5 Personality Traits That Influence Your Success

1. Deep Learning

Deep and Surface Learners Reach Success Differently

Everyone has different personality traits influencing the way they learn. Do you look deep into the meaning of the subject? Or do you see the knowledge as a means to success?

A groundbreaking study into learning styles by Marton and Säljö in 1976 involved students reading a short article. The researchers then followed with questions, not only about what the students could remember but how and why. Did they find it interesting? Did they remember facts or ideas?

This research (Robert and Cheung 2010; Marton and Säljö 1976) led to the modern theory of deep and surface learners. A common personality trait of a deep learner is having more interest in the subject and aiming to understand the meaning behind what they are learning. Whereas a surface learner will view education as a means to an end. A surface learner will memorise facts but they will not explore the underlying ideas of the subject, which means they might find success in less creative subjects.

Are you a deep or a surface learner?

Imagine an absent-minded professor who’s passionate about physics but struggles to choose a new TV. On the other hand, think of someone who is great at trivial pursuit, but struggles to explain the importance of any of it. We all fit somewhere between these two extremes of learner types.

2. Conscientiousness

The Personality Trait You Need For Success

Conscientiousness can sometimes be a difficult word to define, yet you’ll probably know it when you see it. A conscientious person is someone who is careful, vigilant, dutifully and reliable all at the same time. But are these traits needed for success?

It seems that for conscientious personalities, the sense of satisfaction for acting appropriately is higher than in the unconscientious. Unconscientious people seem to struggle to ignore short-term immediate rewards. Therefore, with these abilities, conscientious students have an advantage in most classrooms and tend to find success as a result (Chamorro-Premuzic and Furnham 2003).

On the other hand, studies have shown that while unconscientious students are more likely to procrastinate, they are generally more innovative and creative (Chamorro-Premuzic 2006).

Do you believe that a personality trait can influence your success?

3. Optimism

Is Optimism An Essential Personality Trait For Success?

While many of us may never quite make it to space (we’re not talking to you Elon Musk), everyday life seems to support the idea of aiming for the stars. We all know somebody with wildly ambitious personality traits who just seems to achieve success, but being too optimistic can lead to problems.

In fact, it messes with your sense of time. A 2007 study by Jeff M. Conte asked volunteers to estimate when a minute had elapsed, with participants categorised as either pessimists or optimists. Remarkably, optimistic participants drastically over-estimated the amount of time, stopping at an average of 77 seconds. Pessimists were more accurate, averaging at 58 seconds (Conte et al. 2001).

Does this explain why optimistic people are always late?

It seems many people with optimistic personality traits are chronically late because they think they have more time than they actually do. When an optimist schedules their day, they are so positive that they may try to fit in too much stuff. Does this sound familiar?

The same can apply to work deadlines. Optimism can lead to an underestimation of how long a piece of work will take to complete. People with optimistic personality traits can find themselves in a mad race to finish work deadlines.

4. Extrovert

Personality Traits Of A Happy Extrovert

In 1986 a budding PhD student Robert Emmons at the University of Illinois asked 140 students to take ‘daily mood reports’, followed by a yes/no questionnaire. The questionnaire asked simple things like “do you prefer reading to meeting people?”. Robert found a strong correlation between those with extroverted personality traits and those reporting high levels of happiness and sense of well being (Emmons and Diener 1986).

Does this mean that extroverts are happier?

Since this study, there have been many theories to try and explain why. One theory suggests that those with extroverted personality traits are better at ‘mood maintenance’ and in a neutral situation will remain more positive than introverts (Lischetzke and Eid 2006).

However, it isn’t all good news for extroverts. It seems those with extrovert personality traits are more easily bored in ‘low stimulus’ environments, which can impact their success in school and higher education (Furnham et al. 2003).

Finally, even though the idea that extroverted personality traits are correlated with happiness, it seems to depend on the country or culture. In Japan for example, introverted qualities and behaviour are more valued, and the exact opposite effect is seen (Fulmer et al. 2010).

Happiness could in the end be all about meeting your own expectations.

5. Growth mindset

A Fixed Mindset Could Be Holding Back Your Success

If happiness is related to expectations, what happens if you don’t believe you can achieve success? In 1998, an experiment setup from Columbia University involved 9 to 12 year olds taking a test. Each student was told they had answered 80% of questions correctly and afterward, the students were praised for either how intelligent they were or how hard they had worked.

After additional tests, they saw some fascinating results. Children who were praised for intelligence performed worse on subsequent tests, were less likely to enjoy the testing and were less likely to continue solving difficult problems compared to students who had been praised for their effort (Mueller and Dweck 1998).

These shocking results led to the idea of fixed and growth mindsets. Those children praised for hard work arrived at a growth-oriented mindset where their self-image was dependent on how much they had tried. More importantly, their fear of failure was much lower. Therefore, in contrast to personality traits, it seems that a mindset can be influenced or even taught.

However, the danger is when you apply a fixed mindset to learning or a growth mindset to tasks that are a waste of resources. It is most important to be aware of your mindset when starting a task, making sure you can foresee success but be prepared to embrace difficulty and failure as an opportunity to learn.

Now, what do we do with all this?

At Intersection Ventures, Collective Intelligence is at the core of our work. We utilise numerous behavioural data points and apply additional data collected with user enquiries directly. Data points like the personality traits described above.

Tutorean is one of many exciting Ventures we’re working with at Intersection Ventures. It is a great example of the application of Collective Intelligence.

Tutorean is a tutor market place that perfects the tutor-tutee match with personality traits. Learning from the behaviour of our users to improve the effectiveness of tutoring we offer.

If you’re looking for investment within Collective Intelligence, we invite you to apply directly on our website.