Innovators and support actors share many of the same personality traits. The difference between them, personality wise, stems from traits that characterize them in their professional setting. Advisors also have additional personality qualities beyond their professional lives that set them apart from the innovators.

In the cases examined in the AgriSpin project, innovators share more or less a common set of personality qualities with advisors acting in the framework of their employer organizations, i.e. support services providers.

The difference between them derives mainly from the additional personality traits that characterize advisors in their professional lives and from the perhaps varying intensity of the common traits. Therefore, qualities such as openness to experience, alertness for solutions and risk taking, social responsibility and emotional stability are present in advisors, though apparently, they come to play with less intensity.

Advisors’ additional personality traits concern empathy and awareness of real-life conditions, responsiveness, communication skills and connectedness at all levels.

A Triptych of Additional Qualities

Empathy, awareness of reality (the state of being conscious) and responsiveness constitute a triptych of qualities that enable advisors to understand advisee wishes and feelings and the assessment of real life conditions, while engaging both in an open interplay of exploring opportunities for future change.

The case of ITERA (Spain) is such an example of these qualities:

“… the advisor was aware of the pressure on the farmer, he was prepared to listen and question without giving a solution, but was supportive of change in the direction of the business” (ITERA, a partner’s reflection)”.

The triptych helps advisors using qualities such as responsiveness to farmers’ requests, openness to ideas from all over the world, alertness for detecting possible solutions, flexibility and adaptability to real life conditions and farmers’ framework.

Advanced Communication Skills

The above-mentioned elements of the set of personality traits indicate advanced communication skills and connectedness. Good examples of communication at all levels – interpersonal, at organizational level, cross-organizational and cross-industrial – come from Denmark (L&F, SEGES) and Ireland (Teagasc) owing to their organizational structure and functions.

Personality Traits Shared With Organizations

Advisors’ personality factor cannot be observed independently from their respective organizations’ objectives and organizational culture. These constitute fundamental elements that define individual advisors’ frameworks and limit or expand opportunities for unfolding personal attitudes, skills and abilities. Seeking consensus among partners (L&F, SEGES, Denmark), establishing participatory procedures (ARSIA-Tuscany, ANKA-Greece, LKCE-Latvia) and expanding corporate social responsibility on environmental issues (L&F, SEGES, Denmark, Adept-Romania) do not only indicate advisors’ orientation (and indirectly advisors’ personality traits) but are elements at the core of providers’ organizational culture.

Read More

Read the new report from the Scientific Team.

Read the article “Personality Traits of Innovators Exert Considerable Influence on the Innovation Process”

 

On a More Theoretical Note

In conclusion, personality traits detected in the innovation cases examined in the AgriSpin project are connected with Kumar’s Five Factor Model (2010), according to which personality traits can be integrated in five personality dimensions as follows:

  1. Openness to experience
  2. Neuroticism (which is negatively related to emotional stability)
  3. Extraversion (which emphasizes the need to relate and interact with others and the importance of communication and social networking skills)
  4. Agreeableness (which involves developing pleasant and satisfying relationships)
  5. Conscientiousness (which reflects strong sense of purpose, dutifulness, obligation and persistence)