Metals companies today are more concerned with your personality, management style and attitude then ever before.  Employers now understand that they can never truly modify your personality or alter your behavior and work style.  When attitude and personality are right, anything else can be learned.  When personality and attitude are wrong, even the strongest of skills sets have inherent vulnerability for failure.

Employers are very concerned with your personality because it affects everything about your work life and their success.  Your work-life "behavior attributes"  include:

 • How you interface with peers, subordinates and superiors.  How will you treat, mentor and motivate your team?

 • How you interface with customers and the public.  Will your key customers enjoy interfacing with you?

 • How trainable and flexible you are as well as how much you are deserving of a promotion to additional responsibilities and accountabilities.

 • How you solve problems, handle stress and meet deadlines.

 • How much responsibility or accountability you accept and can actually handle.
and finally, and oftentimes overlooked,

 • How much your superiors who actually control your destiny like, or dislike spending quality time with you. (This includes office time, staff and business meetings, traveling together on business, at work-related social functions and events, at civic oriented volunteering initiatives and working together on special projects or tasks forces). 

Let's face it.  If they don't really like and respect you and don't enjoy spending time with you, you are not going to advance or even be retained.  (Remember, they ARE paying you)!

Let me now describe the seven basics types of personalities there are and how employers and prospective employers view them.

As you read the seven types of personalities and the types of people that fall into them, try and imagine what each vocation and job actually requires as far as a specific personality is concerned.

1.  Tribalistic.  A Tribalistic person prefers to belong to a tribe that is comprised of others like themselves. Tribalistic people don't yearn to be a leader, prefer somewhat repetitive tasks, desire to be led and supervised and prefer to have a job that does not require after hours thinking, involvement or responsibility.  Being part of a "tribe" however, does provide them with security and a sense of belonging.  We all know what happens when a true tribalistic personality is hired into, or promoted to a leadership position.
 

2.  Sociocentric. Sociocentric persons tend to be extraverts and are experienced at being visible, having responsibility and being held accountable.  Sociocentric people are often frustrated or conflicted with the question of advancing to the highest levels of their respective organizations.  Sociocentric persons are oftentimes found to be playing both sides of the organizational chart.  This means they desire to be close with both those above, and below, them.  But oftentimes fall into a trap of complaining about those above to those below, and those below about those above.  Sociocentric people sometimes find themselves experiencing credibility erosion from carrying "tales" and sometimes leave the organization after realizing that "workplace bridges" have been burnt to the point of being unstable.
 

3.  Existential.  Existential persons are your most confident, most visible and sometimes the most arrogant.  Existential employees sometime walk a fine line between being confident and being borderline arrogant.  Jobs that require constant visibility, demanding public speaking and appearances and press scrutiny almost always require an Existential candidate.  No other personality type can survive prolonged introspection as they can.  Vocations such as executives, senior managers, sales and marketing, presidents and public relations mostly require Existentials.  Persons who find themselves in such vocations if they are not Existential oftentimes fail. Existentials are oftentimes misunderstood and misplaced.  Existentials cannot survive in positions other than Existential roles because of their blatant existentialism.  This trait leaves them suffering from a constant hunger to be in charge, be out front, be in control and be the most visible. Hiring an existential into a position that requires a tribalistic personality never works.  History teaches us that roughly only 50% of Existentials actually succeed. 

4. Manipulative.  This personality type is achievement-oriented, self-serving and sometimes aggressive.  Enjoys wheeling and dealing, is highly competitive and is focused on getting themselves ahead in life. Manipulation may be concealed and private or it may be open, above board and overtly displayed.  Nonetheless, they are not your team players.

5. Egocentric.  Sometimes very self centered, very assertive and sometimes abrasive best sum up this category.   Aggressiveness takes many forms as these types rebel against authority figures, norms, rules and standards.  Are usually flamboyant in behavior in order to gain attention.  Egocentrics can be brash, brazen, abrasive or even uncouth.  They may appear paranoid at times and feel like the world is a hostile or alien place.  However, some very successful sales professionals possess strong ties to this category however, have learned to suppress the negative attributes.

6. Reactive.  Functions at the physiological level and reacts to stimuli such as
hunger, cold, warmth, and sleep to obtain immediate satisfaction of these basic human needs.  Most reactive people are concerned only with survival.  This mode can be permanent or temporary in nature. Reactive types don’t invest time in strategic planning or succession planning sessions.  They don’t believe in planning anything. 

7. Conformist. This group usually finds structure, security and predictability in various systems.  This group prefers order, structure, patterns and structured time frames. This population is somewhat rigid in responding to diversity and oftentimes resistance to change.  They like everything to be "cut and dry”.  This group places a premium on sacrifice, discipline and adhering to the established norms of society.  These are NOT your risk takers. 

Understanding where every person falls as far as these categorizations go helps the "hiring authority" or interviewer make informed decisions as to the potential success of any given person in any given position.  Chemistry is paramount when making hiring decisions.

Additionally, when people understand a position's requirement as far as the type of person the opportunity and company requires, allows hiring managers to target the right talent for their cultures. This scientific "typology" system has been found to be a “best practice predictor" when questioning why some people succeed, and why some people fail.  Essentially, it is their "personality type" and “chemistry match” that makes all the difference.

Be safe.

More talent identification, hiring strategies, management tips and human resource education to follow in this M.J. EGY and Associates / Primary Metals Executive Search feature article.

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