How would you define a leader? What are their characteristics, personality traits and attributes? However, Dr. Noam Keshet wasn’t asking people to describe them. Instead, for his dissertation, “Basic Dimensions of Leaders’ Personality: A Lexical Study,” leaders described themselves.
Dr. Noam Keshet graduated with his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from the Hebrew University Business School only last year, but he is far from new to the field. An expert social psychologist, Noam has worked in applied research institutes, academic positions, and he is currently – among other roles – a Marketing Research Analyst at Fiverr. And most importantly, he is a husband and father of three.
“I love working with data, not necessarily for the data itself, but for what it represents,” Noam began. “We are measuring human behavior and attributes. We want to understand people and find out how. That said, people often think “psychologist” equals a “clinical psychologist”, so they think of therapy and diagnoses when I say I’m a social psychologist. It can be a bit hard explaining that I’m nowhere near the clinical field!”
Noam’s journey at HUBS began when he embarked on a project with Professor Shaul Oreg, a HUBS faculty member specializing in organizational behavior. With this existing connection and his passion for research, the project became more than merely another research inquiry; it was the road to achieving a long standing dream to study a Ph.D.
“I didn’t know what to expect in the beginning. I took the attitude of “let’s see what comes up” and that was truly the best part: it was fun. If I had to say something surprising about the research, I would say how robust my theory emerged. With my results, I can say that I found something.”
So what exactly is a leader? How can the personality of leaders be described? It all begins with the standard Big 5 personality theory which is divided into Extraversion, Agreeableness, Openness, Conscientiousness and Neuroticism. For leaders (defined as someone with at least one subordinate), it is the same but not quite. Noam’s research proved that there is a separate Big 5 theory for leaders: Energy, Psychopathy, Organization, Irritability and Intellect.
These categories emerged from a refined pool of adjectives. With the help of experts, Noam had narrowed down all adjectives of the entire Hebrew lexicon to ones characterizing people’s personalities. From those descriptors, 199 adjectives were then marked as appropriate for describing leaders. Next, Noam asked leaders to rate the degree to which each adjective described them as leaders, resulting in identifying these five dimensions.
With the interview coming to a close, Noam explained why he had chosen to study at HUBS. “I'm always looking for the integration between theory and practice in the field. HUBS has the models and the experience in doing that. It was also truly a gift to find a good supervisor – particularly when I’ve heard horror stories from other places!
I would describe a Ph.D. as a definite plus in my field. It gives you confidence and mastery. It’s easier to get interviewed when you have a Ph.D. in addition to work experience. It can be a very lonely experience, so it’s important to create a network which is in itself very useful. Ultimately, it’s very worthwhile.”