P.Q. Power: The Personality Key that Unlocks the Front Door
Apr 13, 2025
Ever walk into a team meeting and wonder why some people won't stop talking while others never speak up?
Ever get frustrated with a coworker who obsesses over details when you just want to get things done?
Ever been mystified about why that star candidate turned down your offer despite the perfect compensation package?
That's what happened to Lonnie, a small business owner in Atlanta, on a Thursday afternoon that altered his entire approach to talent attraction. His company had just lost their third top candidate in two months. The feedback from the recruiter was consistent: "The role seemed right, but they didn't feel they would fit with your team culture."
Lonnie realized something fundamental: Technical skills get candidates to your door. Personality fit determines whether they see the door as open or closed.
Why This Matters to You
Lonnie's challenge is your challenge: How do you not just find qualified candidates, but attract the right personalities to create a harmonious, productive team culture?
One way is to use a personality assessment, individual results, and team composites to predict a harmonious, productive team culture. As Alex Szinegh shared with me in our Work Positive Podcast conversation about one such personality assessment, the DISC, "The No. 1 reason people get fired from a job is attitude, and I'm guessing the No. 1 reason people get hired on a job is because of attitude. You can teach skills, but you can't teach attitude."
Attitudes shape and form based on how the team's personality fits. You discover here how raising your P.Q. (Personality Quotient) creates an open, front-door culture that naturally attracts right-fit talent before you waste time on ill-fit interviews.
Know Yourself First, Then Others
"Know yourself first, and then you get to know others, and then you see how it all fits together," Alex emphasizes during our Work Positive Podcast conversation. This wisdom forms the foundation of all successful talent attraction strategies.
Before you can attract the right talent to your team, you must understand:
- Your own personality style.
- The personality makeup of your existing team.
- The best-fit personality of the role you're filling.
Research shows organizations that align personality types with role requirements see 60% higher performance and 50% lower turnover. This is more than "getting along." Personality alignment creates the optimal mix for productivity and engagement and ensures people and profits grow.
Suzanne, an HR director for a software company, transformed their talent attraction approach by first mapping the DISC profiles of each department. She discovered their development team was heavily weighted with “C” personalities (careful, competent, calculating), while their sales team was dominated by “I” personalities (inspiring, interactive, influential).
When creating job descriptions and conducting interviews, she emphasized different cultural aspects depending on the target personality type. Applications from candidates with the best personality fit increased 58%, and six-month retention improved by 47%.
The Platinum Rule of Talent Attraction
We all know the Golden Rule: treat others as you want to be treated. But as Alex points out, "That's incorrect from a standpoint of communication with people. You need the Platinum Rule, which is do unto others as they want it done."
This insight transforms talent attraction. Different personality types are attracted by different messaging and experiences:
- D personalities (Dominant) want challenges, results, and autonomy. Attract them with direct communication about impact and leadership opportunities.
- I personalities (Inspiring) want recognition, interaction, and fun experiences. Attract them with team gatherings, public appreciation, and creative work environments.
- S personalities (Supportive) want security, harmony, and clear expectations. Attract them with one-on-one conversations, detailed onboarding, and stable team structures.
- C personalities (Calculating) want accuracy, quality, and logical processes. Attract them with detailed information, evidence-based practices, and opportunities for precision.
Thomas, a tech company founder, revolutionized his talent attraction strategy by customizing the entire candidate experience based on DISC profiling. Every touchpoint was personality-aligned from job descriptions to interview questions to onboarding processes.
Your P.Q. Challenge
Ready to raise your P.Q. and attract top talent that fits your culture? Try these three front-door opening actions this week:
- Assess your current team: Have everyone take a DISC assessment to understand your team's personality makeup. Where are you strong? Where are you imbalanced?
- Audit your job descriptions: Review your current postings through a personality lens. Are you inadvertently attracting types that are ill-fit’s or repelling the better fits?
- Create personality-aligned interview experiences: Design different interview approaches based on the personality type you seek to attract.
Lonnie implemented these exact steps. He discovered his team was heavily weighted with D and I personalities, creating a fast-paced and sometimes chaotic environment. His job descriptions emphasized "fast-moving" and "dynamic," unintentionally repelling the S and C candidates he needed.
Six months after redesigning his talent attraction approach, his candidate pipeline filled with better personality fits, and team performance increased dramatically.
Lonnie's key insight was, "We stopped hiring in our own image and started hiring for harmony."
Taken from Dr. Joey's forthcoming new book, Open the Front Door: How to Attract Top Talent Today.
What's your question about how to create a positive work culture? Ask Dr. Joey here.
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