I had one of those “Ah-Ha” moments when I first learned about the personality model known as the Big Five (or OCEAN) and the #1 personality trait that inevitably guarantees success above all else. I’ll elaborate shortly.
Most property investors realise at some point that being in property is really a people business, especially when it comes to networking, deal making and finding JV partners. As such we can come to have a strong awareness and appreciation for personality traits. It is a complex and varied subject area and I am by no means an expert. However, I am genuinely intrigued by the subject matter and wanted to share some of my learnings from exploring the topic.
Rather than go into too much detail I’m challenging myself to keep this as a brief introduction and look at how understanding this stuff translates to your property journey.
What Is The Big Five Personality Model?
In Psychology, there are five broad dimensions of personality traits, commonly referred to as the “Big Five” personality traits. These can be easily remembered with the acronym OCEAN, as follows:
O – Openness: Curious, open to new ideas, creative, original, intellectual
C – Conscientiousness: Organised, systematic, punctual, achievement oriented, dependable
E – Extraversion: Outgoing, talkative, enjoys social situations
A – Agreeableness: Tolerant, sensitive, trusting, kind, warm
N – Neuroticism: Anxious, irritable, temperamental, moody
The Big Five model is able to account for different traits in personality without overlapping. In other words, while identity (our beliefs, values and individual psychological “make up”) might be infinitely varied, there are just five key dimensions of personality that can be tested and measured without overlap.
What I find fascinating is that research has shown the Big Five personality model to show consistency across a wide range of ages and cultures.
The #1 success trait
Research also indicates that one well documented personality type consistently produces more and better success than all the others – Conscientiousness. (Did you guess it was that one?)
Eric Barker (a writer for Wired magazine) uses the latest findings in the science of human behaviour to write about ideas that improve our performance at work and at home. I’ll paraphrase one such article here:
“Dozens of studies show that willpower is the single most important keystone habit for individual success…..
Conscientiousness is the fundamental personality trait most closely tied to self control (willpower) and it tracks with nearly every type of success across your lifespan.”
Whilst conscientiousness was the trait that best predicted workplace success, University of Illinois psychologist Brent Roberts points out this trait predicts so many outcomes that go far beyond the workplace. For example people high in conscientiousness get better grades in school and university; they commit fewer crimes; and they stay married longer and live longer.
Why is this important for property investors to understand?
“Highly conscientious people do a series of things better than the rest of us,” says Brent Roberts.
“To start with, they’re better at goals: setting them, working toward them, and persisting amid setbacks. If a super ambitious goal can’t be realized, they’ll switch to a more attainable one rather than getting discouraged and giving up. As a result, they tend to achieve goals that are consistent with what employers want.”
Hopefully you can see now how a greater appreciation for this trait, and an ability to identify it, plays into the business of being a property investor. Some obvious examples are:
- Assessing and selecting people to employ in your own property business
- Identifying suitable partners for your power team and as JV partners
- Training and coaching your team
- Your own self-development
Chris and I have had the pleasure of working with multiple mentees over the last year and we can see that for mentees achieving great things, a lot of their success can linked to this conscientious trait. For example the ability to prioritise effectively and optimise their return on time invested.
Conscientious people have a tendency to organise their work and their lives well, which may appear superhuman to some observers. On the other hand a less conscientious person might lose 1-2 hours a day transitioning poorly between tasks or not choosing the right tasks that will move their project or business forwards the most. By being conscientious, people sidestep stress they’d otherwise create for themselves.
Being conscientious “is like brushing your teeth,” Roberts says. “It prevents problems from arising.”
So is your Conscientiousness score set in stone for life?
My first reaction to all these learnings was what is my conscientiousness score and how can I improve it? Can I help others improve it?
In short, it is true that some individuals naturally have higher conscientiousness scores however it is something that can be nurtured from childhood and it is certainly something that adults can work on to improve.
Look out for Part 2 of this post where we will look at specific tactics and strategies to improve conscientiousness.
If you are interested in taking an online test to find out your own scores here are a couple of links:
http://personality-testing.info/tests/BIG5.php
http://www.truity.com/test/big-five-personality-test