The Career Power of Being Conscientious

Source: Ketut Subiyanto / Pexels

A couple of weeks ago I was reading the recent Psychology Today cover story, "How You'll Change," when I came across a sentence that stopped me in my tracks. "Early abilities to regulate one's attention and behavior can provide a basis for being conscientious," the sentence read, "an extremely valuable trait that has been shown to predict a range of positive outcomes later in life."

There it was: a simple emphasis on conscientiousness. In my decades in management, all my time spent working with HR folks, and later years spent thinking and writing about what makes effective managers and employees, I'd hardly ever heard that word applied to business. But it definitely belongs there.

Curious to better understand how conscientiousness had been examined in the business space, I came upon a 2019 study from the University of Minnesota. Their researchers had analyzed more than a century of data on workplace conscientiousness, comparing it to many "occupational variables" like job performance, behavior, leadership, etc. A core finding was that conscientiousness was indeed a major player–as the study described it, "the key to understanding motivational engagement and behavioral restraint at work."

The study also described a strong relationship to "motivation for goal-directed performance, interpersonal responsibility for shared goals, organizational commitment [and] perseverance," plus other clearly desirable career attributes.

Hiring Implications

When I think back to my management career and hiring tendencies–what I intuitively looked for in people, regardless of the role–I focused on hiring people who I felt (or at least hoped, with fingers firmly crossed) were dependable, trustworthy, analytical, and good team players–employees who could be counted on to meet deadlines and were detail-oriented enough to consistently deliver a quality product, whatever that "product" might be. In a word, people who were conscientious, though I never articulated it as such.

But no matter what I then called it, any day of the week I'd take conscientiousness over cleverness. Sure, no doubt there are positions for which an organization needs pure unadulterated brilliance; when you're looking for people who can help set a capsule down lightly on Mars, let's say, or who can find a vaccine for a pandemic.

But these kinds of roles are far more the exception than the rule in business. Most often you're looking for smaller cogs in large machines: nice, thoughtful, intelligent, valuable folks who can get along well with others on big projects and keep the wheels of commerce running smoothly. Conscientious types.

I'm not sure how widely or directly the concept of conscientiousness is routinely embedded into companies' general hiring practices, but my sense is it should be. "Conscientiousness is much more than being orderly and neat,” the Minnesota study noted.

As discussed, it plays a critical role in goal-setting and the ability of employees to achieve their goals in a reliable manner. A key conclusion of the study: "Organizations would do well if they measure conscientiousness in hiring and talent management decisions." I 100 percent agree.