Predicting Personality

Chapter Twenty-FourFACILITATING ONE-ON-ONE CHEMISTRY BETWEEN OTHERS

To lead effectively and make wise managerial decisions, you need to understand the basics of relational dynamics. None of us exists in a vacuum. You are living in a volatile, ever-changing landscape of personalities, networks, and relational dynamics (especially if you're in a career where you need to work with other people). When you use personality assessments and AI to understand the natural dynamics between people, magic happens.

Usually, it takes years of trial and error to understand how you relate to another person. It takes a long time and many different situations to learn how two people handle collaboration, stress, and conflict. There's no substitute for building trust over the long-term, and there are many variables that factor into a healthy or unhealthy relationship. However, personality differences have a major impact, and if you understand the theory behind those differences, you can greatly accelerate the process.

If every relationship is its own movie, personality is the musical score that plays in the background while you watch the story unfold. The music tells you what's going on behind the dialogue between characters. It helps you understand the emotional game being played, and helps you anticipate what's coming next. If you remove the music, you can still understand the facts of the situation, but it's going to take much longer to understand the feelings.

In shorthand, we typically refer ...