Wondering why a message that was successful with part of your team or family didn’t have the same positive effect with other members?
What does it make that some people tend to perceive a situation as an opportunity while others perceive the same situation as a risk?
Why my team mate, who always seems to be calm and in positive humor, loses his temper from time to time?
Would you like to know before hand what would be the best way to pass a certain message into a certain person?
Some people tend to try to simplify things and consider that it’s a matter of women and men being different, however this is far from reality. In fact, there is a little bit more complexity than that. If we still want to simplify, we have to go from two (women/men) to four categories: the answers to these questions can be found in the four personality profiles that we study in the DISC model.
The DISC model theory was developed by American psychologist William Moulton Marston and published in his 1928 book Emotions of Normal People. Marston also developed a lie-detector prototype and was the creator of the Wonder Woman comic-book character. In 1956, Walter Clarke, an industrial psychologist, constructed the first DISC assessment using Marston's theory of the DISC model.
Marston defined in his model 4 types of personalities. But the interesting thing is that we all have within us, in higher or lower degree, all of them. And they all manifest in our behavior, in higher or lower degree, based on our state of stress. Marston defined the four types of personalities looking at two main aspects “”f people’s personality and represented those aspects in perpendicular axes (like “x” and “y”): (i) is the person more reserved or outgoing and (ii) does the person perceive the environment as hostile of favorable.
Some DISC specialists today, like Dr. Robert Rohm, define the second axe as “is the person more task oriented (hostile environment) or people oriented (favorable environment)”. I have found that this second definition of the axe helps people understand more intuitively where they are themselves.
As a result, we have four personality types that result from the four quadrants formed by the axes:
D: Dominant – Outgoing and task oriented – Associated color is RED
I: Inspiring – Outgoing and people oriented – Associated color is YELLOW
S: Supportive – Reserved and people oriented – Associated color is GREEN
C: Cautious - Reserved and task oriented – Associated color is BLUE
As I said above, we all have the four of them in us, so the DISC profile of a person is going to contain the four letters D-I-S-C, in the order of higher to lower presence of each personality style in us. Most people commonly have two more developed styles in the profile above 50% and two less developed, in different degrees. And is more usual to see people where the two most developed styles are in two consecutive quadrants (so one of the two axes remains constant). It is more unusual to see people that have opposite styles (D-S or I-C) as the two most developed.
The most important thing to remember is that working with the DISC model is not about labeling, categorizing or classifying people. It is about understanding people: yourself first and then the others. First, you get to understand your own profile, the way you operate, what your strengths are, but also the aspects you may need to intentionally overcome in order to be successful, because they don’t come naturally to you. Second, you get to understand others’ style, why they behave the way they do, what are their strengths (which can be great complements to yours) and their blind spots (where you can contribute to their growth). When you combine this with the knowledge that people don’t do things against you but rather they do things for themselves, it takes a lot of stress out of the scene.
For example, when someone asks you insisting questions about a project before taking a decision: chances are the person has a high C and needs that level of detailed information to feel secure in the process of making the decision. If the person doesn’t receive quality answers, it will be difficult for her to decide, and frustration and distrust may appear and reflect on her behavior. Depending on your own personality style, you may have different reactions. You could like the approach. You could interpret it as a lack of action orientation.
Or even you could interpret it as if the person in front of you was questioning your work and your worth. None of those are real in the eyes of the person asking those questions to you. In her map of the world, your quality answers are an absolute requirement for her to move forward and feel fueled when engaging in your project.
Second thing to remember is that we all have a “natural profile” and an “adapted profile”. The natural profile is the one we developed during the early years of our lives, before becoming adults. This one remains roughly stable through our whole life and is our “personal signature”. The adapted profile is the one we display at a specific time in life, when we are in formal environments, like work. The adapted profile evolves over time, depending on the changes in our working environment for example. The DISC model can be very useful when working with teams, since it is possible to understand the team dynamics and act upon them for correction when needed, in order to create better working environments and better results.
In the DISC discovery sessions I do with my prospects (“Learning how to better connect with others”) we go through the principles of the DISC model and the different personality styles in a fun, entertaining and applied way.
In the coaching and training I do with my clients and their teams using DISC, we work with both, the natural and the adapted style of each individual. We define specific action plans for each team member and the leader, based on their individual and team goals. And we work also at team level, understanding the dynamics, uncovering the sometimes too-long-silenced pain points, so together we define an action plan also for the team, improving the working environment and therefore the results of the team over time.
The DISC model can be used to address areas like Communication (“Improve your interpersonal communication”), Interaction (“Discover the impact of your behavioral style”), Sales and negotiation (“Selling with DISC”), Management (“Managing with DISC”), Customer relationship (“Customer relationship essentials”), Time management (“Improve your efficiency”) and Change management (“Driving change across diverse organizations”).
So, next time you feel like the person in front of you is doing something against you, give yourself some space by putting yourself on his/her shoes and try to understand his/her perspective.
Let me ask you this: Do you sometimes feel frustrated because people around you aren’t action oriented enough? Or because you don’t feel there is fun in your environment anymore? Maybe because people don’t care about each other? Or because there is a lack of order and structure on how things get done in your team? All these feelings are natural and reveal your primary personality style.
If you are interested on any of the programs above, either a DISC discovery session for your company or a specific team or individual coaching or training, don’t hesitate to contact me with a message. I am committed to serve you to the best of my abilities.
Have an intentional day. Grow. Reach your goals. Have an impact. Make a difference.
To your success,
Ezequiel
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