[分享]What's Your SPQ?

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What's Your SPQ?

How well you fit in at B-school may depend on your Student Personality Quotient. Here's how to avoid being the most annoying student in class

Wondering what kind of year lies ahead for you at business school? Your personality may determine the answer.

The role you play among your classmates has the potential to predetermine everything from your grades to your first post-MBA job. But it also has a more immediate impact—how annoying you are to your fellow classmates, and, ultimately, your own personal enjoyment of B-school. Think of the combination of factors—classroom behavior, interaction with peers and teachers, approach to B-school and life—as your personal SPQ, or Student Personality Quotient.

Indeed, your character traits have a lot to do with how successful you will be at school, work, and even in your personal life, says Robert Hogan, PhD in psychology and president of Hogan Assessment Systems in Tulsa, Okla. Knowing how to team up with people who are strong in areas where you are weak is the key to achievement, he adds. That's why getting to know yourself is such a big part of the MBA experience.

Plus, Hogan says, it can help you avoid dealing with the most annoying personalities of all—what he calls "the sharks." He warns, "Watch out for these guys because they'll steal your papers and sabotage you."

PERSONALITY'S INFLUENCE. Still, understanding your likes and dislikes and what you're good at can help you find the right path and partners, which contributes to job satisfaction and overall happiness. The faster you learn what you want to be doing, the better off you'll be, say educators. "Every day you're in the wrong job is one day less you're in the right job," says Jon Pinder, associate professor at Babcock Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. He adds that his job is not just to teach basic business skills but also to help students find their personal nirvana: "I can teach them how to do math, but if I'm not teaching them how it relates to their life, and if I'm not increasing their chance of being happy, then I'm not doing my job."

The road to enlightenment is almost never a straight line. And personality has a way of affecting more than just an individual's overall success. It also plays a major role in determining how well a class will do. Without chemistry, classes can have problems. Finding out about the professor's personality and making sure there are a few comedians to keep things light always helps, says Travis Nilsson, a rising second-year student at Babcock. "Schools should consider doing personality profiling before classes start," he adds.

In fact, almost all B-schools, in a way, already profile classes—in admissions committees, when they decide which applicants will make the cut. The varied experiences and diverse backgrounds that these potential students can bring to the table are deal makers and breakers. The side of your personality that you show to admissions committees—especially through your essays and interviews—is one of the most critical components of getting into an MBA program. Once you're in, it's the many traits that you offer in the classroom that will determine your place in the community.