Unlocking Personalities: Understanding Yourself and Others Through the Big Five Model
Have you ever wondered why people think, feel, and behave so differently from one another?
In an enlightening webinar titled “Unlocking Personalities,” Dr. Michael Johnson, the Boeing Company Endowed Professor of Business Management, explored how understanding the Big Five personality model can help us better comprehend our own and others’ behavioral patterns.
The Big Five Personality Dimensions
From Dr. Michael Johnson’s ” Unlocking Personalities: Understanding the Big Five Model” webinar presentation, University of Washington, 2024
Openness to Experience
- Core Traits: Creative, curious, and receptive to change
- Workplace Impact: Excel in roles requiring innovation and creativity
- Career Implications: Strong tendency toward artistic and scientific fields
- Professional Development: Best suited for roles involving innovation and strategic thinking
Conscientiousness
- Core Traits: Organized, reliable, and achievement-oriented
- Workplace Impact: Strongest predictor of overall job performance
- Career Implications: Lower rates of workplace deviance, higher task completion
- Professional Development: Excels in roles requiring attention to detail and reliability
Extraversion
- Core Traits: Sociable, assertive, and energetic
- Workplace Impact: Enhanced performance in sales and management roles
- Career Implications: Natural tendency toward leadership positions
- Professional Development: Thrives in roles requiring interpersonal engagement
Agreeableness
- Core Traits: Warm, cooperative, and sympathetic
- Workplace Impact: Higher levels of organizational citizenship behavior
- Career Implications: Strong team collaboration and support capabilities
- Professional Development: Best suited for roles requiring interpersonal harmony
Neuroticism (Emotional Stability)
- Core Traits: Tendency toward emotional variability and stress sensitivity
- Workplace Impact: Influences stress management and pressure handling
- Career Implications: Affects decision-making under pressure
- Professional Development: Benefits from roles with structured support systems
Using the Big Five Model for Personal and Professional Development
Understanding your Big Five personality profile offers more than just self-insight – it provides a framework for personal growth, professional development, and building better relationships with others.
Personal Growth
Self-awareness: Recognizing one’s standing on the Big Five dimensions can lead to greater self-awareness. For example, if you know you are low in conscientiousness, you can focus on developing strategies to improve organization and reliability. Similarly, if you score high in neuroticism, you can work on stress management and emotional regulation techniques.
Managing Strengths and Weaknesses: Each trait has potential strengths and weaknesses. High scores in a particular trait might lead to beneficial outcomes in certain situations and less so in others. For example, while high extraversion can benefit networking, it might also lead to overstimulation and the need for solitude for some people. Knowing these potential downsides enables you to manage and adapt your behavior effectively.
Targeted Development: By understanding your personality profile, you can target specific areas for personal development. For example, those low in openness can consciously work on being more receptive to new experiences and ideas. Individuals can consciously work on their behavior and personality, such as becoming warmer or more assertive.
Interpersonal Relationships
Understanding Others: Awareness of the Big Five model can help you understand how others think and act. For example, if you interact with someone low in agreeableness, knowing they may “tell it like it is” can help you avoid taking their directness as a personal attack.
Team Composition: Knowledge of personality traits is helpful in team composition and role assignment. Understanding that agreeable individuals are more likely to engage in organizational citizenship behaviors can help build teams. Placing an individual high in openness in a role that requires innovation can foster creativity.
Effective Communication: The Big Five can affect communication styles. For instance, extroverts tend to be talkative and assertive, while introverts might prefer to communicate in writing or one-on-one settings. Recognizing these differences can lead to more effective interpersonal communication.
Leadership: Extraversion strongly correlates with leadership emergence, and those high in this trait tend to be assertive and energetic. On the other hand, high neuroticism can negatively affect leadership effectiveness. Understanding these connections can help you recognize and develop your leadership skills and styles.
Relationship Dynamics: Agreeableness is linked to increased organizational citizenship behaviors, and agreeable people are warm, cooperative, and sympathetic. However, very high agreeableness can sometimes be seen as naive. Effective interpersonal relations require a balance of agreeableness and assertiveness. Interpersonal traits such as extraversion and agreeableness are linked to cooperation, sensitivity, warmth, and social coordination behaviors.
UW Resources for Personal Growth and Professional Development
Understanding personality traits is valuable, but putting this knowledge into practice often requires support and guidance. The University of Washington offers two key resources to help you on this journey. The Washington State Employee Assistance Program (WA EAP) provides PEBB-eligible employees and their household members with confidential support, including solution-focused counseling services. You can access up to 3 sessions per concern and use this benefit multiple times throughout the year as different challenges arise.
For additional support in specific areas of life, UW WorkLife offers valuable resources for managing both personal and professional challenges. Whether you’re seeking guidance on workplace relationships, looking for work-life balance strategies, or needing support for caregiving responsibilities, these programs provide the practical tools and information you need to thrive both at work and in your personal life. All services are confidential and designed to support your overall well-being.
If you missed the live webinar or would like to review the content, a recording is available on The Whole U’s YouTube:
Looking Forward
Dr. Johnson recommended completing a free Big Five assessment at bigfive-test.com for those interested in learning more about their personality profile. He also suggested further reading, including “Me, Myself, and Us: The Science of Personality and the Art of Well-Being.” by B.R. Little and “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking.” by Susan Cain.