Very often people use the words personality and character when they’re describing the same thing. In some instances they seem to have almost become interchangeable, but whilst the two are connected there are distinct differences.
Determining personality
Of the two, personality is easier to determine. Quite often we can quickly come to assumptions as to whether someone is honest, serious, funny or lazy. Although it may take a couple of meetings to be completely sure of someone’s personality traits it can be a fast process with information being gathered to justify conclusions almost immediately.
Personality can be defined as the traits that a person is born with. People often tend to be either analytical or outgoing, extroverted or introverted. Other common distinctions include domineering, influencing, steady or compliant personalities.
A test of character
Character can take a little longer to fathom. Character is something that often will only reveal itself in specific and uncommon circumstances. Someone’s character might only be established by the way they respond to a situation or through a belief system. Indeed character traits are based on beliefs and though they can be changed, it can be a hard thing to do.
Character attributes are what dictate your approach to life, work, family and community. Such traits may be positive, negative or swinging wildly somewhere between the two! It may be too easy to suggest that someone with positive character traits will have a happier and more successful life than someone more negative. Strongly ingrained negativity will undoubtedly cause some problems in life at some point, but focus on, and desire for, positive change can be achieved.
Can personality and character be changed?
Indeed character can sometimes be easier to change purposely and temporarily than personality. Personality is harder to suppress yet occasionally you might identify quite obviously when someone does something ‘out of character’.
Identifying the difference between personality and character can be certainly be important, especially for teams in the workplace. Quite often we base judgements on attractive personality traits that we then manufacture as character. It’s an assumption that can often be troublesome.
In such instances, is there any way to determine character in someone without waiting for a set of circumstances to show themselves? The only real way is through character or anecdotal evidence, by speaking to people who already know the person you’re trying to uncover. This may be important especially if you’re concerned about the dynamic a team may have.
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