“Does nature or nurture determine your personality?” This is one of the most commonly asked questions in the personality assessment industry.
To answer that question, let’s talk about cake. If we whisked only eggs and flour together, can we call it cake? No, because there’s still a lot missing—butter, spices, milk, and flavors. These ingredients are mixed together to give us a full representation of the cake, and many of them add to the full cake experience.
It’s the same with your personality.
Based on experience and research, we believe it’s incredibly helpful, yet incomplete to define personality based on a set of scores or types from an assessment. The truth is our personalities are complex three-layer cakes full of unique ingredients and bursts of flavor that cannot be summarized with one word like ‘chocolate,’ or a score of ’58,’ the label ‘introvert,’ or the type ‘blue.’
Instead, we view personality with three intertwining layers:
- Biology
- World
- Choices
These make up a person’s unique personality footprint. Understanding and appreciating them helps us be our best selves at work and in the world.
Let’s explore the three layers of personality while considering how nature and nurture influence personality.
Your biology: The foundational layer
Biology is everyone’s starting point.
Whether it’s physical traits such as eye color and height or more nuanced traits such as drive and sense of humor, your qualities will partly reflect your familial and biological history.
Some of the best research about the relationship between genetics and personality has come from studies of identical twins. Since they have nearly identical genes, it’s the perfect opportunity to tease apart the influence of nature from nurture.
The research is complex, but it shows us that generally around 50% of observed differences in individuals, such as personality, can be attributed to genetics. However, people can get too caught up in putting their personalities into buckets:
“I get my even temperament from my mom.”
“I’m easily distracted just like everyone else on my dad’s side of the family.”
“My grandpa passed down his sense of adventure.”
The reality is much more complicated.
Psychologist Paul Bloom of the University of Toronto explains this concept: “It’s important to stress that heritability is not about how much of a trait is due to your genes. Rather, it refers to the proportion of the differences within a population that is due to genetic variation …[C]onsider the trait of being good at basketball. This isn’t encoded in the genes in any direct sense; basketball is a modern invention. But some traits that make one good at basketball, like height, are partially genetic, and in our society, these translate into being good at basketball. And so basketball skill is heritable.”
Paul is referencing the importance of recognizing that genetics is only a single layer in the entire cake of our personality. It’s the interaction—think of this as the frosting—that separates but complements the cake layers of Our World and Our Choices to create the entire experience.
Reflection: How does nature affect my personality?
Remember, you, your genes, and your environment (which includes other people and their genes) are involved in an intricate dance that shapes who you are and how you react to the world around you.
Consider how heredity contributes to your personality by asking these questions:
- Which parts of my personality do I observe in my immediate family?
- When I reflect on each part or personality trait separately, how do they help me in my life? Professionally?
- When I reflect on each part or personality trait, how do they hinder me in my life? Professionally?
Your world: The middle layer
Your environment is vast and dynamic. Places, cultures, life circumstances, and communities all influence and shape who you are. As a result, it’s natural to adapt behaviors to the world around you.
For example, if you work in an office where the norm is to be at your desk and ready to go at 7:00 am, you’re more likely to adopt this behavior. This means you may be more likely to consider yourself a ‘morning person.’
Every time we step into a new circumstance—a new manager, team, or organization—we spend time trying to decode the environment’s ins and outs, defining the written and unwritten norms, and seeing where we fit (or don’t fit). It’s natural for our pattern-seeking brains.
This is our personality at work in the world.
Sometimes, our environment plays to our natural personality; sometimes, it doesn’t. When it doesn’t, it can create stress or diminish well-being. To understand how your different environments impact you, you need to first tease out the behaviors you display in your environment and see how they align (or don’t align) with the natural elements of your personality.
Reflection: How is my personality shaped by the world around me?
Your world is made up of social influences—who and what you interact with. Because environments continually shift and evolve as you move through life, your personality is being influenced and most likely adapting in subtle ways to this change.
In the lens of your workplace and how your world further influences your personality, reflect on the following questions:
- What behaviors, norms, and values define culture in my work environment?
- Have my behaviors shifted as an adaptation to my current work environment?
- Am I able to lean on my natural personality with this group?
If you answered ‘no’ to the last question, be cautious that your sense of well-being, commitment, or energy levels might be negatively impacted. Consider alternative ways of honoring the environment, while also finding ways to lean on your default nature.
Your choices: The layer that is uniquely you
Your choices are the most unique expression of you.
This layer is where your agency and autonomy shine. These are deliberate behaviors that you consciously choose to further a value, a need, or a desired outcome.
Choice shows up in key areas of your life:
Intention. Your choices allow you to actively shape your behaviors. With awareness of your ‘natural’ personality (your biology), you can decide when choosing different personality expressions to further your goals is beneficial. Whether in response to your world or your specific goals, you may decide to adopt these subtle personality shifts, either broadly or in specific situations.
Values-Driven Behavior. You may choose behaviors that better align with your values. For example, you decide to show appreciation more frequently. When your choices align with your values, you’re more likely to feel fulfilled and authentic.
Adaptation. In a rapidly changing work environment, your choices may reflect deliberate adjustments to new roles, teams, or industries.
Reflection: How do you express your personality?
Choice in personality expression gives us behavioral range, showing how we evolve in response to our environment. Adopting new behaviors typically requires consistent work and energy when our choices don’t align with our biology. That is why awareness of natural personality–your biology–is key.
Consider your personality in the realm of your intentions, your values, and your adaptability. How do these adjustments serve you? Are there any well-being, energy, or emotional costs to you?
Honoring the layers of YOU
Many personality assessments generate results that put people into exclusive categories or ‘types.’ For example, they may say you are either an introvert or an extrovert.
With this perspective, you miss out on understanding the layers of what makes you uniquely you.
Maybe you are an extrovert in certain situations—such as small groups or if the subject of the meeting matters to you. Maybe one of your parents leaned more toward being an introvert, so you were raised in a home where small talk and meeting people everywhere wasn’t the norm.
Seeing and understanding this wider perspective of your personality traits and behaviors can be a powerful tool in enhancing how you show up at work and your well-being.
This is the perspective that the WorkPlace Big Five Profileᵀᴹ provides. Based on the Five-Factor Model, this assessment describes the connection between your personality and your environment, allowing you to see how your biology, world, and choices impact your work.
The WorkPlace Big Five Profileᵀᴹ helps you discover your personality’s unique footprint and gives context for what you and others should know about you and your superpowers. It also helps you gain a new perspective to understand and appreciate the uniqueness that others bring to the table.
With this, everyone is positioned for success.
Discover more about the WorkPlace Big Five Profileᵀᴹ.
