Risky business… how your personality impacts your approach to risk.
People with different opinions
Did you know that your personality has a strong influence of how you approach risk or uncertainty?
Your personality plays an important role in helping to understand what motivates you, how you operate, how you connect with and lead others, how you deal with change and so much more.
Interestingly, your personality also gives a lot of insight into how you’re likely to respond when dealing with situations that involve some level of risk or uncertainty.
We’re not talking here about jumping out of aeroplanes or swimming with sharks (although it is kind of all related).
Here we’re talking about risk at work that isn’t as likely to lead to serious injury.
Think start up founders or entrepreneurs taking a risk on a new venture. Or business leaders deciding to invest in a new idea. Or individual team members trying something new and taking a chance that might unlock new value in a process
To some people, all of these things might seem like a walk in a park. And for others, they might turn into a puddle of water.
Your personality can help us understand how…
This month TALY is super excited to announce the launch of TALY’s new, AI-driven candidate interview tool!
The TALY interview tips bring together…
• scientifically-backed personality profiling
• tailored to the needs of your business, culture and the role
• delivered through customised, locally-built AI tools to ensure accuracy
With the new solution, you get simple ideas on what to dive into in the next interview to really dig into candidate fit, and to make sure you’re making the right decision!
And the best part – all TALY personality profiles for recruitment now include these interview recommendations at no extra cost!
Get in touch to find out more about how you can use TALY profiling to give you interview super-powers! Or Book a Demo today to see how easy it is to start using TALY in your business.
How do you measure risk?
At TALY, we’ve built an approach to measuring risk behaviour that is unique. We started with the Barrett Impulsiveness Scale and developed this to be more relevant to business needs today, bringing in a taste of entrepreneurialism and resilience.
We’ve profiled more than 3000 professionals using this metric, and the results have proven to be really helpful for individuals, as well as for leaders who are building teams and trying to understand alignment and gaps, and for businesses overall.
The TALY risk metrics explore your personality across four dimensions…
RISK IMPULSIVENESS
A propensity to rush ahead and to act without considered thought, acting on the spur of the moment.
RISK OPTIMISM
A sense of self-belief, a confidence that things will work out, and a sense of resilience and support.
RISK APPETITE
An appetite for taking risks and belief that, at times, taking risks is important and can pay off.
RISK SPONTANEOUSNESS
A natural tendency to act spontaneously, not to plan or prepare thoroughly or to feel a need to be certain before acting.
TALY’s risk metrics
Combined, these metrics give an overview of where someone sits when it comes to situations that involves uncertainty and risk, and what it might mean for them and their team.
Linking this to the rest of your personality.
As with all things at TALY, we know every team is full of complex and interesting people. So it’s important to not just look at your risk profile – but also to look at your full profile and how the different traits may play out in relation to your risk profile.
That’s why at TALY we have just the one test that covers all the dimensions that matter, so you get the full picture.
Consider a couple of examples…
If you’re naturally driven and self-confident, and have a high risk profile, there is nothing that will hold you back. Or consider someone with a low level of self-confidence – they might naturally have a high risk profile, but aren’t confident enough to put their creative ideas forward.
Or someone with a tendency to be impulsive and temperamental, and who has a low risk profile. They could start to feel more uncertain with change quickly – much more quickly than others – potentially having consequences for their well-being and how they respond.
Or the open-minded, unstructured individual who loves to take a chance. Good luck keeping them in line with company process!
Taking the time to consider the full picture can be very helpful to really understand how one’s risk profile comes to life, and the potential impact for them, their work, their team and the overall goals.
How can you use this?
You might have gathered by now that we don’t believe there is a wrong or right personality… everyone is different, and it’s those differences – and working well across those differences – that can lead to great outcomes at work.
Your risk metrics are the same. It’s not better to be high or low, or somewhere in between. Where you sit is just where you sit - it’s what you do with this information that matters.
Behavioural skews
If you are particularly high or low in an area, that means you approach risk situations in a different way than most people. For people with a high risk score, their openness to taking chances is very high – but this may mean that they can rush in, and may be more prone to taking chances and driving change than sticking with the norm.
Similarly if you have a very low risk score, your natural response will be to say no and to avoid taking chances – meaning you may shut down opportunities quickly.
In teams, a mix of these personality types can be great to help get a balanced outcome.
Team dynamics
Individuals will bring their own perspective based on their personality. Understanding these different perspectives across the team and the implications they may have is super important for maintaining team connection and the flow of work.
Rather than just being frustrated with different mindsets, teams can understand the reason behind different points of view, and can start to leverage these differences positively.
Group think
An important area to watch out for is when many in the team approach risk in the same way. Imagine a team of high riskers takers, people who are very comfortable with uncertainty and who are happy to move fast. The group dynamics may have a significant watch out here.
Or even worse – imagine being the one person in this team who isn’t a risk taker!
Whatever your appetite for risk is at your organisation, understanding where individuals sit and the perspective they bring is an important first step in team alignment, and ensuring actions line up with outcomes and expectations.
If you want to find out more about leveraging the broad impacts that personality profiling can bring to your business, get in touch today and be sure to follow TALY Australia on LinkedIn.
The TALY approach to personality profiling brings together a unique mix of Five Factor and Emotional Intelligence profiling to help organisations, hiring managers and teams to make better decisions about recruitment and teams.
Get in touch to find out more… we love talking about this stuff! Or Book a Demo today to see how easy it is to start using TALY in your business.