As recruiters, we’re always out looking for the best talents to hire: the best skills, the best alma mater, the best resume. So naturally from a personality pre-employment assessment, we might expect to find candidates who have the best personality to join our company.

But what does the ‘best personality’ look like? Is there even such a thing as the perfect personality?

Is there a best personality?

Unfortunately it’s more complicated than that. There is no one type of ‘best’ personality that will perform great in all situations.

It’s simple when we talk about IQ or skills, as higher numbers will always give better performance no matter what. This is what we call a supplementary variable — higher is always better.

But it’s not like that with personality.

Unlike intelligence, personality is measured in a continuum (or range). It’s not about getting the highest numbers, but more about where you are in the continuum. This is what we call a complementary variable.