A Guide to Richard Davis

You make hundreds (or more) of decisions every day of your life!

Of course, most of these decisions are relatively inconsequential. For example, which pair of shoes to wear, which shoe to put on first, etc.

Then there are the decisions that loom larger on the scale: Should you eat that nutrient-dense salad for lunch, or give in to the craving for a calorie-laden cheeseburger and fries?

Even more important are the judgments you make about the people around you. Which lawyer or financial planner should you choose? Which family doctor should you choose?

At work, you make countless choices every day. In a job interview, does that new boss seem like a good fit? In your current job, what’s the best way to handle that underperforming coworker? What’s the best approach to dealing with that customer who never seems satisfied?

Organizational psychologist Richard Davis offers helpful advice on these and dozens of other questions related to the important decisions you make every day. His book is GOOD JUDGMENT: Making Better Business Decisions Through the Science of Personality. Dr. Davis uses rich data and real-world scenarios to explain how the science of personality can help people quickly and accurately decide who they should hire, fire, marry, befriend, and even babysit.

You might think that emotional intelligence (EQ) is the most important key to all of this. But Davis is not a fan of it.

“The original concept of emotional intelligence was real,” he explains. “In the early 1990s, researchers identified an ability in some people to identify and capitalize on other people’s feelings. But over time, it morphed into something it wasn’t intended to be: a set of personality factors that were somehow related to emotion. For example, empathy and social skills became part of emotional intelligence, as did motivation and self-awareness. Look, I’m all for empathy, but it’s not emotional intelligence. It’s great to be motivated, but what does that really have to do with emotional intelligence?”

Davis says he cringes when he reads articles about Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King Jr. having an IQ. “When I see almost every job description these days mentioning IQ as a necessary quality, I shake my head. In the process of including IQ, it has become nothing. It’s worth noting that emotions are fleeting, whereas personality is persistent over time. So while it may be helpful for me to understand if you’re angry, it’s much more powerful for me to know that you’re an angry person. So it’s advisable to really pay attention to people’s personalities and make decisions about them accordingly.”

Davis suggests five strategies for “revealing conversations” to help assess a person’s fit for a job or task.

1. Make a connection and get them talking. It turns out that people reveal who they really are if they feel comfortable. Invest time in putting people at ease and getting in tune with them. Don’t make it feel like an interrogation, but rather a pleasant conversation.

2. Ask them to look back. The early years are important for understanding who someone is. Our identities are often formed during our teenage years, so understanding who someone was in high school, for example, will be very revealing about their personality. Of course, people’s personalities evolve over time, but it’s in the early years that we form our fundamental character.

3. Ask important questions. Some questions can elicit extremely rich information about others. Here are two: (a) How are you similar to and different from one of your parents? and (b) If you think about your close friends, your inner circle, are there common themes in the kind of people they are?

4. Draw a mental picture. Basically, when you first meet someone, imagine having five imaginary boxes in front of you, each labeled with a dimension from the Personality Blueprint (I’ll explain this shortly): Intellect, Sociability, Emotionality, Motivation, and Diligence. With these boxes in hand, each time the person reveals an aspect of their character, figuratively place that idea in the corresponding box. The Blueprint works because it is a research-based, yet highly practical, method of capturing and storing ideas about personality in a way that helps you make decisions accordingly. Similarly, it is much harder to move a large stack of papers from one place to another than it is to put those papers in boxes and carry them everywhere you need to go.

5. Calibrate and refine your assumptions. In the middle of a meeting, ask the person to take a break. After the break, ask them what they covered. You might say something like, “From the first part of our meeting, it seemed to me that you were very analytical but also somewhat impatient. Am I hearing that correctly?” Calibrating your own ideas with the person is a good way to get an even more accurate perspective on them.

Davis explains the “personality blueprint” he uses to assess people and their personalities.

““The personality model is a tool that I use to catalog information about other people when I’m trying to figure out who they are,” he explains. “It’s based on a model of personality that’s been the subject of incredible research for over a hundred years, called the Big Five. It basically covers the structure of personality and how you interpret the behavior you see in others. So when you’re trying to characterize someone, think of them like this:

1. Intellect (how the person processes information, makes decisions and solves problems)

2. Sociability (how the person interacts with others)

3. Emotionality (how the person expresses his feelings)

4. Motivation (what motivates the person)

5. Diligence (how the person performs tasks at work and in life)

“Most of the relevant information about human character is covered by these five factors and it provides a very good framework for evaluating people,” Davis says.

So what seem to be the keys to building a successful relationship?

“To build good relationships, it’s as important to know yourself as it is to know others,” Davis says. “Plus, it’s very helpful for others to understand you so they can interpret your behavior.”

To facilitate this kind of mutual understanding, Davis encourages people to begin meaningful relationships by developing and sharing a personal user manual.

“When you buy something, you get a user manual that helps you understand how it works and how to troubleshoot,” he says. “The same goes for people. It’s very helpful for people to understand how they should interpret your behavior, what your tastes and vulnerabilities are, what motivates you, and your personality in general. Rather than expecting them to write their own version of a user manual for you, help them. At the beginning of a relationship, share the user manual with the other party. By presenting it in this way, you’ll avoid future misunderstandings and generally set the relationship up for success.”

Even the best working relationships can be difficult at times. What is the best approach to resolving conflicts?

“While every situation is different, I’m a big believer in coming together, stepping back to understand the individuals (including yourself) behind the conflict and what’s driving them, determining the facts of the situation, and then coming up with a set of common ground rules for working together,” Davis says. “Yes, this may sound a bit simplistic, and conflict is usually quite nuanced. My point, though, is that personality factors should not be overlooked in conflict resolution. Personality is, in many ways, like the weather. While it’s not 100% accurate, if the weather forecast says rain, it’s a good idea to bring an umbrella. Similarly, if you understand the personalities involved in a relationship, they’ll likely predict how the parties will behave, and you’ll be well-positioned to approach them accordingly.”

Davis offers simple advice for better understanding others and making good judgments about them.

“I would just suggest you look up,” he says. “Too many people have their heads buried in their phones. They lose that basic human ability to read other people because they can’t do it when they’re not looking at people. Put down your phone and start paying attention to people. Be a student of behavior and be genuinely curious about other people. Don’t make important decisions based on Zoom calls or social media profiles. Meet people, face to face, and exercise that superpower that you have to really understand other people. It will allow you to make much better decisions about people, both at work and in life.”