Understanding Driven Personalities at Work


driven personality traits

Secondary Personality Type: Driven

In addition to the four main personality types (A, B, C, and D), Hire Success® also uses a sliding scale of 20 character trait descriptions and an expanded list of secondary personality types. These additional measures of personality give you a much more nuanced understanding of a person’s strengths, preferences, and tendencies at work.

How can you tell if you’re dealing with a Driven personality type?

Driven personality types are ambitious, persistent, and want to succeed. They don’t mind putting the work in to achieve their goals (and are among the most likely types to become workaholics). Keep reading and see if the list of Driven personality traits below sounds familiar.

Driven Personality Traits

  • Needs to be in control of environment and all people in it
  • Doesn’t want to appear “soft”
  • Workaholic
  • Admires success
  • Persistent
  • Doesn’t respect others who lack the same drive
  • Ruthless to get the job done
  • Projects power
  • Projects elegance
  • Tenacious
  • Slow and methodical types appear lazy
  • Appears crazy to more slow and methodical types
  • Willing to try almost anything
  • Rejects gestures of affection
  • May reject responsibility and blame others or circumstances

What are good career options for someone with the Driven personality type?

Driven personality types like to be in charge, and they can be very good at it, especially on results-oriented teams. They’re focused on results as well as personal success. Driven personality types work hard (sometimes too hard) and can be reluctant to cede control to others who they think may not be putting in enough effort.

You’ll find lots of Driven personality types among leaders, but they can also be extremely effective as higher-level individual contributors, able to pursue their own success without the responsibility of a team.

Learn about other secondary personality types