Performance and personality: The process of adaptation

Summary: [You might care to view the posts “Are we bound by type?", “Motivated drives", “A case of tactics”, and “Reactivity: the monkey business!” before this]. We adapt well when we ‘read’ the conditions and strive to match our abilities. Thus every personality has the capacity to alter performance. Its effectiveness depends on our being proactive or reactive.


How does personality relate to performance? The environment plays a significant role in any performance. We like to be in familiar surroundings that are conducive to our skills sets. Our level of comfort contributes to our performance being optimum.

No guarantees of continuity

But continuity of conditions isn’t ever guaranteed, especially in diversity. We’re exposed to new places, new people and new processes.

When we ‘read’ the conditions well we’re able to adapt to them, successfully utilizing our technical and creative skills to fulfil our purpose. We may even change our behaviours in adjustment.

Thus every personality has the capacity to alter performance according to requirement. Personality tests can’t identify these aspects. It would then seem that we achieve the ‘impossible’ only by becoming different persons!

Proactive and reactive

In competitive situations, we’re further confronted by our opponents’ performance. The performance bar constantly needs to be raised. Where skill sets are similar, the better adapted would be more effective in action.

We can be proactive or reactive to the many external challenges. When proactive, we’re continually learning, applying fresh effort to create the best product in the business as we anticipate and welcome change.

But as we often witness, it’s appears far easier to be reactive, to devise shortcuts to ‘success’ instead of due diligence.

The bubble burst

The shortcuts are tactics to win by default. The preference becomes to control environments, events and people, and to prevent change.

But change is constant and uncontrollable; it will happen whether one wants it, or not.

Reactivity creates complications. Fact is, ‘bubble’ existence decreases reasoning, chances to develop, and successful adaptation to change. So when – not if – the bubble bursts, you bring the system down or head into extinction!

Develop through life

The relationship between personality and performance isn’t obvious or definable. Personality develops throughout lifetime. So can performance, but whether it actually does or not depends on many influencing factors - and in ways that are unpredictable.

The many enduring traits of personality motivate learning, responses to change, adapting and thence performance. It's the individual’s choice to be proactive or reactive in responding to environmental challenges. But to prove being the best, or even to survive in the fray you must perform. That, as they say, is Karma.

Let’s have a last word next…