Jun

17

Personality and Job Scope

Career / Communication / Momentum

 

 

In our latest blog series, Ruby Star Associate’s researcher Anthony has been looking at some research studies about business growth in more depth. Here he delves into ‘Personality & Job Scope’

You can read Anthony’s previous blog ‘How King Should Your Customer Be? here.

 

Ever worked with someone that just didn’t suit their role? Or ever felt like “this job just isn’t me?” There’s a good chance that you may be right, in the second part of our research blogs we investigate the possible reasons why this might…then again you could just be neurotic (don’t know what neurotic means? You’re in luck, read on…..)

Personality has been measured left, right and centre for decades. Ernest Tupes and Raymond Christal were the first to create an initial model of personality back in 1961. They were soon followed by Goldberg, Cattell, and Costa and McCrae.. They found and investigated five overarching domains which represented the basic structure and contained the most known traits in personality. These five traits were identified as:

1. Openness – this reflects the degree of a person’s intellectual curiosity, creativity and a preference for novelty and variety.

2. Conscientiousness – those who are conscientious have a tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, aim for achievement, plan their behavior, are well organised, and dependable.

3. Extraversion – extraverts have high energy, increased positive emotions, are more assertive and sociable, and have a tendency to seek stimulation in the company of others.

4. Agreeableness – those possessing this trait show a tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others. It is also a measure of one’s’ trusting and helpful nature, and whether a person is generally well tempered or not.

5. Neuroticism – the tendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily, such as anger, anxiety, depression, or vulnerability. Neuroticism also refers to the degree of emotional stability and impulse control.

Raja and Johns (2010) examined the relation between personality and three dimensions of job performance (in-role performance, creativity, and citizenship behavior) under differing levels of job scope (complexity of a job). Self-reported surveys were completed by 383 participants with the aim of the study to see if certain personalities were more suited to more complex jobs with higher numbers of tasks to complete.

With the potentially conflicting effects of gender and worker organisation statistically controlled for, only conscientiousness and extraversion* were significantly related to job performance, both positively. When thinking about it, this makes sense as conscientious individuals are much more methodical and plan-based which is ideal for jobs which contain many ongoing tasks. Similarly, individuals who are stimulation seekers, more outgoing, and more assertive, are much more suited for jobs which require multi-tasking and have a high job scope.

Neuroticism had a negative relation with performance in jobs which required the completion of multiple tasks (high job scope) and a positive relation in jobs which required the completion of fewer tasks (low job scope). Neuroticism had a significantly negative relation to in-role performance and creativity when the need for multi-tasking was higher. This dimension is particularly interesting when you look at wther people are better suited to specialist or generalist roles (generalists tend to have higher job scope).

We have to operate in our whole job, not just separate dimensions or aspects of a job. Therefore, although research focusing on dimensions of jobs can be helpful for job design, the study’s results are most useful when it comes to placing individuals with similar skills but different personalities on various jobs and for thinking about how you structure messages to respond to different personality types. For instance, some of the potential problems that employee neuroticism might entail can be restructured by thinking about many parallel responsibilities are required for a role.

The authors argue that when a job becomes more complex and demanding, extraverts tend to move to protect their self-interest. If this is true then managers have to ensure that extraverted individuals are provided with safety mechanisms or help that ensures their self-interest so that their energy and ambition can be deployed on a demanding job.

Even if employees are not ideally placed within the right dimensions that suit their personalities, it helps knowing what type of person your co-worker is. This is especially the case when, for example, presenting ideas to different groups of people. A more conscientious group of people would want to know the finer details and the planning behind your work, whereas more extraverted or open groups would not be as concerned with the minutiae.

Based on:
Raja, U., Johns, G. (2010). The joint effects of personality and job scope on in-role performance, citizenship behaviors, and creativity.

*the characteristics and relative merits of extraverts and introverts have received a lot of attention recently – particularly in relation to skills for sales- so we may return to this in more detail in a future blog.

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Apr

15

Why small but national businesses shouldn’t ignore FourSquare

Communication / Productivity

 

FourSquare (and similar programmes) are, on the face of it, a relatively gimmicky app, which allows people to tell others in the their social network where they’ve been. Even if you aren’t familiar with it, you may well have seen Facebook posts or tweets which say things like: “John is at Nandos, Glasgow”. Business to Consumer businesses often use it well – offering perks and freebies to users who “check in” at their premises and spread the word. Business to business users don’t use it much, if at all. However, we think some are missing a trick.

If you are a large, national brand, people will assume that your product and service are available everywhere. However, if you are a small brand, but one which is still operating nationally, people may not be aware of your reach. It can feel fake, egotistical or even showy-off to check in, in the places you visit as part of your working week, sometimes it might be all of those things. However, our experience, and the experience of clients we’ve been working with recently is that these little reminders of where you are delivering your service, can create new opportunities for our business.

In recent weeks we’ve picked up new clients in Newcastle, Wolverhampton and Glasgow, simply by “checking in” at venues where we are working. All of these leads have come about through a conversation a bit like this:

RubyStar has checked in at Conference Centre, Glasgow.

Hey RubyStar- I didn’t know you worked in Glasgow – you here often?

Hi, yes we have a couple of clients up here.

Give us a shout next time you are up – let’s have coffee

Clients who’ve moved to using a similar approach have also had great results. It’s a simple thing to do – and if you are looking for more work in the places you travel to, might be worth a try.

What do you think? Love it, loathe it? Use it?

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Mar

22

Abundant thinking.

Communication / Inspiration / Productivity

 

Abundance is one of our values at Ruby Star Associates – for us it means giving generously of our time, sharing ideas and knowledge openly, being collaborative and investing time and energy in helping people to make important things happen. Our experience and data suggest that this investment is more than worth it, and working in a protectionist, minute-counting or suspicious way doesn’t really float our boat.

This week I was reminded of a slightly different definition of Abundance, the one proposed by Daniel Pink in A Whole New Mind. He talks about abundance in terms of the relative material abundance that we all experience – the massive availability, accessibility and affordability of huge quantities of stuff which is a feature of the modern world. He argues, (as ever, very convincingly, if you aren’t already a fan, check out some of his work… start with Drive) that this abundance has an impact on how we should shape our organisations. In brief, with so much “stuff” out there, in order to differentiate what you do or sell you need to have more than just something which is effective and affordable – you need to appeal to a higher purpose: aesthetics, spirituality, meaning, even joy. Whilst this definition is different from the one we use, the intention is completely aligned.

Like many other businesses we’ve found that through our pro-bono activities, our exploratory conversations and our investment in the missions and ideas of the great people we’ve met, we’ve learnt loads, made great connections and come across some of the most exciting commercial opportunities. It’s all about balance after all… otherwise it’s just a job. No?

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Mar

11

Getting some balance about work life balance

Career / Communication / Momentum / Productivity

 

This week there have been a slew of stories, like this one: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21588760, about Yahoo’s decision to put an end to homeworking. Given that as a team we all operate remotely at Ruby Star, but that much of our client work is about bringing teams together to collaborate and innovate, we thought we’d throw in our tuppence worth to anyone who’s listening.

And our position is one of being slightly baffled by the debate we’ve seen on social media and on blogs – with two polarised sides advocating either total office-based teams or 100% flexible and remote working. We can’t be the only ones who’d like to see a bit more balance here. We’d no more advocate that teams need to be together all day every day in order to operate and innovate than we’d advocate entirely remote working. Here are some of the reasons why we are big fans of balance:

1. Working remotely, when done well and for the right reasons allows people to work more flexibly, expands the diversity of the available team and allows people to focus and deliver in the way that produces the best results for them.
2. Lazy, unproductive home working is a result of flawed intrinsic motivation systems in a team – not a flaw in the concept itself.
3. Innovation and ideas develop best when teams spend time together, and that includes both focussed and unfocussed time together – teams need plenty of this.
4. Our experience of working with teams who are mostly remote who don’t have sufficient opportunities to meet and get together is that in the limited times when the team is together it can be impossible to address both the need for social contract, general catch up and focussed development: More time together is part of the solution to this.
5. Most productive teams are made up of people who work well individually, are experienced and comfortable working as a team, and are also capable of working in small, temporary teams to address specific challenges.
6. It’s easier than ever for people to work remotely – but that doesn’t mean we should do it all the time.

So… far be it from us to disagree with Yahoo….. but we disagree with Yahoo.
A mix of team together time and individual working (remotely or otherwise) aren’t any barrier to effective innovative time…….. but cultural issues and a lack of intrinsic motivators can be.

What’s your view?

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Feb

15

X-factor syndrome (and how to avoid it)

Communication / Goals / Momentum

 

You know those contestants on the X-Factor who are truly awful, but are surprised to receive negative feedback?
The ones whose friends and family have always told them how great they are. That’s you that is.

One of the biggest risks to your business is underestimating how hard you need to work to convince others of your (product/service’s) brilliance. When you start a business the proceeding months and many of the initial months (or even years) will be spent having conversations about your venture. And everyone, or at least most people, will have told you what a great idea it is. So it’s easy to underestimate how hard you are going to have to work to get the same sort of reaction from people when you want them to accompany this verbal validation with parting with some cash.

This underestimating is very common among start-ups, but as you can imagine the consequences can be unpleasant:
• decreased confidence
• cashflow challenges
• increased pressure to close sales with existing leads
• and most worrying of all…. lack of clarity of message.

You see, we both know that you are fantastic, and great at what you do……. but it might just be safer for your business to base your level of confidence in your business on the sales you achieve, and the feedback you get from people who are willing to pay for your service, even if that means that some of your initial ideas don’t survive the buzzers.

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Feb

06

All the time in the world – What to do when it all goes wrong.

Business Development / Communication

 

The meeting monster: The “All the Time in the World” Type.

Characteristics:
You may not be quite sure how this meeting has come about. As it approaches you may have found
yourself wondering why you agreed to it. You often have no idea what, if anything is likely to come
from it. Exploratory meetings are fine, and can yield great results- but we all need to watch out that
we aren’t using too much of our time drinking coffee talking about things which aren’t really work.

They might:
• Tell you their life story
• Pump you for information or intel

Don’t:
Feel guilty when you have the odd meeting with no direction, its fine to chat, make connections and
not treat every meeting as a sales pitch. Equally, don’t feel guilty when you say no to meetings,
where you aren’t sure you can justify the time.

Do:
• Ask for clarification about what meetings are about when you set them up.
• Set time limits.
• Ask directional questions “How do you think we could help each other?”
• Help people out, provide information and give advice if asked- but not beyond the limits of what works for you commercially.

Remember, most people are nice, and most meetings will go smoothly if you prepare, but some of
the people you meet (hopefully the tiny minority) may be rude, inexperienced at meetings, or even
nervous and this can affect their behaviour in meetings. You can’t (and shouldn’t) try to control their
behaviours, but you can control yours.

Met any meeting monsters recently? Tell us how you handled them!

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Jan

31

Shady Types – What to do when it all goes wrong.

Business Development / Communication

 

The meeting monster: The “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you”, type.

Characteristics:
This type knows that knowledge is power, and they are determined not to hand the power to you by giving you any. Unfortunately, without information this meeting is headed no-where fast, and you aren’t building any sort of idea of whether you can be of use in future.

They might say:
• Almost nothing! Getting answers from this type can be a real struggle.

Don’t:
Panic, get cross, or respond in kind.

Do:
• Recognise this for what it actually is- a real fear of situations in which they are being sold to.
• Work hard to get the conversation started. Ask open questions.
• Ask directional, but open questions: “What do you think I need to know in order to understand this project better?”, “What has worked well for you on projects before?”, “What would you hate to see in our proposal?”

Remember, most people are nice, and most meetings will go smoothly if you prepare, but some of the people you meet (hopefully the tiny minority) may be rude, inexperienced at meetings, or even nervous and this can affect their behaviour in meetings. You can’t (and shouldn’t) try to control their behaviours, but you can control yours.

Met any meeting monsters recently? Tell us how you handled them!

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Jan

25

Go-on-impress-me – What to do when it all goes wrong.

Business Development / Communication

 

The meeting monster: The “Go-on” impress me.

Characteristics: Often to be found with their arms crossed, this particular meeting monster is determined to make you do all the work. They’ve seen all the films and read all the books – unfortunately, mainly the ones from the 80s They may well think that the key to a good meeting is that they retain the upper hand, they may have crushed your bones with an unnecessarily brutal handshake, and positioned you on a small, shaky chair whilst they recline on a throne-like office chair.

They might say:
• So, why would I work with you?
• How much is this going to cost me (before you’ve even started a conversation)
• What’s your turnover/profit/exit strategy/etc, or anything else which makes them feel like they are on Dragon’s Den

Don’t:
Panic, react defensively, or allow yourself to “play-the-game” of trying to impress them out of their stance.

Do:
• Get some dialogue going – ask questions, keep the conversation equal.
• Answer questions honestly, and in a way which deflates the situation. So, if they say “Why do you think you are the best person for this project” before you’ve had a chance to ask anything about the project consider responding with: “I don’t yet, I’m hoping to hear more about you, your organisation and the project, so that I can see if we might be the best option for you”.
• If nothing is working, consider calling them out: “You seem to think I’ve come here to pitch a specific proposal to you – I’ve come to understand more about your business and to see if there are ways we can work together in future. Would you rather end the meeting now?”
• Remember, most people are nice, and most meetings will go smoothly if you prepare, but some of the people you meet (hopefully the tiny minority) may be rude, inexperienced at meetings, or even nervous and this can affect their behaviour in meetings. You can’t (and shouldn’t) try to control their behaviours, but you can control yours.

Met any meeting monsters recently? Tell us how you handled them!

 

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Nov

23

Telephones…

Communication / Featured / Productivity

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Nov

16

Get Over your What-if-itis

Communication / General / Goals / Productivity

How do you feel when you spot a missed call on your phone? Do you feel a sense of rising panic – do you call back straight away even if (or especially if) you don’t recognise the number? One of the challenges that most businesses, but especially those who sell services Business-to-business, face is prioritising leads and actions. When any call can be the next big thing it can feel impossible to turn down any potential meeting, and every email can feel urgent. Here are tips on how to get it back in check:

1. Start collecting data – when you are dealing with a small number of leads or you are the only person involved with them it can be hard to persuade yourself that you need to keep written records, but as things change and develop knowing which leads were the most profitable and what the average conversion time was will help you make better decisions.
2. Don’t overestimate your own importance! If you can email and call everyone back straight away that’s fabulous, but if that isn’t manageable, it many cases it is acceptable to send a holding email saying you’ll call tomorrow. It’s better to let people know that you want to have a real conversation with them than to rush through a quick transactional exchange just to get them off your to-do list.
3. Ask better questions. It’s OK to ask potential clients what they want and want they might want it.
Honestly.

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