D I S C - Oh that's why I don't always succeed - The Manager

Cultivated Management Newsletter - Edition 23

Hi,

I hope you've had a great weekend and are all set for a good week ahead. 

Last week I was lucky enough to run a couple of Communication Workshops for a number of clients. As part of the client side workshop I include The Trinity in the mix (Strengths, DISC and Happiness Profile). The goal is to uncover everybody's preferences for behaviours, strengths they should be using at work and what they need in their lives to be happy.

It's a brilliant workshop tool as it can often be the first time people become aware of their own strengths and what potentially brings them happiness. What's often more powerful is when they get their DISC profile back.

During the workshop I ask everybody to sit on the table that maps to their DISC profile results. There are many interpretations of DISC but I like to look at them as D=Dominating, I=Influencing, S=Steadiness and C=Conscientious. 

Typically Ds and Is are more assertive whilst Ss and Cs are more passive. Is and Ss are more people focused, whilst Ds and Cs are more task focused.

As soon as you see your colleagues and peers on their respective tables/groups you start to immediately see why problems and challenges occur at work. When I run this for clients we also do the Communication Workshop which allows me to also map the lessons in the workshop to each group.

With all behaviours there are positive aspects and negative aspects and when people uncover their DISC profile they often find insights in to what they may need to do to fix any weaknesses. I try to encourage people to look at DISC as a way to develop a personal learning plan - not as a tool to simply say "Well - I'm an X so get used to my behaviours". 

For example, when a team spotted that their colleagues were very conscientious and wanted to do a perfect job on a piece of work, they suddenly realised why cutting corners on the work was so painful for them. I am a High I - Influencer, which is great for rallying people and setting big future facing goals, but I'm terrible at the details - you should see me every Friday morning trying to do my accounts!!!

High Ds are typically where I find the company Directors and CEOS - determined and dominating - but they often leave people in their wake. The steady types (S) like harmony and order and are natural people people, but may sometimes struggle with conflict.

One of the most powerful things I discovered when I got mine many years ago - was that these behavioural preferences were my strengths. When tied to the strengths finder and happiness results I realised I needed something different as I was operating in a world where my weaknesses were being utilised more than my strengths. 

Every time I run the Trinity session with my client's teams the majority of people come away astounded at how much insight they now have about their careers. And of course, the Trinity is a wonderful tool for managers too.

When you see your team sat in their DISC areas during a workshop you see the makeup of the team. And you can start to hypothesise about the problems they face and the future challenges coming towards them. You can then hire or move people around to ensure you have the team you need to overcome the challenge.

If you're interested in learning more about DISC don't hesitate to get in touch - and here is a Free one you can sit.
https://www.tonyrobbins.com/disc/ (I have no affiliation)

Alternatively - the one I tend to recommend, but there is a charge is the one via Manager-tools.com. (I have no affiliation)

I personally love working with teams when they discover their trinity pack - and I love seeing them realise that all three (strengths, DISC and Happiness) are good proxies for what they should be doing in their careers and lives. A personal development roadmap doesn't come better articulated than when you get all three on a single document/Evernote/whatever. 

I'll be sharing more on the strengths and happiness in next week's newsletter.

Until next week.
Rob
 

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