Case Study of Big Five Personality Traits

I: ‘THE BIG FIVE’ PERSONALITY TRAITS & A PERSONALITY PROFILE OF MARK ZUCKERBERG

The ‘Big Five’ Personality Traits can be defined as:

1. Neuroticism – emotional stability
2. Extraversion/Introversion – extraverts draw energy from social interaction, introverts from self‐reflection
3. Openness – willingness to try new experiences (overlaps with creativity)
4. Agreeableness – cooperative, need to be liked
5. Conscientiousness – desire to complete tasks correctly, willingness to work hard

        Frank Ocean once said, “Work hard in silence, let your success be your noise.” These wise words are an example of what defines neuroticism. Neuroticism is having emotional stability and is one of the key personality traits in the ‘Big Five’ model of personality. Zuckerberg was clearly an emotionally stable man because, for example, when the Winklevoss  twins hired him to help build their website, despite being an extremely ambitious man, he never revealed his specific ambitions to them,  but instead ‘worked in silence’ on his most important ambitions. Not revealing or having the need to speak about your dreams is a big part of neuroticism. Smart people are more focused on the ‘do’ than the ‘say’. ("Introverts Run the World -- Quietly - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network.)

        Introverted people draw energy from within, where extroverted people draw energy from social interactions. Introversion is often confused with shyness, but they are not entirely the same. An introvert may become drained with an overwhelming amount of social interaction, due to the simple fact that they ‘recharge’ during time spent in solitude. That isn’t to say that introverted people lack social skills, but simply prefer to be alone. Introverts also tend to be much better listeners than extroverted people This quality is believed to allow such leaders thrive in a professional environment with quality employees, which is the case of Facebook.  Zuckerberg knows that for any business to be successful, you need to have a great team. He says,

        “The most important thing for you as an entrepreneur trying to build something is, you need to build a really good team. And that’s what I spend all my time on… I spend probably 25 percent of my time recruiting, finding good people, both outside the company and inside the company, to put them in more impactful roles.” (Zach Bulygo, Entrepreneurial Lessons from Mark Zuckerberg )

        Being introverted and having sharper listening skills could give a person an edge on intuitiveness when it comes to reading people, hence why this trait could be why Zuckerberg was able to carefully select a quality team to accompany him on his rise to the top.

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