What’s the Difference Between Character and Personality?
Why effective leaders learn to assess character and personality traits of team members.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, recently invested 3 billion dollars in Altos Labs, a startup whose mission is to reverse aging.
Bezos is not unlike other wealthy individuals who want to prolong life as long as possible without losing their quality of life. The billionaire founders of Google, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin have also invested in life-extension research.
Who Wants to Live Forever?
This desire of rich people to live forever is not new.
There’s a Bible story told about a rich young man who met Jesus. The young man wanted to know from the Son of God how to receive eternal life.
Jesus told Him to keep the commandments, referring to the 10 Commandments.
The young man, like many other rich people, was highly conscientious. He believed he had kept all the commandments.
“Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”” (Matthew 19:21, NLT)
The rich young man had banked on his conscientious adherence to the letter of the law, and Jesus appealed to his character.
The young man turned down the appeal and walked away.
Personality Defined
Personality is also referred to as temperament. Personality may be defined as the persistent behaviors that show up in the way a person interacts with people and their environment. Behavioral scientists have categorized these behaviors into 5 primary traits:
Openness to new experiences
Conscientiousness
Extroversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism (emotional instability)
Each of these traits is expressed on a continuum.
Character Defined
Character is defined as the values that influence how an individual’s personality traits are expressed. These values are referred to as character traits and may include values such as generosity or greed. The Bible has identified the most valuable character traits as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faith, and self-control.
Effective Leaders Assess for Both
In the case of the rich young man who wanted eternal life, his personality trait of high consciousness was influenced by a character that lacked generosity toward poor people. It’s likely he was greedy. A greedy person might appear to follow the letter of the law in obedience to God’s commandments but fail to follow the spirit of the law, which is charity toward others.
An effective leader practices making assessments of a person’s character and personality when deciding what responsibilities to give to him or her.
Do you have questions about the differences between character and personality? Ask in the comments section, and I’ll reply.
Be sure to read my article Why Personality Matters.