The Key to Getting Ahead? It's Not About You.

Most of us have heard some version of the saying, “Behind every successful man is a great woman." This quote highlights the concept that people get accolades for their success in the workplace, but most people who achieve greatness at work also need people who support their personal lives.

So is it true that successful people get significant help from their partners? And is the form of this quote accurate? Is it only that successful men are helped by women, but not the other way around?

This question was explored by Brittany Solomon and Joshua Jackson in a paper in the December, 2014 issue of Psychological Science.

They analyzed data collected over a five-year period from more than 4,000 people in Australia. The participants were married heterosexual couples. The survey gauged the "Big Five" personality characteristics—Openness, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism—for both members of each couple. The survey also collected information about job satisfaction, income, and promotions—and about a variety of other aspects of the relationship, such as how much each member of a couple would handle basic household chores.

People’s own personality characteristics influence their success at work. For example, replicating a lot of previous work, people who are more agreeable tend to make less money, and to be less likely to get promoted, than those who are less agreeable. People who are highly agreeable tend to avoid asking for raises and promotions, and so they get passed over in favor of those who are willing to stand up for themselves. In addition, people who are extraverted at work tend to have higher levels of job satisfaction and a greater likelihood of being promoted, because people notice their efforts. People high in conscientiousness also tend to enjoy their work more and to make more money than those who are low in conscientiousness.

When looking at a person’s partner, though, conscientiousness was the factor that had the most influence. People who had conscientious partners tended to enjoy their work more, to make more money, and to be more likely to get promotions than people whose partners were low in conscientiousness. This influence of a partner’s conscientiousness went above-and-beyond the influence of a person’s own personality characteristics.

One interesting facet of these results is that they were true for both men and women. So the findings suggest that behind every successful person there is a conscientious partner, but men and women can benefit equally from conscientious partners.

Why does this happen? There seem to be a couple of factors at play here.

First, more conscientious partners tend to take on a bigger share of household duties. So a person who spends a lot of time on their work has someone who picks up the slack on household chores. Second, people tend to feel better about their relationship when they have a conscientious partner. Presumably, people with partners high in conscientiousness do not argue as much about housework as those with partners low in conscientiousness. This higher level of relationship satisfaction also improves people’s success at work.

When people think about their satisfaction and success in the workplace, they often focus on their own characteristics. These findings suggest that the status of people’s relationship also has a significant affect on their workplace success.

Finally, it would be useful to see this study repeated in other countries. It is interesting that there were no gender differences in the influence of a partner’s conscientiousness in this sample from Australia. I would be curious to know whether the same results would be observed in Europe, the United States, or Asia.

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