way.

When we talk about personality change in the context of talent development, we are mostly concerned with behavior and reputation. We attempt to change behavior with the help of feedback, coaching, and continuous developmental effort, which should result in reputation change over time. As people start to see and respond to you differently (reputation), you may start to see yourself differently too (identity) — this is what we call the “fake it ‘til you make it” approach to development.

But what does that change actually look like? What does it mean, and how significant are the changes? Let’s tackle these issues by teasing apart the many complexities that underlie these questions.

Can people change their behavior?

Certainly. People change their behavior all the time with real, meaningful effects. However, personality change effects are a lot like health behavior outcomes in that expectations should be kept realistic. It is easier to move the needle a modest amount versus anticipating total transformation. For example, the likelihood that an introvert somehow becomes an extravert is about the same as an unfit smoker transforming into an Olympic runner. But with discipline and effort, an introverted leader can practice more extraverted habits to achieve a development goal in much the same way that an unfit smoker can quit smoking and practice better exercise habits to achieve a health outcome.

Are some behaviors harder to change than others?

Probably. For example, certain intrapersonal behaviors involving self-regulation are more biological in nature. Things like emotional regulation are very complex, involving involuntary responses in the limbic, nervous, and endocrine systems. An anxious person can’t just decide to be less nervous and make it so; anxiety causes automatic physiological responses such as increased heart rate, sweating, cortisol, etc. They might be able to reduce or manage their anxiety in meaningful ways, or even control how much of their anxiety they verbally broadcast to the outside world, which may create reputation change.

Let’s say an executive named Jean has a personality-based tendency to become easily frustrated and angry when others make mistakes. In these moments, Jean’s limbic system has taken over causing executive functioning to be compromised. Jean can’t “decide” to control the anger because physiologically the anger is in control of Jean. What he can do is be coached to recognize the kinds of triggers that tend to provoke destructive emotional responses and identify strategies to prevent outbursts or remove himself from situations before damage occurs. But this doesn’t mean we can stop or change the personality trait. We can only help Jean manage it better by practicing different behaviors or habits.

In addition, it’s harder for people to start a new, unfamiliar behavior than to increase or stop a familiar behavior. I’ll never forget the incredibly bright, Harvard-educated executive I worked with who had received feedback that she was “not strategic” and wanted to change her level of creativity and big-picture thinking. She looked up at me with a defeated look in her eyes and said, “I want to be more curious and original … I just don’t know how.” The potential lack of innate skill paired with fear and uncertainty surrounding a new and unfamiliar behavior can extinguish a change effort before it even begins.

Can people change their personalities?

Yes, people can change their personalities. In the academic research this is called volitional personality trait change. Simply desiring to change one’s personality is not sufficient; making a plan and following through on development commitments is critical to success.⁵ More robust, intervention-based personality change efforts can and do work. These interventions include but are not limited to executive coaching, clinical interventions such as therapy or counseling,⁶ use of mobile apps,⁷ and more. Although research findings are somewhat mixed,⁸ studies show that modest but meaningful personality-based changes can and do occur under certain conditions involving powerful interventions with specific, actionable goals.

But how can we tell the difference between actual personality change versus changes in test scores? Because personality testing relies on self-report responses, it’s unclear whether a different test score reflects genuine change as opposed to a host of other possible explanations. For example, we know that the fidelity of responses to personality test questions can be influenced by

• state- versus trait-based differences (e.g., testing while experiencing emotional highs or lows);
• conscious effort to inflate scores (as in “faking good” on the assessment);
• subconscious motives to enhance impressions (as in socially desirable responding); or even
• unconscious changes in responding (e.g., due to being a non-naïve personality test taker).

For example, let’s imagine Renee is working with an executive coach to become more organized and process oriented. She is putting significant effort toward this goal and seeing great results. She takes a personality retest to gauge change and is delighted to find her Conscientiousness score has increased! Six months later, the coaching engagement is over, and she has gone back to her disorganized ways — did her personality truly change? Or were her personality test scores inflated due to real (or perceived) but unsustainable identity-based, behavioral, or reputational change? This brings us to our next question.

Are there costs to pretending to be someone you’re not? Possibly. Some studies indicate that there are well-being consequences associated with acting in ways that are not trait typical.⁹ More research is needed in this area.

Can behavior modification result in reputation change?

The most important question is also the most difficult to answer due to the lack of quality, longitudinal research on personality change efforts over long periods of time. The latest research in behavioral science suggests that permanent change is possible under the right conditions using a specific combination of strategies. B. J. Fogg, a Stanford psychologist and founder of the Behavior Design Lab, presents a compelling, evidence-backed formula for behavior change in his Tiny Habits methodology (click here to watch his Ted talk). The message is that anyone can choose to do (or not do) a single behavior at a single point in time. Even a lifelong smoker can abstain from nicotine for an eight-hour flight when necessary. It’s also pretty easy to maintain (or abstain from) a behavior for a span of time, like the ever-popular Dry January campaign or 28-day fitness challenges. But the secret to creating a permanent change is a habit-building formula with the stamina that allows others to notice the difference.

When behavior change lasts long enough for others to notice, this creates the potential for reputation-based change. The problem with reputation is that it is incredibly durable, yet simultaneously quite fragile. As Warren Buffett says, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” Just ask Martha Stewart how long it took for reports of insider trading to tarnish her squeaky-clean reputation. Most academic research seeks to find evidence of personality change in personality tests, when they should really be seeking this evidence in 360 or other multirater data.

Let’s come back to the practical problem at hand. Despite the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on leadership development annually, the base rate for incompetent leadership is staggering. As many as 75% of U.S. workers say the worst and most stressful aspect of their life — not just their job — is their immediate boss.¹⁰ These figures confirm that current leadership development efforts are ineffective, and the results are equal parts costly and toxic: employee stress, dissatisfaction, disengagement, and turnover.

One survey revealed that 65% of Americans would rather fire their boss than receive a pay raise.¹¹ In a landmark study, V. Jon Bentz analyzed failed leaders to determine underlying causes of incompetence.¹² Bentz concluded, “To a person, each of the failed executives had an overriding personality defect.” In fact, Bentz identified 10 recurring causes of failed executive leadership, including micromanagement, subpar interpersonal skills, inability to deal with complexity, and arrogance, among others. Adequately addressing these soft-skill gaps (or personality “defects” as Bentz called them), is the missing ingredient in most leadership development programs.

Click here to attend our webinar to learn more about the formula for meaningful soft skill and personal development via behavior change and obtain practical, immediately usable advice for leadership development professionals based on the latest research insights.

References

1. Westfall, C. (2019, June 20). Leadership Development Is A $366 Billion Industry: Here’s Why Most Programs Don’t Work. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/chriswestfall/2019/06/20/leadership-development-why-most-programs-dont-work/?sh=1fce051261de
2. Church, A., & Ezama, S. (2020, April 1). PepsiCo’s Formula for Leadership Potential. Association for Talent Development. https://www.td.org/magazines/td-magazine/pepsicos-formula-for-leadership-potential
3. Beer, M., Finnström, M., & Schrader, D. (2016, October). Why Leadership Training Fails and What to Do About It. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2016/10/why-leadership-training-fails-and-what-to-do-about-it
4. Abel, A. L., & Ray, R. L. (2018). Global Executive Coaching Survey. The Conference Board. https://www.executivecoachingconnections.com/sites/default/files/2018_global_executive_coaching_survey.pdf
5. Hudson, N. W., Briley, D. A., Chopik, W. J., & Derringer, J. (2018, October 25). You Have to Follow Through: Attaining Behavioral Change Goals Predicts Volitional Personality Change. Journal of Personal and Social Psychology. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000221
6. Roberts, B. W., Luo, J., Briley, D. A., Chow, P. I., Su, R., & Hill, P. L. (2017). A Systematic Review of Personality Trait Change Through Intervention. Psychological Bulletin, 143(2):117-141. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000088
7. Stieger, M., Flückiger, C., Rüegger, D., Kowatsch, T., Roberts, B. W., & Allemand M. (2021). Changing Personality Traits with the Help of a Digital Personality Change Intervention. PNAS, 118(8):e2017548118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2017548118
8. Robinson, O. C., Noftle, E. E., Guo, J., Asadi, S., & Zhang, X. (2015). Goals and Plans for Big Five Personality Trait Change in Young Adults. Journal of Research in Personality, 59:31-43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2015.08.002
9. Jacques-Hamilton, R., Sun, J., & Smillie, L. D. (2019). Costs and Benefits of Acting Extraverted: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 148(9):1538-1556. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000516
10. Stress is Killing You. (2014). Hogan Assessment Systems. https://www.hoganassessments.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Stress_Health_eBook_Final.pdf
11. Casserly, M. (2012, October 17). Majority of Americans Would Rather Fire their Boss than Get a Raise. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2012/10/17/majority-of-americans-would-rather-fire-their-boss-than-get-a-raise/?sh=69f370f96610
12. 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.

Russell Reynolds Associates and Hogan Assessments today announced a 5-year extension to their global, exclusive partnership designed to increase the success rate of executive appointments and accelerate the development of rising leaders.

For the past five years, RRA and Hogan have worked together to produce a multitude of innovative solutions designed to drive C-suite performance, both at the individual and team levels. Together, they have brought to market leading class offerings on topics surrounding leadership, DE&I, and ESG, and the firms are excited to build on that momentum and innovation moving forward.

“Leaders today face new and unique challenges that require a seemingly ever-changing set of skills for their company’s individual situation,” Russell Reynolds Associates Managing Director of Leadership and Succession Anthony Abbatiello said. “By working closely with Hogan these past five years, Russell Reynolds Associates has leveraged market-leading assessment instruments and innovative tools to better understand the needs of a specific business and the skills its leaders need for long-term growth. RRA’s partnership with Hogan stands as a special relationship that guides the work we do to improve the way the world is led. We are excited at the possibilities of these next five years.”

The continued partnership combines RRA’s depth of expertise in advising senior executives and boards on executive search and succession with Hogan’s market-leading suite of assessment instruments, data assets and scientific acumen.

The co-branded, custom assessments RRA and Hogan have developed have proven to be extremely successful in enabling executive teams and boards to increase the precision of selection decisions and mitigate the risks associated with senior executive appointments. The extension of this partnership is a testament to how effective both firms have executed their vision in predicting C-suite performance.

“This partnership was originally established because the rate of success for global, corporate executives was shockingly low, and we knew that our combined expertise could dramatically improve that,” said now-former Hogan CEO Scott Gregory, Ph.D. “Russell Reynolds Associates is the gold standard in the executive search industry, and Hogan has the most predictive workplace personality assessments in the world. Our exclusive partnership focused on the C-suite has been a great fit for both parties, and we’re thrilled to continue our work with Russell Reynolds Associates.”

Reading the business news makes it obvious that CEOs have a huge impact on organizational success. When corporations succeed, their CEOs are usually credited for company performance.¹ When corporations fail, sometimes in colossal fashion, their CEOs are blamed and unceremoniously removed. At Hogan, we are no strangers to this conversation, frequently emphasizing the critical role of leadership in organizational success and failure. But just how important is it for organizations to get the right person in charge? What is the value of an effective CEO?

Several management scholars have investigated this question with a variety of data sets and methods. Here, we review the major papers on this topic and draw conclusions based on their findings. To start, we know that CEO personality characteristics often drive business successes and failures. Leader personality characteristics predict both who emerges as a leader and who is effective at leading.² Bright-side CEO characteristics (e.g., interpersonal sensitivity) influence management team cohesion and can have a positive effect on overall firm performance.³ Conversely, dark-side characteristics (e.g., narcissism) negatively influence leader decision-making, which can lead to organizational failure.⁴ Finally, CEO bright- and dark-side personality traits predict ethical misconduct, fraud, and sexual misconduct that often put the organization at risk with long-term implications to the company’s reputation.⁵

But is there a measurable impact when it comes to the company’s bottom line? In the 1980s, researchers found that CEOs could influence changes to a company’s stock price, controlling for company size.⁶ In the early 2000s, researchers started reporting the effect of CEOs on profitability and return on assets (ROA), with estimates ranging from 15% of the total variance in profitability to 29% of the variance in ROA.^7,8 Shifting to a different metric, researchers are now focusing on firm value (using Tobin’s Q) and estimate that CEOs are responsible for at least 25% of a company’s market value, after controlling for industry effects.⁸ As the management field continues to refine its methodologies and factor in context, these performance estimates may, in fact, be higher (38% of ROA variance explained) than what has been reported to date.⁹ Of course, the amount of managerial discretion also plays a role in that CEOs can only affect their company’s performance when given enough latitude to steer the ship around obstacles and chart new strategic direction.¹⁰

Fortunately, we are in a great position to help companies navigate this uncertainty. Even with a conservative estimate of 10% to 20%, this is a significant impact CEOs have on their company’s financial returns. Selecting the right leader can leap a company forward — and choosing poorly will set the organization back several steps.

Hogan has decades’ worth of research and thousands of archival studies showing how our personality tests deliver ROI in making the right hiring and development decisions for your company. Holding on to your talented employees, developing them, and finding a great CEO is the cornerstone of best practices that lead to long-term company success.⁷ We built a C-suite personality benchmark tied to company financial performance that is unmatched in the industry. We are leveraging this data into new research articles that link CEO personality to firm performance. Our findings confirm how critical it is to have a CEO with the right set of personality characteristics. In fact, CEO agreeableness, or the ability to build quality relationships across all levels of the organization, helps with team cohesion, engagement, and eventual company financial growth.

Look for these findings and more in the coming months as we continue to help companies find leaders who add value and improve their financial results:

Blake, A., Petrenko, O., Aime, F., Waldron, T., Lemming, M. R., & Sherman, R. (2021). Keeping nice in check: The dynamic between CEO agreeableness and firm performance. Manuscript submitted to Administrative Science Quarterly.

*This post was authored by Hogan’s Matthew R. Lemming and Ryne A. Sherman.

References

1. Hanson, M. T., Ibarra, H., & Peyer, U. (2010). The Best-Performing CEOs in the World. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2010/01/the-best-performing-ceos-in-the-world
2. Judge, T. A., Bono, J. E., Ilies, R., & Gerhardt, M. W. (2002). Personality and Leadership: A Qualitative and Quantitative Review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(4), 765–780. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.4.765
3. Peterson, R. S., Smith, D. B., Martorana, P. V., & Owens, P. D. (2003). The Impact of Chief Executive Officer Personality on Top Management Team Dynamics: One Mechanism by Which Leadership Affects Organizational Performance. The Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 795–808. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.795
4. Chatterjee, A., & Hambrick, D. C. (2007). It’s All About Me: Narcissistic Chief Executive Officers and Their Effects on Company Strategy and Performance. Administrative Science Quarterly, 52(3), 351–386. https://doi.org/10.2189/asqu.52.3.351
5. Van Scotter, J. R., & Roglio, K. D. (2020). CEO Bright and Dark Personality: Effects on Ethical Misconduct. Journal of Business Ethics, 164,451–475. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-4061-5
6. Weiner, N., & Mahoney, T. A. (2017). A Model of Corporate Performance as a Function of Environmental, Organizational, and Leadership Influences. Academy of Management Journal, 24(3). https://doi.org/10.5465/255568
7. Nohria, N., Joyce, W., & Roberson, B. (2003). What Really Works. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2003/07/what-really-works
8. Mackey, A. (2008). The Effects of CEOs on Firm Performance. Strategic Management Journal, 29(12), 1357–1367. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.708
9. Hambrick, D. C., & Quigley, T. J. (2013). Toward More Accurate Contextualization of the CEO Effect on Firm Performance. Strategic Management Journal, 35(4), 473–491. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2108
10. Crossland, C., & Hambrick, D. C. (2010). Differences in Managerial Discretion Across Countries: How Nation-level Institutions Affect the Degree to Which CEOs Matter. Strategic Management Journal, 32(8), 797–819. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.913

We’d like to introduce you to the CEO of an energy company. Just about two years ago, he brought his friendly (high Interpersonal Sensitivity) and sociable (high Sociability) leadership to the organization. His assessment results portray a leader who is tuned into helping others (high Altruistic) and focused on creating a culture of teamwork (high Affiliation). A peek at his development plan outlines a focus on strategy and accountability.

Enter the COO, who is really the yin to the CEO’s yang; their personalities complement each other well. For instance, while the CEO is outgoing and takes a big-picture perspective, the COO tends to be more focused on the application of processes (moderate Inquisitive) and to approach social interactions in a Reserved manner. His lower Aesthetics score also leads him to focus on substance over form. He values productivity (low Altruistic) and likely prefers to work with minimal interruptions (low Affiliation). His development plan mentions goals of communication and collaboration, along with a need to react to scenarios with more urgency.

Both leaders are stress tolerant and resilient (high Adjustment). They are also high on the Imaginative and Mischievous scales — and they find commonality in valuing Recognition and Science. An investigation into the culture of the organization revealed growth in strategic direction and intent but decreases in capability development and organizational learning.

Interested in learning more about how their leadership styles shape the culture of the organization? Tune in to our collaborative webinar on Wednesday, April 21, 2021, beginning at 12:00 p.m. ET. The webinar will be cohosted by our partners at Denison Consulting. We’ll bring the personality narrative, and they’ll bring the culture data to tell an insightful story about how the power of multiple datapoints come together in a lesson of complementary work styles. The Denison Leadership Potential Report will also play a pivotal role in translating the insights from Hogan into a leadership model.

Click here to register for the webinar. We look forward to seeing you!