As all management professors, Cosmo editors and Inc.com columnists have discovered, almost everyone likes a good personality test. These tests can be acts of self-exploration and symbols of identity. Even some scientifically proven ones can help you discover your strengths and weaknesses and set you up for greater success.
But the most useful tests, at least, also take time. This is why it would be extraordinary if you could make some of the busiest and most successful people in the world sit down and do one. But, this is what Ray Dalio achieved for his book " Values: Work and Life"
Apparently, when you are a self-made billionaire, you have some pretty impressive names on your phone. So when Dalio wanted to know what made him one of the world's biggest innovators, he called Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, and Netflix Reed Hastings and asked them to take some time. from building rockets, fighting climate change, and creating shows worthy of fun to get an in-depth appreciation of personality. Surprisingly, everyone agreed.
What does a shaper do?
As Dalio explains in the book, his attempt to dig into what personality traits share entrepreneurs breaking the road stemmed from his retirement from Bridgewater, the defense fund he founded. Without Dalion at the helm, the firm lost momentum. Dalio described this as the lack of a particular personality type among key employees, which he described as "formative".
" A creator is someone who comes up with unique and valuable visions and builds them beautifully, usually on the doubts and objections of others," writes Dalio.
How do you find and employ more of these extremely valuable pioneers? Dalio, who was already a big fan of personality ratings and who had used them in Bridegwater, had an inspiration. What if he could persuade some of the best examples of educators he knew - like Musk and Gates - to undergo a personality test?
It is clear that Dalio is a compelling guy because according to his book all of these business icons agreed. And when Dalio analyzed their results, a clear pattern emerged. Creators like Musk, Gates, Dorsey and Hastings all share a handful of key personality traits.
They are set up in the fastening
" Sometimes, the [determinants'] extreme determination to achieve their goals can make them look demanding or inattentive, which was reflected in their test results. Nothing is good enough and they experience the gap between what is and what can be like both. "a tragedy and a source of endless motivation" , writes Dalio.
This is not to say that creators are careless. Musk has spoken poignantly about his determination to serve humanity, while Gates has donated a large portion of his fortune to charity. It simply means that on a daily basis they are happy to break some eggs to make an omelette (even if those metaphorical eggs are the souls of poorly performing employees).
" Talking to them and considering the questions that led to these assessments, it became clear: When faced with a choice between achieving their goal or satisfying (or not disappointing) others, they would choose to achieve their goal. every time, ”Dalio continues.
They are very curious
" The truth is very important to me. "Pathologically it matters to me ," Elon Musk said in a recent interview. Apparently, he is not the only shaper who feels an intense obligation to understand the world deeply and clearly.
"Researchers tend to share attributes such as intense curiosity and a compulsive need to understand things," Dalio wrote . watch them from different. "They usually like to argue with other really smart people."
And when those conversations and investigations reveal that their previous beliefs are wrong or incomplete, the shapers do not prevent the ego from changing their thoughts.
" They have very strong mental maps of how things should be done, and at the same time a willingness to test those mental maps in the world of reality and change the way they do things to make them they work better ", - claims Dalio.
Switch between vision and detail
You can expect the shapers to be dreamers who come up with the vision of the big picture and leave it to others to execute everyday details. But that's not what Dalio found. Instead, he says, the shapers have an "iron" interest in both the broad purpose and the severity of its execution.
" They have a wider range of vision than most people, either because they have that vision themselves or because they know how to get it from others who can see what they can not," says Dalio. But formers are also "capable of seeing big pictures and crushed details (and levels in between) and synthesizing the perspectives they gain at those different levels, while most people just look at one or the other." (As an example, Musk in the same recent interview, says that after all his time at Tesla factories, "I can tell you how every part is made in that car. ")
Are you a creator?
If you are curious if you share these features with the famous creators Dalio mentions, you do not have to ask yourself. Dalio teamed up with Wharton professor Adam Grant to create an assessment that can show you which "archetypes" most closely match your personality.
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