Each organisation has unique characteristics that others cannot duplicate. To make sure that the people running the organisation are steering it in the right direction, knowing what makes them tick is essential, says Sorayuth Vathanavisuth, a veteran executive coach and principal of the Center for Southeast Asia Leadership.
Besides being responsible for delivering organisational performance, these people collectively make up a culture that makes their organisation different from its peers, even those that operate in the same industry, he said.
"In one of my studies, I asked the top management of a major corporation to finish an online self-assessment using a widely recognised psychometric assessment tool," he explained.
"The study aimed to provide insights into the potential and tendencies of this group of executives in three main functions: manufacturing, marketing and administrative support."
The tool in question has a high reliability index of 0.85 and an outstanding validity index at 0.4.
Reliability is a measure of the consistency of the instrument to measure the same results with the same person at different times through testing and re-testing, while validity is predictive power related to a criterion such as job performance.
"There are many contributing factors to job success, including mental ability, previous experience and education, personality, and others," noted Mr Sorayuth, who specialises in leadership development, succession planning and talent management and also lectures at the Mahidol University College of Management.
Five Factor Model: The assessment used in this case was based on the Five Factor Model (FFM) or "Big 5" personality traits, a widely used system grounded in the observation that humans have a psychological foundation that can be categorised into five groups: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (or emotional stability).
The table shows how the executives in charge of various functions were ranked for personality traits in 21 sub-categories grouped under the "Big 5".
The percentile scores are benchmarked against a large group of executives from around the globe who have taken the same test.
These particular executives displayed outstanding strength in terms of energy (speed), influence and independence with percentile scores of 65, 65 and 62 respectively, Mr Sorayuth notes.
Energy reflects an individual's tendency to work quickly and energetically, to prefer a fast-paced work environment, to be involved in many activities and sustain a rapid mental or physical pace over extended period of time.
Influence reflects the ability to change the opinion of other individuals or groups through persuasion, to sell ideas or products, to negotiate and debate issues.
Independence reflects an individual's preference to work with little or no supervision. Such people tend to be decisive and make decisions with little input from others, and are self-directed and fully accountable for what they do.
Other strengths of this group of executives include persistence (59), innovation (55), analytical thinking (55) and concern for others (51).
Persistence reflects the likelihood of continuing despite obstacles or difficulties, being able to concentrate intensely for long periods, not being distracted and staying motivated.
Innovation reflects the ability to generate new and creative ideas, alternative approaches and original thoughts to arrive at inventive solutions.
Analytical thinking involves systematically analysing issues to get to the root of a problem, identifying connections or patterns in complex data, and clarifying abstract or conceptual issues through logical analysis.
Concern for others reflects one's likelihood of being sympathetic and compassionate, sensitive to the needs and feelings of others, and being motivated to help or provide care to strangers.
One interesting result from the assessment is that "rule following" is rather low, in the 19th percentile, Mr Sorayuth noted.
Those who score high on this indicator follow rules and procedures, comply with policies regardless of the consequences, are strict about right and wrong, and won't bend rules to meet specific situations.
This group of executives, on the other hand, has a high tendency to bend the rules based on their own judgement.
Since their independence score is also high, the potential for rule-bending is even higher. But rule-breaking is something different again.
"In summary, we can say that this company is run by a group of managers who tend to be comfortable with the rapid pace of change in the competitive landscape," he said. "They are quite good in terms of persuading others with sound logic and reasonable arguments. They also appreciate innovative ideas that can be used to improve current work."
And while these executives may have their own way of working, they won't assert themselves to the point of breaking rules since they are not too aggressive when it comes to career advancement. "In other words, they are likely to work towards goals assigned by superiors instead of creating their own stretch goals in order to move faster to higher positions in the corporation."
Job levels and personality traits: The test also revealed an interesting correlation between personalities and job levels. "What surprised us was the negative correlation of some items," said Mr Sorayuth.
Based on the Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC), which measures the strength of the association between two variables, an analysis showed a very strong negative correlation between job level and the "influence" personality trait.
"The same phenomenon occurs also with leadership, diplomacy, analytical thinking and sociability, although the degree of negative correlation may not as high as the influence the person is perceived as having. This means the higher the personality score the executive has, the lower the management level he or she will be in."
In addition, there were no clear correlations between other personality traits and management levels except attention to detail and energy.
An analysis of the text results shows that the company in question has in place group of executives with the skills to manage and move the organisation forward.
"However, the negative correlation of some traits reflects a problem the company might be having handling its people," said Mr Sorayuth.
"It seems that the organisation is comfortable with managers who work fast and focus on details but not those who tend to persuade others, prefer to lead rather than follow, are very diplomatic, enjoy discussions based on logic and prefer to be extroverted."
Based on these observations, he advises the company to seriously review the issue, especially as it relates to corporate values and culture, and how they are implemented.
"Otherwise, the organisation may lose good and loyal people in the long term."
Sorayuth Vathanavisuth is a principal and executive coach at the Center for Southeast Asia Leadership and lectures at Mahidol University's College of Management. His areas of interest are corporate strategy, executive coaching and leadership development. He can be reached at sorayuth@sealeadership.com.
