I will always stand for being authentic and true to yourself. And I know with certainty that great leadership requires adaptability and flexibility, which is really empathy when you think about it. After watching Hit Man, recently out on Netflix, I found myself reflecting on the question “can you change your personality?” If you have a desired way of being that you’re not yet, that feels unnatural to you, can you practice it until you become it?

Hit Man is loosely based on the extraordinary true life story of Gary Johnson, a professor in Houston who worked part time as an undercover hit man in the 90’s. Through pretending to be a hired gun and taking on a very different persona from who he was naturally, he helped elicit the confessions of over 70 aspiring murderers. Great story. 

Co-written by Austin’s renowned film director, producer, and screenwriter Richard Linklater and actor Glen Powell who plays Gary, together they successfully captured Gary’s superstar chameleon legacy and adapted his story to create a killer (ha ha) romantic comedy. They imagined this love story after hearing about the one case Gary Johnson worked on in which he opted not to trick the would-be assassin into confessing, and instead encouraged her to get out of her abusive marriage.

They set up Gary and this female character, Madison to fall for each other, madly. But she’s not falling for his “true” unassuming personality. She falls for who he transforms himself into when he’s undercover – a charismatic, charming, Don’t-F-With-Me tough guy. Watching his character and the story progress, you can’t help but consider that any one of us could just fake it, until we ARE it. 

Linklater and Powell address the question explicitly within the script during a scene between Gary and his X when she poses the question to him:  “If the self is a construct and it’s all just role play, do you think people can change?”

She goes on to share that she’s been reading a lot of research that says we absolutely can change our personalities, and can do so well into adulthood:

 “The five traits that make up personality: extraversion, openness to experience, emotional stability, agreeableness, and conscientiousness – they can all be altered within just a few months. You have to embody the trait, rather than just think about it. It’s like the ‘as if’ principle, where you behave ‘as if’ you are the person you want to be, and then pretty soon you might realize, that is you.”

This had me think about on all the personality tests I’ve taken over the years at different tech companies and the implications for their purpose and utility among executive leadership teams.

I’ve taken Meyers Briggs, the Birkman Method, CliftonStrengths, and the Insights Discovery alternative to DiSC.  The general goal among all Human Resource leaders who conduct these is the same: to help employees understand themselves and each other and appreciate the differences to foster better communication, collaboration and conflict-resolution.

I have always found the exercise of doing them to be valuable. I’ve used the insights gained about others to “manage up” differently, to adapt the way I communicate, to be conscious of what different team members need to express their full potential, and to build teams that are conscious of each others’ strengths and lean into them.

I believe you can become a better leader, and a better human, when you treat others not how you want to be treated – but how they want to be treated.  

I know for certain to be successful and happy, you need to be unapologetically yourself. I also know that in order to step into executive corporate leadership and do the job well, you absolutely have to be adaptable. Based on your particular strengths, you will naturally not be inclined to do or say some things that are necessary for others to follow you.

It’s like Gary the Professor playing the role of a hit man. No one would believe and trust that he was a legitimate killer and confess their desire to hire him to do away with someone if he showed up to meet them and talked to them in his standard soft, quiet, nerdy way.

To successfully play the part of Executive, you need to exhibit strength in structured and analytical conscientiousness, dominance, influence, and collaborative empathy. These senior leadership expectations line up to the four main personality profiles within the Insights Discovery framework:

• BLUE:  organized, precise, structured and analytical
• RED:  dominant, focused, driven and decisive
• YELLOW: charismatic, inspiring, motivational and persuasive
• GREEN: collaborative, empathic, patient and sensitive to the personal experience of others

This is a game of preserving You-Be-You authenticity while creating some self-management practices and tools to meet the demands of the job in areas outside of the way you’re oriented. And perhaps creating your own “As If” principle and taking on some new behaviors will start to expand how you define yourself, and simply become you.  

So while I’m not a certified expert in any personality test, I am decently versed in Insights Discovery. I am walking a mile in the shoes of each profile to offer what I hope is useful, actionable Personality Bending leadership guidance depending on where you lean: