Changing Your Career Might Mean Changing Your Personality
Is it possible that your personality is holding you back from making changes in your life and career? Many employers look at specific personality traits in the people they hire. Emotional Stability, Conscientiousness, Optimistic/Agreeable, Creative, Outgoing. Personality tests can help companies decide if people will fit into their culture. Or use one to decide if the career you intend to pursue is right for you.
But did you know that you can change traits of your personality to be more successful? Even in the prime of your working life, you can alter parts of your personality to fit a different career or become more successful.
According to a study reported recently on the British Psychological Society’s Research Digest blog, a pair of University of Illinois psychologists asked undergraduates to report what changes they’d like to make to their personalities. Then they tracked them over time to see if, with a little guidance and an active commitment to alter their personalities, they could actually do it. The psychologists “found that participants’ personalities tended to change in line with their wishes for how they’d like to change, and so did their behaviors,” reports BPS.
In this follow-up, half the students were also given a different kind prompt to help them change. Each week they were coached to describe specific steps to facilitate personality change (e.g. telephone and invite a named friend to lunch, to increase extroversion). Then they were asked to create so-called “implementation intentions” that take the form “if I’m in situation X, then I will do Y”. This coaching was successful in increasing desired personality change.
The changes to personality observed in both parts of this study were very modest. But there still was significant statistical evidence to support the principle of willful personality change. “Collectively, these findings indicate that, at the very least, people’s personality traits and daily behavior tend to change in ways that align with their goals for change,” the researchers said.
Deeper analysis suggested this change was achieved through a reciprocal, unfolding process: goals led to changes in behavior, which led to changes in self-concept, which prompted more behavior change. Moreover, as participants’ personalities changed in desired directions, their stated goals for change dropped away. This is consistent with the idea that they really had changed as they’d hoped.
Of course, the changes weren’t always massive. No one went from being a total shut-in to the life of every party! More research is needed to confirm the findings, but as the study authors write, “These findings indicate that, at the very least, people’s personality traits and daily behavior tend to change in ways that align with their goals for change.”
So if you think your personality isn’t helping your career, know that you’re not entirely stuck with it. With a little effort, you can develop the traits you need to succeed.