Personality
What Determines Our Personality?
Our personality is defined as a set of traits that can explain or predict a person’s behavior in a variety of
situations. In other words, personality is a set of characteristics that reflect the way we think and act in a
given situation. Because of this, our personality has a lot to do with how we relate to one another at work.
How we think, what we feel, and our normal behavior characterize what our colleagues come to expect of
us both in behavior and the expectation of their interactions with us. For example, let’s suppose at work
you are known for being on time but suddenly start showing up late daily. This directly conflicts with your
personality—that is, the fact that you are conscientious. As a result, coworkers might start to believe
something is wrong. On the other hand, if you did not have this characteristic, it might not be as
surprising or noteworthy. Likewise, if your normally even-tempered supervisor yells at you for something
minor, you may believe there is something more to his or her anger since this isn’t a normal personality
trait and also may have a more difficult time handling the situation since you didn’t expect it. When we
come to expect someone to act a certain way, we learn to interact with them based on their personality.
This goes both ways, and people learn to interact with us based on our personality. When we behave
different than our normal personality traits, people may take time to adjust to the situation.
