MacRae points out that each trait may also have drawbacks at extremes, meaning there is an optimal value of each one. He also emphasises that the relative importance of each trait will be determined by the job you are doing, so the particular thresholds would need to be adapted depending on whether you are hoping to succeed in, say, a technical position. But the version of the test that I have seen was focused on leadership roles.

With this in mind, the six traits are:



Conscientiousness

Conscientious people commit themselves to plans and make sure they carry them out to the letter. They are good at overcoming their impulses and thinking about the wisdom of their decisions for the long-term. After IQ, conscientiousness is often considered one of the best predictors of life outcomes like educational success. At work, high conscientiousness is essential for good strategic planning, but in excess it may also mean that you are too rigid and inflexible.

Adjustment

Everyone faces anxieties, but people with high adjustment can cope with them more easily under pressure, without allowing it to negatively influence their behaviour and decision-making. People with low scores on this scale do appear to suffer from poor performance at work, but you can mitigate those effects with the right mindset. Various studies have shown that reframing a stressful situation as a potential source of growth – rather than a threat to their wellbeing – can help people to recover from negative situations more quickly and more productively.

Ambiguity acceptance

Are you the kind of person who would prefer tasks to be well-defined and predictable? Or do you relish the unknown? People with a high tolerance for ambiguity can incorporate many more viewpoints before coming to a decision, which means they are less dogmatic and more nuanced in their opinions.

“Low ambiguity tolerance can be considered a kind of dictatorial characteristic,” MacRae says. “They’ll try to distil complicated messages into one easy selling point, and that can be a typical trait of destructive leadership.”

Crucially, someone who can accept ambiguity will find it easier to react to changes – such as an evolving economic climate or the rise of a new technology – and to cope with complex, multifaceted problems. “We’re trying to identify the ability of leaders to listen to lots of different opinions, to take complex arguments and to make sense of them in a proactive way, instead of simplifying them,” MacRae adds. “And we have found that the more senior you are in a leadership position, the more important that becomes for decision-making.”