The right combination of character traits is essential for success — personally, professionally and organizationally. Here’s what to look for and cultivate.
Verbal skills, mathematical ability, and the aptitude to detect patterns – measurements of IQ – are all considered important markers of future potential and success. We teach them, we test for them, and we often place what turns out to be a disproportionate amount of emphasis on these indicators in school and work.
A high IQ leads to automatic success, right? Not so fast.
Recent evidence from the fields of psychology and neuroscience has revealed that there are in fact several other ingredients that contribute to success even more so than highly-developed cognitive skills. It turns out that character traits like grit, optimism and curiosity are more closely correlated with success than a high SAT score.
“Getting the right people on the bus” is a mantra first made popular by Jim Collins and it’s been drilled into managers and business owners for years now. Like a lot of good advice, it’s easier said than done. How exactly do you get the right people on the bus?
It starts by first getting a good read on someone’s character. I recently had a chance to learn more about a character testing survey known as the Culture Index Survey. Jason Williford, a consultant with Culture Index, had all of us in our Vistage group take the survey and then explained the results. It was fascinating.
The Culture Index measures character traits like ingenuity, energy, and conscientiousness among other things. Williford explained the meanings and implications of our survey results. I happen to know several business owners that rely heavily on the Culture Index for building their companies and now I see why.
This whole topic of character prompted me to dig a little deeper and I found Paul Tough’s book “How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character.” Tough focuses on how to identify and cultivate the right character traits in children.
Tough sifts through a lot of research on the ideal set of universally respected virtues and character strengths. Here are seven key traits identified in his book:
grit: perseverance, finishing what one starts
self-control: regulation of what one feels and does
zest: approaching life with excitement and energy
social intelligence: being aware of the motives and feelings of others
gratitude: being aware of and thankful for good things that happen
optimism: expecting the best and working to achieve it
curiosity: taking an interest in all ongoing experiences
People with the above character strengths typically do better in social relationships, have fewer health problems, live longer, and are more likely be fulfilled in their careers which means they do better at their jobs. Nice people to have on your team.
Big brains are good, but balanced brains are even better. Now for the tricky part – finding them. There are a variety of character diagnostic tools out there. Consider adding one to your company-building tool kit in order to make filling your bus seats easier and more productive.
Have a great week.
Photo credit: oscar juarez via photopin cc
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