The world of personality psychology is familiar with the perennially hot topic of personality change. A recent article theorizes a decline in conscientiousness, particularly among young adults. It also shows a decrease in agreeableness, extraversion, and emotional stability. So, can personality change? If so, is it changing right now?

On the new episode of The Science of Personality, cohosts Ryne Sherman, PhD, and Blake Loepp discussed “The Troubling Decline in Conscientiousness” by John Burn-Murdoch, published in the Financial Times.

Why do some brilliant individual contributors fail spectacularly when promoted to leadership roles, while others with similar skills thrive? The answer isn’t a matter of experience or technical expertise. What makes leaders successful (or not) is personality. For talent professionals who want to get better results from their leadership development initiatives, understanding this personality-performance connection is crucial.

Organizational outcomes improve when coaching culture is part of business strategy. Creating a coaching culture requires more than good intentions or even a mandate. Coaching culture must be modelled from the top down.

Ryne Sherman, PhD, and Blake Loepp spoke with Charlotte Saulny, CEO at Coaching.com, about how organizations can create a coaching culture.

What do individual musical preferences say about personality? How does personality affect the type of music a person enjoys? And what does AI have to do with our musical preferences? The connection between music and psychology isn’t as much of a mystery as some might assume. Current research shows a strong connection between music and personality.

People use social media platforms to shine a light on current workplace trends. Short-form videos on TikTok, YouTube, and People use social media platforms discuss and learn about current workplace trends. Short-form videos on TikTok and other platforms all provide commentary about acting your wage, quiet quitting, and task masking. How do these behaviors relate to personality strengths, challenges, and values?

Why did you show up at work today? Whether to gain authority, help others, make money, or have fun, the answer most likely connects to your values. Organizations have values too, whether declared or implied. Organizational culture is formed by the values of leaders, which can be revealed in executive assessment.

People are the deadliest invasive species in the history of the earth. People have the potential to kill every living thing and, in certain instances have already done so (e.g. passenger pigeon, western black rhinoceros, great auk) or are on their way to doing so (e.g. sea turtle, elephant, tiger, polar bear). Given their frightful potential and worldwide presence, it would be useful to know something about people. Personality psychology is the “go-to” discipline for understanding people; personality psychology is the only discipline whose primary focus is the nature of human nature. What does personality psychology tell us about human nature? The answer depends on whom you ask, or more precisely, to which personality theory you subscribe.

Keep reading to learn more about the history of personality theory, different theoretical approaches, and the role of personality in organizational and leadership performance.

When the dark side of leadership emerges, organizational catastrophe is just a step away. Financial news proves this year after year. For instance, former CEO Adam Neumann contributed to devaluing the commercial real estate company WeWork by approximately $37 billion in mere months. Now, we all know that the dark side of personality can derail everyone’s behavior from time to time. But leadership derailment is a higher-order problem. As in the case of WeWork, the dark side of leadership can result in bankruptcy and ruin.

Organizational performance is tied to effective leadership, which is the ability to build and maintain a high-performing team. In contrast, executive derailment directly impacts organizational culture and effectiveness, customer satisfaction, employee engagement, productivity, and brand reputation. A leader’s context and rank also affects how publicly or disastrously they tend to derail. The scale of consequences would be completely different for a first-time manager versus an Adam Neumann.

Developing an equitable succession planning strategy is challenging but worthwhile. Organizations that commit to equity throughout their broader talent strategies are more likely to avoid bias, nepotism, and politicking in succession decisions. They’re also more likely to see positive organizational outcomes such as executive team diversity, employee engagement, and a more inclusive organizational climate.

The word potential gets thrown around a lot in talent circles. But merely showing potential doesn’t necessarily lead to measurable success. Individual potential needs to be converted to performance so that teams, leaders, and organizations can thrive.

“Potential doesn’t count for much on its own,” Melvyn Payne, commercial director at Advanced People Strategies said. “For me, performance and delivery are key.”