Continuing Season 2 of The PeopleSmart Podcast, we’re joined by Grant Gemmell with a thoughtful conversation about personality, potential, and why understanding how we’re wired is only useful if it changes how we show up at work.

Grant is a global leader in personality insight and organisational development. He is Managing Director of Facet5, a personality framework grounded in the Five Factor Model which treats personality not as a label or destiny, but as a developmental lens –  a companion for understanding how we make decisions, engage with others, handle pressure, and set direction.

By seeing  personality as a lens rather than a box which limits people, Grant discusses how it enables you to understand habits, preferences, likely blind spots and predictable stress responses. And how it provides a structured way into the conversations leaders and teams often avoid but urgently need to have.

With more than 15 years advancing the practice of personality at work, Grant brings a global perspective shaped by living and working across multiple countries and sectors: from banking and finance to coaching, research, and corporate development.

In this episode, we unpack how personality can be applied well — and badly. We discuss why self-awareness alone is insufficient, what happens when personality becomes an excuse rather than a catalyst, and how leaders can translate insight into deliberate behavioural change. As ever, we focus less on theory and more on what actually shifts performance: feedback, decision-making, pressure, and the subtle dynamics that shape how teams work together.