Why six character traits have the biggest impact on how we do our jobs
What is “character”?
Ask hundreds of people what they think the most important character traits are and you’ll get hundreds of answers. We know. We’ve asked.
It’s how we show up
Character is what truly determines how we show up in our lives. Warren Buffett famously put it like this: “Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if you don’t have the first, the other two will kill you. You think about it, it’s true. If you hire somebody without [integrity], you really want them to be dumb and lazy.”
The list of smart, skilled, educated, and experienced people whose lack of character blew up their companies and ruined lives is loooong. Think Elizabeth Holmes, Sam Bankman-Fried, Bernie Madoff.
Character matters a lot at work
87% of business leaders strongly agree that character significantly impacts people’s performance at work (Centiment Survey, 2024). It wouldn’t take you long to think of someone you’ve worked with whose character (or lack thereof) made a big splash.
Academic research backs up our real-world experience. Character strengths can be considered
*highly relevant predictors of job performance (Harzer, Bezuglova, & Weber, 2021);
*more predictive of performance than personality (Pan & Ruch, 2019); and
*equally as predictive regardless of the occupation (Peterson & Seligman, 2009).
And everyone’s seen Simon Sinek’s lecture on how the Navy Seal Team 6 picks its members. Hint: they value trustworthiness over talent. Unfortunately, Sinek worried that at the time that “there are negligible to no metrics to measure someone’s trustworthiness.”
So what is “Work Character”?
Prominent research has identified as many as 24 character traits. However, after consulting with top organizational psychologists as well as hundreds of business leaders across industries, we found that six specific traits shape how we apply our skills, education, and experience in our jobs.
Consider these six as the foundation for our work character.
No one has perfect character
ATTN: Hiring Managers – don’t expect candidates with perfect work character. They don’t exist. Each of us develops our work character with influence from our upbringing, our values, our failures, and the way we choose to live our lives. We have all known some truly fine humans but even they had character flaws.
So how can we put character at the heart of our hiring process?
The right mix for the right role
First, find reliable data on candidates’ work character from as many people with first-hand insights as possible. Reference checking has been around for ages, but asking a couple of their hand-picked career champions just doesn’t cut it anymore.
Then, use that data powerfully and responsibly. Here are some tips:
1️⃣ Look for the mix of character strengths and weaknesses that fit the role best.
2️⃣ Ask insightful interview questions related to your desired character mix.
3️⃣ Have a plan to leverage strengths and develop weaknesses in your new employees.
KANNY
Our mission at KANNY is to get this data into the hands of hiring managers. Learn more about the world’s first scalable, peer-sourced character report at www.kanny.com.