Everyone has dark traits and, depending on the situation, these can either be an asset or a liability.
We often tend to focus on the employee’s personality and on assessing whether their dark traits are either too pronounced or whether they could be useful. Focusing solely on the employee’s personality overlooks the fact that the situations that the employee is placed in are crucial to how the dark traits manifest themselves.
Below are five situations that can turn dark traits from an asset to a liability:
1. Increase in power
When a person with pronounced dark traits is assigned greater power, such as through a promotion to a managerial role, it will give them more authority and less opposition. Power feeds our dark traits and can lead to an increase in selfish and ruthless behaviour. In other words, increase in power can be an opportunity for the dark traits of a person to be given free rein and to be more expressed.
2. Pressure
When employees or managers feel under pressure for one reason or another, this too can trigger their dark traits. Perhaps the employee has too many tasks, is being challenged cognitively, or something else entirely. When we are under pressure, our survival instinct kicks in, which is when we become more willing to employ unacceptable methods. In addition, we have less energy to behave ‘correctly’.
3. Lack of feedback
If you’re not getting feedback on your behaviour, you may become more prone to demonstrating dark traits. If we don’t get feedback, we are not always able to see how our behaviour affects others, and therefore become unable to correct it. This is when it becomes important to recognise that those who receive the least feedback are often the ones with the most power. It takes more courage to correct the behaviour of someone who, on paper, could fire you. This also means that the increase in power’s activation of the dark traits can be amplified due to lack of feedback.
4. Individual or particularly performance-driven KPIs
When employees are measured on individual or particularly performance-driven KPIs, they may be more likely to exhibit dark traits. If we are measured and weighed on our ability to generate results in competition with our colleagues, this will naturally breed a selfish focus on results, while ethics and morals will fade into the background.
5. Legitimising dark traits in groups
When you are in a group where dark traits are accepted or even expected, you may be more likely to exhibit them yourself. This is because you feel more secure behaving in a way that is in line with the group’s norms.
This situation can arise if, for example, a new manager joins a management team that speaks more cynically about employees. If this manager has dark traits, he or she will quickly adapt to the management team’s view of employees.
When to be extra attentive
It is important to pay attention to situations like these when assessing whether a person with dark traits is suitable for a given role and in a given organisation or when working with the person in a development process. It is particularly relevant to be extra attentive if the role in question is a management role or a relational role that involves interacting with multiple people. This applies both when it comes to external recruitment, internal promotions or role changes and, of course, in the ongoing assessment and development of employees.
Why is it important to use professional testing tools?
You may have a gut feeling that a person has some harmful dark traits, and you could be right in your assumption, but you could also easily be mistaken. The professional testing tools not only qualify, structure, and legalise your assessment – they go one step further.
A personality test can also provide a professional setting for a difficult conversation and give you the authority you need to speak not only to the average employee, but also to those with the most power in the organisation.
As an HR professional, you have a responsibility to create a space where employees are aware of their profile and development potential. You can also ensure that the strategic KPIs for managers focus on both the long-term and human aspects, so that it is not the individual goals that foster dark behaviour, and that managers’ competencies are first and foremost utilised to the benefit of the company and not themselves.
