There are well over 30,000 words to describe personality. To make things more confusing what one person calls personality another calls values, motivation, attitudes, beliefs, feelings or even emotion. The fact is there seem to be different ways of describing what we’re like, and why we do what we do.

So when it comes to it, the behavior we show at work, or in a team, or in any other situation is quite difficult to attribute to some sort of precise ‘personality thing’.

However in real life by far the two most popular ways of measuring what drives people to behave in one way of another are personality and interests questionnaires. This makes the situation simpler. Of course interests could have been added to the list at the beginning. The reason it wasn’t is because interests really are closely intertwined with personality. Let me explain.

What do you feel like doing today?

Personality and interests influence life and career success. They do this by affecting the processes by which we decide what to do; or if you like, what we feel motivated to do. This amounts to influencing the choices we make about what to concentrate on, how much effort to spend doing it, and how long to stick at it. Which if you think about it are of particular interest to potential employers.

So far so good, but now you’re probably thinking about questionnaires you’ve done in the past. That might be a Big Five Personality or OCEAN questionnaire you’ve completed as part of a recruitment process, measuring Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Emotional stability (Neuroticism).

It could also be an interests inventory you’ve encountered at school or college, or maybe as part of the job hunting process. That probably looked at the work areas that interested you the most

For example: science-based or analytic activities (which would make you an Investigative type); creative or inventive activities (Artistic type); helping or mentoring activities (Social type); commercial or visionary activities (Enterprising type); organizing or planning activities (Conventional type); and practical and action orientated activities (Realistic type).

So, what’s the difference?

The guru in this field, John Holland, said that there was no difference between interests and personality, despite the names of the component parts being different.

“If vocational interests are expressions of personality, then it follows that interest inventories are personality inventories.” (Holland, 1999.)

And there’s evidence to support his view as there are correlations between Big Five factors and Interest types. As examples, Openness goes with Investigative and Artistic types - perhaps no surprise as both are involved in being interested in new ideas and ways of doing things; and Extraversion with Social and Enterprising types - again no big surprise as both involve dealing with other people and engaging with them.

So, case closed. Not quite. Whilst there is an obvious overlap between interests and personality, there’s something left over. The two approaches seem to agree on some things, but not on others. What’s going on? Perhaps it’s a bit more complicated.

The puzzle is solved.

Psychologists argued over the missing part of the equation for many years. Then in a ground breaking piece of work personality and interests were reconciled. It turns out there are three high level dimensions that explain how they work together, and which bit does what.

Dimension #1: Interests v. Personality traits

It seems your interests are all about the sort of work environment you find energizing and the activities you enjoy. Personality adds to the mix with an explanation of how you might behave in the work environment, or directly interact with the activities that you find stimulating.

To put it another way, interests are about your desire to do things that you find rewarding; and personality helps to regulate your behavior. In a work context this concerns what you prefer to do and how you might go about doing it. When your interests and personality align, that’s when great work gets done.

Dimension #2: Growth v. Accomplishment

Both striving for personal growth and wanting to accomplish something involve interests and personality acting together. On the one hand you have Conscientiousness teaming up with the Enterprising type, plus two of the other types, Conventional and Realistic. Where-as on the other hand, Openness and Extraversion align with the Artistic type.

In a nutshell the split is between a preference for getting things done, following the rules and working with facts; versus working with ideas, open-ended scenarios and intuitive thoughts. At work there’s a difference between those who like things cut and dried and in order, as opposed to those who can cope with ambiguous or changing situations. If you think about it both influence productivity, but in different ways.

Dimension #3: People v. Things

Finally, there’s a division between Realistic and Investigative types, and Extraversion and Enterprising and Social types. This reflects the desire to work alone or with ‘things’ and technology, as opposed to working with people or in more community orientated environments. The people-centered activities may involve leading, persuading, mentoring, helping or any other essentially social activity.

This dimension has a particular relationship with working in teams or groups, and helps to explain the particular contribution a person might make, For instance, maintaining group harmony, directing the efforts of the group, and helping get the most out of everyone.

Where does this leave us?

The upshot is that personality and interests tell you a great deal about what someone is like in a work situation, and also what will motivate them to do their best. Recognizing how personality and interests interact provides a more complete view of a person - just the sort of thing that is valuable in development and selection activities.

As a recruiter or employer if you want the best of both worlds the trick is to use questionnaires built on an understanding of both interests and personality traits. That’s where Traitify comes in.