Understanding the Big Five Personality Traits

Posted on Mar 7, 2025 in Public Administration, Management, and Governance

Personality encompasses traits, characteristics, or preferences that predispose us to think, feel, and behave in a certain way. The Big Five personality traits model offers several benefits:

  • Increased self-awareness.
  • Development of a common language to understand and predict self and others’ behavior.
  • Insight into an individual’s fit for a job, task, or organization. Fit predicts performance, motivation, satisfaction, retention, and going the extra mile.

1. Neuroticism

Neuroticism measures the propensity to experience and understand negative emotions. It contrasts emotional stability and even-temperedness with negative emotionality, such as feeling anxious, nervous, sad, and tense.

Low Scores:

  • Calm, self-confident, resilient to stress.
  • Good in crisis, stable.
  • Perceived as cool, indifferent.

High Scores:

  • Anxious, irritable, moody.
  • Lower self-esteem, sensitive to stress.
  • Show energy and enthusiasm, a stress-meter, proactive.
  • Too nervous and stressed, uneven, tend to micro-manage.

Managing Low Scores:

  • Manage self: Get regular feedback from others.
  • Manage others: Be very direct with feedback (“sledgehammer”).

Managing High Scores:

  • Manage self:
    1. Manage stress.
    2. Work on feedback receptiveness.
  • Manage others:
    1. Be careful with feedback; tailor the message to their mood.

2. Agreeableness

Agreeableness is the tendency to “go along to get along” and place high value on getting along well with others.

Low Scores:

  1. Skeptical, tough-minded, competitive, hard-headed, impersonal, analytical.
  2. Thick-skinned, tough-minded, focused on getting the deal done.
  3. Alienation, frequent conflicts, generate low trust in others.

High Scores:

  1. Compassionate, cooperative, friendly, tolerant, trusting, good-natured.
  2. Caring, trusting, and charitable.
  3. Transparent, easily taken for a ride, can be out-maneuvered.

Managing Low Scores:

  • Manage self:
    1. Get feedback from others.
    2. Ask questions, actively listen.
  • Manage others:
    1. Don’t ask how they feel but what they think.
    2. Don’t be afraid to criticize (and be prepared for disagreement).

Managing High Scores:

  • Manage self: Work on difficult conversations (role-play, write down, or outsource).
  • Manage others:
    1. Be sensitive but specific.
    2. Be prepared to be encouraging and positive.

3. Extraversion/Interpersonal Patterns

Extraversion is the predisposition to get energy from being around others and to be dominant in groups.

Low Scores:

  1. Reserved, serious, prefers privacy, passive, slow-paced, perceived as loners.
  2. Think carefully, non-disruptive, rich inner-life.
  3. Not enough contacts, smaller networks, don’t provide enough information.

High Scores:

  1. Friendly, outgoing, sociable, talkative, assertive, dominant, fast-paced.
  2. High communicators, inclusive, good networkers.
  3. Don’t listen, have no time, bulldoze others.

4. Openness to Experience

Openness to experience is the inclination to be interested in new and/or unusual things.

Low Scores:

  1. Down-to-earth, prosaic, narrow range of activities and interests, practical/technical, conventional.
  2. Detail-focused, good project managers.
  3. Focus on here and now, not the big picture, fixed ideas about the world.

High Scores:

  1. Creative, imaginative, artistic, experimental, intellectually curious, unconventional.
  2. Creative, enjoy change, tolerant approach.
  3. Too much change, not enough detail, unrealistic and inconsistent.

Managing Low Scores:

  • Manage self: Use a person who is high in openness to challenge; brainstorming.
  • Manage others:
    1. Be direct and to the point.
    2. Provide them with data.

Managing High Scores:

  • Manage self: Work on plans and practicalities.
  • Manage others:
    1. Be creative; ready to brainstorm.
    2. Give the big picture first.

5. Conscientiousness

Conscientiousness is the interest in leading a structured and organized life.

Low Scores:

  1. Spontaneous, flexible, disorganized, sometimes careless.
  2. Responsive to changing needs, easygoing, relaxed outlook.
  3. Distracted from goals, chaotic and unreliable.

High Scores:

  1. Efficient, well-organized, likes to finish things, strong sense of duty, self-disciplined.
  2. Reliable, hard worker with high drive.
  3. Workaholic, hard on others, obsessive about control.

Managing Low Scores:

  • Manage self: Need to increase structure (e.g., enlist help from tools and/or other people).
  • Manage others: Increase structure but don’t force decisions; realize things might take longer.

Managing High Scores:

  • Manage self: Increase social awareness, step back and learn to delegate.
  • Manage others:
    1. Stay organized, show up on time.
    2. Have an agenda, cover all points.
    3. Be clear and don’t waste time.