Theories in Action – ‘Big Five’

Previously I analyzed my boss’ leadership style through Robert Blake and Jane Mouton’s Leadership GRID Theory, and now I will apply the “Big Five” personality traits theory to get a clearer image of his personality as it relates to leadership. The Big Five personality traits include extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness. The study Personality and Leadership: A Qualitative and Quantitative Review by Judge et al. focuses on which personality trait would lead to leadership emergence, behavior (“style”) and effectiveness. They concluded both conscientiousness and extraversion most likely led to leadership emergence, but all traits, except neuroticism, were expressed as being effective. 

Before meeting and knowing my boss, I predicted he would be highly extroverted, and I was correct. He is loud in the office, interacting with new people and bringing enthusiasm and energy to every meeting. He pushes himself and others (like me) to put themselves out there to meet people and gain more opportunities. 

Although my boss does not shy away from sharing his opinion, I would rank him to be high on the agreeableness scale. In his interactions with others he is highly respectful and trusts others to do their share of the work. He believes relationships are the most important aspect to his job.

Although relationships are of high importance to my boss, he also is motivated by task-completion.  My Boss is achievement striving and self-confident. However, he is not extremely organized and could be seen as difficult to work with others on the team. Because of this I would rank my boss as mildly conscientious. 

With regard to neuroticism, my boss is highly optimistic, self-confident, resilient, and emotionally stable, ranking him low on the neuroticism scale. He explains that in a stressful situation he initially reacts extremely cool. He credits this to all of his previous experience in the industry, so he is not initially shocked and processes stress very rationally and level headed. He explained that despite feeling anxious or sad at times, he does not let his emotions cloud his judgement. 

Lastly, I believe my boss to be very high on the openness scale. He began this team at CBRE in the Baltimore office and saw a future of where the industry was going. Through his 30 years of working in this industry he has seen many difficult situations, like the 2008 recession or the COVID pandemic, and has adapted to still be successful in his career. He highly values his team and works with them to accomplish their goals.