THE 7 SUCCESSFUL TRAITS (ACCORDING TO HARVARD) & THE TICK BIRD TYPES.

What springs to mind when you think of successful people? Slick-talking, suit-wearing professionals, ‘born’ with a wealth of knowledge. According to Harvard, there are certain traits that successful people have.

But, before we jump into the results, take this information with a grain of salt. There is a personality profiling system that’s better to understand. Tick’s tool is fun to do and easy to apply to your business (and life).

Now, here are the top qualities that researchers found.

1 & 2: Modesty & Conscientiousness

Let’s go back to that slick stereotype. Well, 91% of top salespeople have medium-high scores of modesty and humility. What does this tell us? The minority of salespeople are egotistical.

Even more interesting is their team orientation selling style. Instead of positioning themselves as the focal point, the TEAM is the centrepiece… while still maintaining a strong sense of duty and responsibility for the results.

3 & 4: Achievement & Curiosity

84% of respondents scored high in achievement orientation and performance. They know their goals and understand the politics of decision-making. These salespeople understand how the products fit into the organisation… rather than pushing the products themselves.

How do they do this? Curiosity plays an important role in the process. Top salespeople are highly inquisitive, active and present… driving conversations and asking uncomfortable questions, in seek of answers.

5 & 6: Lack of Gregariousness & Discouragement

Top-tier performers average 30% lower gregariousness (friendliness, social and outgoing nature) than below average professionals. Interesting, isn’t it? In other words, overly friendly salespeople are too close to their customers and therefore, have an issue establishing dominance.

Their lack of discouragement is an extension of this. 90% experience infrequent or occasional sadness… and come from more of an objective stance.

7: Lack of Self-Consciousness

And lastly, less than 5% of top salespeople are self-conscious. They’re action-oriented and not afraid to courageously cold call new prospects.

Like we mentioned earlier, this isn’t a cookie-cutter approach to success. Just because someone shows all of these qualities, it doesn’t mean they’ll be a guaranteed achiever. It’s much deeper than this (which we go into in the Tick profile).

But the thing we can’t deny is that personalities play a critical role in determining how a person performs.

Keep this study in mind, but don’t base your processes on it. You need personality tests tailored to your business, your people. Tick’s profile test puts your people into one of four groups: Eagle, Owl, Dove or Peacock.

Understand their needs and help make every employee a success, with or without these qualities.