DISC and Understanding your own Behavior

DISC does wonders for self-improvement. It is absolutely necessary to understand your own behavior before you can start to communicate effectively with others. The whole premise of DISC is to allow you to understand your behavior and tendencies easily. As mentioned in a previous post, self-awareness is key to become successful as a leader and communicator. Recognizing your own behavior is the first step towards becoming self-aware. This article is about identifying some of the most important behaviors that you exhibit and understanding the strengths and weaknesses for each.

A person’s overall behavior profile is made up of many specific, individual behaviors, which in combination, allows for great variation in a person. For simplicity, we will categorize these individual behaviors into groups. Each group comprises of two extremes. Your behavior will be somewhere on a sliding scale between these extremes within the group. Each DISC profile has a varying range of each group. Our first individual behavior group to be examined is the extrovert/introvert group.

Before we get started, it is important to understand that your specific behavioral style does not dictate success or superiority. There are no rights or wrongs in style. DISC simply divides a person into a profile of behavior that can be used to determine your set of behaviors. Each profile has their own strengths to take advantage of and weaknesses to overcome. Each has behavioral traits that can contribute to a team and help it achieve success. For leaders and managers there is no one ultimate DISC style.

To get started, knowing your DISC style is helpful in uncovering blind spots in your behavior. It is necessary to analyze yourself objectively and if you are brave enough, to enlist the help of a trusted companion to provide additional commentary and insight. Once you know your individual behaviors you can be aware of your behavioral tendencies to cause conflict during communication and participation in team work. After mastering awareness of your own behaviors, you can then focus on those around you and adapt your behavior towards their style to achieve influence and results.

Often it takes a similar set of behaviors to gain the trust and cooperation of others. This can be called mirroring, building rapport, or style adaptation. Others may call it getting “buy-in.” Behavior is both visual and verbal. It is also exhibited by a person’s actions and thought processes. Behavior can be natural and adapted to a situation. Regardless, starting from your own behavior is key to influencing and motivating others.

Introvert or Extrovert

The first behavioral factor we look at is an important one. It is also one that is easy to figure out in a person within minutes of meeting them for the first time. It is something that you might think you know about yourself, but might require input from others to confirm.

Are you an introvert or extrovert and to what extent? Extroverts usually excel in oral communication, networking and making friendships with many individuals, being outgoing and open, as well as being able to break the ice in a conversation with a new person. Despite these strengths they are often poor at listening, self-organization, and can have difficulty with keeping appointments and follow-up communication. The DISC High-D and High-I are considered extroverts. They specific style of engaging other people is different.

Introverts on the other hand are good at written communication and have fewer, stronger relationships than extroverts. They have difficulty presenting themselves and their work. This often creates hardship for them in the office when they feel like they can’t have a voice. They may or may not be shy but are often reserved and keep emotions to themselves. The DISC High-S and High-C are introverts.

In knowing where you are on this scale you will come to understand what you can bring to the table for your team and for yourself. It will also allow you to work on weaknesses associated with your specific behavior. When making strategic decisions, you’ll want to ask yourself if your extrovert or introvert behavior is leading you down the wrong path because you are not taking yourself out of your comfort zone to do what’s right for success. As an introvert, are you avoiding to speak up during meetings even though you have important information to share or are afraid of disrupting the harmony? As an extrovert, are you burning bridges by not treating relationships with new people as intimate or unique? These questions should be asked when you are deciding on actions involving other people.

Task-orientated or people-orientated

Do you tend to focus your efforts on the task at hand? Perhaps the task is your main focus and whatever you need to do to achieve a goal, it is justifiable even if it bends the rules or offends others. Only results matter to you. This includes pushing other people to action or beating your own path to success. This kind of behavior is task-orientated. It can be great for helping a team get into action but it can also be irritating to others when they feel like they are being overpowered. If you identify yourself as this kind of person, you will need to consider how your behavior might compromise the motivation and morale of your team.

Task-orientated leaders are High-Ds and High-Cs and require careful thought in their communication approach.

On the other side of the scale is people-orientated behavior. It’s not so much the results, but rather the people involved and the experiences to be had that matter. High-Is and High-Ss are in this category. A great experience with others will mean success to people-orientated people. Think of a coach who is encouraging the team to keep trying and work together without worrying about winning or losing. Everyone is a winner if they work as a team. This behavior is great for solving conflicts within a team and motivating teammates to achieve something together. For the task-orientated people, this kind of behavior can be seen as tedious, unnecessary, or even too slow. If you have this kind of behavior, you will need to ask yourself if your team is on track and disciplined enough to achieve the results needed for success.

Direct or Indirect

So far we have discussed two dimensions of behavior. The third factor is direct and indirect behavior towards others. Direct behavior is to the point and concise. Indirect usually involves a longer conversation with some political flare to prevent hurt feelings. DISC styles also take into account this type of communication behavior. At the top of the pole for directness, you will see the High-D.

At this point, it might seem logical that extroverted people would be more direct and likely to be very people-orientated, but this isn’t always the case. Direct behavior isn’t necessary exclusive to extroverts. There are certain introverts who are direct when it comes to dealing with threats to themselves, their team, or their projects. They speak up when cornered and if task-orientated, will not hesitate to push others to action. Direct behavior will create results and can inspire someone to expose problems and opportunities to a team during a meeting. It can also be behavior that is bordering on untactful and rude. Indirect behavior, which is more passive, could help maintain harmony in a group but might slow down progress and productivity. It can also create misunderstandings and impatience.

High risk or low risk takers

The level of risk taking behavior someone takes can mean success, failure, or mediocrity. High risk behavior can achieve spectacular results or total failures without recovery. Low risk behavior creates safety but boredom. In a group setting, the level of risk others take can become a big concern especially when it involves the welfare of the person or group and becomes a stressful burden when unpredictable behavior creates constant threat to security. Risk tolerance is especially a big trigger for stress.

Knowing which type of behavior you have relative to others in your team will help you ask the right questions to the relevant people before decisions become actions. Some decisions you make need more scrutiny and depending on your level of risk taking and your team’s, may or may not be appropriate for your team. In the case of high risk taking, you can cause great harm and despite achieving successful results, your behavior can still be abhorred by others. In the case of low risk taking behavior, your team might exhibit low performance from not creating results. This can cause frustration.

Fight or flight

It is usually an automated response for people to fight or run away from a bad situation that takes place suddenly. There are times when a bad situation isn’t life threatening or urgent and more thought can be devoted towards a proper response. Some people are more prone to fight while others are more prone to run away. Are you defensive or stubborn? You are more likely a fighter. This allows you to possibly gain the upper ground against competitors if you are victorious or could be a total disaster to yourself and your team if you lose. Those who have high risk behavior will often have a fight or flight response more frequently as they are constantly running into threats. The other type of behavior, the flight response, involves avoidance or even complete escape on the extreme end. One thing to note is how your behavior affects others. If you are a flight kind of a person, are you making sure you are taking care of your teammates? If you are fight kind of a person, are you jeopardizing the safety of others?

Compliant or rebellious

Each person has their own level of compliance towards rules and regulations. A lot of this boils down to one’s philosophical viewpoint on life. Regardless of whether they support populism or utilitarianism, a person’s compliance to the law or policy of an organization is within accordance to their behavior. A compliant-behaving person will follow the rules with a strict viewpoint and will often view following rules whether they agree or disagree to their existence solely on moral responsibility to uphold the rules. Others will either bend the rules to achieve their goals, or throw the rulebook out of the window completely. Knowing where you stand in this behavior spectrum will allow you to better evaluate your actions and act accordingly. Your behavior towards others might create either excitement or concern when it comes to breaking the rules. While it might be advantageous to be compliant with every rule, one thing to remember is that winning might require someone to reevaluate their commitment to the rulebook. Some rules shouldn’t be in existence in the first place, according to some. Entire countries have been established by breaking rules and establishing an own standard.

Change or no change

Some people embrace change while others fear it. A person’s behavior will reflect on their feelings of change. While popular culture in Silicon Valley will often embrace change and certain politicians have used it as a slogan for their campaign to great success, it isn’t always necessary or desirable for everyone. Change can have positive results and sometimes can start revolutions which will change the world for the better. It can also cause atrocities and lead people down a dark path. Resistance to change can inhibit innovation but can also preserve time-tested ways to keep the earth spinning. A person will likely be more prone to one end of the spectrum. Identifying whether you are apt to change or the status quo will give you a better idea when it comes time to create a strategy. If you are a changer, you might want to make sure your long term goals aren’t too radical or lack focus. Changing is fine if you adhere to a singular vision. If you are not embracing change, you will want to see if your long term strategy will put you in the dinosaur ages and outdate your competitiveness or ability to achieve results.

Fast or slow

A person’s behavior can be seen as fast paced or slow paced. The fast paced person will always be pushing forward at a blistering speed. Thinking is on the feet and the way to proceed is as fast as possible. Slowing down creates anxiety to these people. Fast paced behavior might lead to new opportunities but can also be reckless and lead to irreversible consequences.

On the other had is the slow paced person who is always calculating the next move and feels anxious if there isn’t adequate time to think things over or gather the facts. Slow paced behavior can help prevent mistakes but can also hinder opportunities. If this is your behavior, how can you speed up your pace?

Overall, the aforementioned behavioral dimensions are just the tip of the iceberg. The do, however, represent some of the core behaviors that define a person’s overall behavioral style. Assessments are a great way to determine where you sit on the scale of each behavior. There are also methodologies on how to use your behavioral to influence others of different behavioral styles.

Know thyself. This first step, identifying your behavior, will make you more aware of your actions and communication towards others. By playing to your strengths and eliminating your weaknesses, you will increase your influence on others.