Personality Isn't Permanent
Our personality is not static. How can we make it elvolve throughout our career?
Author(s): Benjamin Hardy
Publisher: Portfolio
Date of publication: 2020
Manageris opinion
To which extent does our personality determine our behaviors and our future? Personality is generally considered as the cornerstone of our identity. We thus all have natural preferences—some would say innate—that characterize our communication style, the way we address problems, organize, etc. Extrovert, leader, conciliator, etc.—these traits seem to define who we are.
Are we thus constrained by our personality type? No, the author answers: our personality is a lot more elastic than we think. It is only up to us to decide to make it evolve.
In this book that goes against common beliefs, the author criticizes personality tests. He underlines their danger: by locking people up in categories, they contribute to freeze the image they have of themselves. In contrast, by relying on personal transformation stories, he defends the possibility of getting the personality traits that limit us in our projects to evolve. And he offers advice to succeed: putting ourselves in the shoes of the person we want to become, finding support in our entourage and environment, deliberately reworking our biographical narrative, etc.
A valuable perspective to evolve our professional identity throughout our career, whilst remaining authentic.
