From the personality of spies to the bright side of neuroticism

The Science of Personality podcast, launched by Hogan back in June 2020, explores 'the impact of personality on life, leadership and organisational success'. Hosted by the Hogan Chief Science Officer, Dr. Ryne Sherman, Blake Loepp and a string of other guests, the podcast series (currently at episode 91) emerged during the pandemic as a means of staying connected on important work and leadership topics.

The latest episode is entitled 'Culture matters', while other topics have covered The Dark Side of Personality (naturally), Personality and Coaching, Money and Motivation (with Dr Adrian Furnham), Leadership Emergence, Office Politics and Burnout. Every so often the podcast shares conversational interviews from guests at SIOP. It goes without saying that the podcast series has set out to offer a very wide-ranging series of subjects and perspectives, but all are centred around human personality.

Modern espionage

To illustrate the nature of the content within the episodes, I have chosen three of my favourites. The first is the Personality of Spies. This episode, hosted with guest John Taylor, a visiting senior research fellow at King's College London, covers the origins and evolution of espionage, and focuses on the traits that a handler might seek in a potential 'professional' or recruited spy. These include intelligence, stability, being highly inquisitive and a strong capacity to build relationships and influence others.

The discussion also moves on to the case officer (the 'handler') who needs the skills of an actor, counsellor, salesperson and journalist. The discussion holds few big surprises but offers a rare and very interesting perspective on the world of people within the secret services.

Creativity in teams

The second episode I would highlight is Managing Creative Teams. Despite this being a core topic in the science of personality and understanding how people interact in a team environment, this podcast was only recently recorded.

Ryne and Blake look at what works (and what doesn't) when managing creative teams. In particular, the podcast draws on Ed Catmull's views of creativity and risk-taking in problem-solving, and what we actually mean by 'creativity' in a team setting.

The pair go on to discuss real world examples of great creative teams, again drawing on Catmull's book Creativity Inc. about Pixar and teams at Adobe.

Neurotic positives

And the third episode that stood out for me is The Bright Side of Neuroticism with special guest Gillian Hyde, Chief Psychologist at Psychological Consultancy Ltd – a regular publisher on personality and contributor to ADM. It is rare to hear about the upsides of neuroticism and there is limited research available, but this episode shares some interesting insights on the topic.

The episode starts by defining neurotics and the (often negative) descriptions of neuroticism and goes on to explore a range of positive outcomes. These include: striving behaviours, rumination, awareness of risk, realistic self-awareness and emotional depth (greater empathy and greater experience of reflecting on personal feelings). Each of these can, in the right context, be translated into positive benefits for the workplace.

All in all, this is a comprehensive and interesting (if sometimes overly long) podcast series. In my experience, every episode has some interesting highlights and will offer insights on how we can better understand the diverse and unique personality qualities that individuals bring to the work environment.

The Science of Personality podcast is released weekly and can be streamed via Spotify, Apple and Podtail.

Assessment & Development Matters (ADM) is a BPS publication which brings the latest news and developments on tests and testing related matters to certified test users. This review features in the latest issue 15.4.