Since your question didn't exactly get answered....
The characteristic of a pokemon indicates where it will potentially have the highest IV. For instance, "Somewhat of a clown" indicates a high speed IV. Each stat has a different set of characteristics. "Likes to fight" indicates a high attack IV, and so on...So you can tell if your pokemon has a high IV in a certain stat. But you might have 31 in a particular stat and have it's characteristic indicate a different stat. It's kinda random, but can be helpful in some instances, like IV breeding.