The Leadership Programme Newsletter.

If you want to be a better leader you’re in the right place, welcome!

This newsletter is delivered every Friday and is a minestrone soup of tips, techniques, learnings and thoughts, & the odd disaster, based on my 25+ years of managing teams.

Read time: 4.57.31 minutes

If you could really understand each team member, would that help you?

I had a ‘difficult’ team member. Or rather, I had difficulty communicating with them.

OK, full disclosure, it was me.

I had difficulty communicating.

With them.

I’m a ‘big-picture person’. I deal in generalities; I like strategy. I look at the overall picture. I like to understand what’s going on.

And I do like talking to people….

If I asked them a question, they talked at me. Too much.

Detail soon bores me, as important as it may be, that’s just how it is.

We can’t be both big picture and minutiae, can we? We like to think we can do it ALL.

But we can’t.

We have preferences; we have strengths and weaknesses.

Does it matter?

Yes. It does (short answer, see?).

When we better understand how someone else thinks, we see things through a different filter. It opens up our options on how we communicate with them.

I took an interest in personality profiling a long time ago (yeah, like 🦖). And subsequently went on to become a Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Practitioner.

I learned in one of the (many) books I read, all about the DISC model of human behaviour. It’s by far the simplest, and most easily applicable of the frameworks to understand people.

I mean, who can remember let alone implement, all the complicated Myers-Briggs-type stuff, daily?

Let me explain how it works, If you like the concept, you can dig deeper. It’s rescued me, on more than one occasion.

The ‘four temperaments’ of human behaviour.

With the DISC model, there are four basic personality types.

We aren’t all one, but a % of each in varying quantities. They intersect in unique ways for each person.

The First split is by Outgoing (more extroverted) behaviour or Reserved (more introverted) behaviours. As you’d expect outgoing are more fast-paced and energetic in their style; optimistic and positive.

Reserved move at a slower pace. Are more introspective; have patience and stamina. They tend to be more cautious.

The second split is by Task or People orientation. Task focussed people enjoy doing ‘things’, and working on plans, or projects.

They get satisfaction from a job well done. They like the detail

As the name suggests, people orientated, are more focused on interaction with others; they're concerned with how people feel. They are more sensitive and concerned with the feelings of others.

They are into sharing and caring, think of that quote “I don’t care how much you know, I want to know how much you care”

(A similar quote, is posted twelvty times a day on LinkedIn).

Put them together and you get four quadrants, like this:

Which of the options are you? ( if you had to pick). You see what part of the quadrant you’re on.

The letters stand for characteristics:

There is no right or wrong. No ‘ideal’ combination, or ideal mix; no ideal % ratio of each.

It just helps you understand someone's preferred way of working. And, we change over time. (See my before and after stats below)

Here’s a summary of what makes them tick:

D - are doers: and tend to make dynamic leaders; they’ve a flair for the dramatic; they can be demanding, and don’t like ‘no’. They have drive and determination; they can be defiant and domineering.

⭐️ They need challenge, and they need to have control.

I - are inspirational: they get the party started; they are influencers, so can make good salespeople; they make things happen; they can overwhelm you ( you know that person, who takes over a room?…); they tend to know lots of people.

⭐️ They need recognition. Praise and attention goes a long, long way.

S - are steady and stable: and like doing one thing at a time; they need security and like routine; they can be people pleasers; they are supportive, so expect them to describe themselves as ‘a servant leader’. They don’t rock the boat, and like to quietly get things done.

⭐️ They need to be appreciated, and like being needed.

C - are critical thinkers: they're competent and will have done their homework and research; they’re cautious, and think before they leap; they like developing and working on plans; they like to be careful in what they do, and pay attention to the detail and can analyse a situation quickly. They can be ‘moody’.

⭐️ They need quality answers; the real details not sweeping generalisations.

You can see how clashes of personality can occur when we all have different needs and styles in a team. Conversely, many ideally complement each other.

Once I’d read the book on DISC, something clicked. I could easily ask someone a couple of questions, and establish which quadrant.

This is as basic as it gets, and delivers results instantly.

My personal experience (apart from above) is with my youngest daughter. Can you guess what type she is? She’s very detailed and does LOADS of research.

From a very young age, she would ask me detailed questions ( like what is a mortgage? and what is LIBOR? when she was 6 😶). If I ever gave her a general answer, she would tell me not to talk to her like a child.

I once spent 25 minutes telling her how WW1 started. When she was about 7.

As she got older, we clashed ( normal, you’d think). And then it dawned on me: She is a high C personality.

She likes all the detail. So I gave it to her. She’s happy : no ‘talking down’ to her.

How to apply it at work? I’ve done a ‘cheat sheet’

What motivates each personality type; what kind of environment and leader they respond to.

Grab your cheat sheet here.

How to apply it

There are plenty of online questionnaires that give you a % against each letter ( an example of a basic one here)

When I did mine initially - over 20 years ago, it was this;

20 years later, it had shifted. A bit.

I suspect like lots of personality profiles, we change on a regular basis depending on context.

For example, I know that I become more process-orientated under pressure.

I’d love to know what you come out as, and how you see it in your work.

Please don’t hesitate to forward this, to help others learn.

Got sent the email? subscribe here, so you don’t miss any.

Action for the week!

Want to have a practice?

If you get the detailed questionnaire with a full breakdown it’s great to do a team exercise and see how everyone comes out.
Do your own.

Reflect on others in your team. Can you see patterns? How will that impact on how you manage them?

Extra resources

Additional resources you may want to check out.

There are many books and I’ve had a few different ones. Some are more up-to-date than this. But the concept hasn’t changed. You occasionally find different words used as prompts. These descriptors are the ones that work for me. (I don’t like the idea of ‘energy levels’, for example)

Here’s an Amazon ( affiliate) link so you can see what it's like, but I’d prefer it if you ordered from your local bookshop. May not be as quick, but a better soul-feeding activity.

Music to get you ready for the weekend!

A mega playlist of supersonic tracks, to get you in the mood for the weekend,

OK, it’s December. I’m staying old school, because the weather is cold, and it’s comforting! And yes, I did do the hand-in-the-air thing back in the day. Another ‘dance around the kitchen if you need to’ track.

Other ways I can help:

1. 1:1 coaching to help you develop the leadership skills you need to take your career to the next level. Let’s have a chat. Calendly link here.
   

2. Micro-coaching : a single coaching session to help you overcome that one blocker or key issue you're facing. Details in the link here.
   

3. FREE RESOURCES Interview Mastery training: to master confidence at that BIG event. It could be an interview, public speaking, or that pitch. Make sure that the very best version of you shows up to that interview. Link here.