Personality Traits Hindering Team Performance
Leadership is defined by Northouse (2013) to be “a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal” (PSU WC, 2016). Throughout this influence process there is interaction between the leader and the followers. Without the two-way interaction, it would not be possible to achieve a common goal. The goal in this situation would only be the goal of the leader. Leadership can be looked at from a trait perspective or a process perspective. The trait perspective suggests that individuals have certain innate traits that make them natural leaders (Northouse, 2016). The process perspective on the other hand, takes the follower and the situation into consideration when evaluating the leader. According to Northouse (2016), the process perspective looks at leadership is something that can be learned, which in my opinion is the best way to look at leadership.
Personality traits that are considered to be positively related to leadership include traits such as intelligence, integrity, self-confidence, sociability, and determination (Northouse, 2016). For the sake of this blog, I am going to focus on personality traits that can hinder the performance of a team or group. These personality traits are referred to as dark-side personality traits (PSU WC, 2016). There are six dark-side personality traits, which are argumentative, interpersonal insensitivity, narcissism, fear of failure, perfectionism, and impulsivity (PSU WC, 2016). I am going to focus on the traits of impulsivity and argumentative and explain how they affected a team under a leader that I once worked with.
At the last company I worked for, there was a manager named John who always argued with everyone. He also always felt that someone was arguing with him when they came to him with a complaint or an observation. John always took offense to everything and engaged in an argumentative dialogue with others. John was also very self-centered and he did not take his followers feelings into consideration when he spoke. His impulsivity led him to criticize others in public with total disregard of their feelings. Both his argumentative and impulsive personality traits are what led to the negative climate and lack of productivity in his department. John’s followers would often show up late for work and take long lunch breaks. They would also take extra time in the rest room just so they did not have to be out on the floor around John because they feared that they would be criticized in public or argued with over something.
The biggest problem with these personality traits, like the traits that John had are that they are not detected in interviews and they only become obvious after an employee has been in a position for a while (PSU WC, 2016). Because John has these traits he was able to lead his team to being one of the worst performing departments in the company. Once it was assessed that John had traits that interfered with his ability to lead a productive and cohesive team, he was eventually asked to step down into a role where he was not responsible for leading people. The unfortunate part of it was that many people were already negatively affected along the way because these traits are undetectable in interviews or personality inventories (PSU WC, 2016).
The advice that I have for hiring managers is too pay close attention in interviews and try to select candidates that have most, if not all of the five factors of personality known as the Five Factor Model (FFM), which are high conscientiousness, high agreeableness, low neuroticism, high openness to experience, and high extraversion (PSU WC, 2016). Even though the dark-side personality traits may be undetected in interviews, if a hiring manager is looking out for someone with the traits from the FFM, then they will likely hire someone who is predisposed to be a successful leader.
Reference:
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Penn State World Campus (2016). PSYCH 485: Leadership in Work Settings. Lesson 1: Introduction to Leadership. Retrieved from: https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1803831/modules/items/21139771
Shadi Nemati says
Robert,
It is unfortunate to assume that I am sure a lot of people can relate to your post! I know that I have had interactions with the same type of leader at places that I have worked (yes, more than once). I think that it would be very beneficial to businesses if they could find a way to identify these types of people before they are appointed the leadership position. Unfortunately for those of us under their supervision the six dark-side traits you mentioned are not assessed or even detectable in the interview process (PSU WC L.2, 2016). So if businesses are unable to detect these traits in an interview process, maybe they should survey the employees in the department that are under the manager in question’s supervision. This could be done at certain intervals throughout the first year or two of their newly appointed position. I think it would be wise to do this throughout the year since the dark-sided personality traits don’t surface until after that person has been in that position for a while (PSU WC L.2, 2016). I do realize the issue with validity that may be a concern with these surveys. First they are subjective and they may not include other things that the business is looking for in a manager. They could also be used as a personal attack if the employee just doesn’t like the manager.
One thing I did notice about your post is that you mentioned that businesses should focus on identifying the Five Factor Model traits in those whom they would like to promote to management. While this is a good strategy, unfortunately the dark-sided traits are strongly related to the scores a person would receive for those Five Factor Model traits (PSU WC L.2, 2016). To me this is incredibly scary because when we try to look for the right things, we may actually be looking for the wrong things! I wonder if it would be ethical to have a test that looks for the dark-sided traits? Do you think there would be another way to distinguish the two, like using certain assessment center exercises? I hope we do!
Penn State World Campus (2016). PSYCH 485: Leadership in Work Settings. Lesson 2: Trait Approach. Retrieved from: https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1803831/modules/items/21139791
nxs5194 says
Robert,
You bring up a great topic regarding leaders vs followers and how personality traits can often interfere or hinder, success. A relationship is the interaction and bond between two people. This same situation is very similar to that of manager and subordinate except for the fact that leaders have much higher expectations as they are truly supposed to guide these individuals in a positive manner. When there are different personalities involved, especially ones that do not seem to be on the same page, there can be a great deal of struggle and difficulty. The leader would be tasked to change that as it is primarily their responsibility.
The personality traits that you referred to in your post, noted in our reading as dark-side personality traits (PSU, 2016) are definitely traits that can cause tension and stress between individuals. The six dark-side personality traits that you listed were argumentative, interpersonal insensitivity, narcissism, fear of failure, perfectionism, and being impulsive (PSU, 2016). When a leader and a follower both possess those traits, even just one, it can often cause conflict between the two and the overall success of whatever task is at hand.
I too have worked in an environment where the equivalent to a leader (manager) and a follower (subordinate) both possessed traits that didn’t not allow them to work together nor did they ever really try to get along. I believe that these traits are even worse when individuals are set in their ways. In the work environment, I believe argumentative, impulsive, narcissism and insensitivity are some of the worst to have – especially if there is any chance of bumping heads. These situations are hard to come back from and often the leader has no chance of being successful in doing their job, at least with that individual.
I question that as well – is that leader a good leader if they cannot figure there way around that situation to get that follower on pace and to see the leaders side of things?
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Penn State World Campus (2016). PSYCH 485: Leadership in Work Settings. Lesson 1: Introduction to Leadership. Retrieved from: https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1803831/modules/items/21139771