Lots Of Success

Some of our newer subscribers may not know about the interesting life of William Moulton Marston who developed the DISC model of behaviour in 1928.

In 1915 he married Elizabeth Holloway.  Then in the late 1920s Olive Richard, whose name was Olive Byrne at that time, was a student where he was teaching and they became friends.  The three of them lived together from then on. Elizabeth and William Marston had two children, Pete and Olive Ann.  Olive Richard had two children, Byrne and his brother Donn.  After William’s death Elizabeth & Olive continued to live together until Olive died.

Marston’s other achievements were the development of the blood pressure deception test, commonly called the lie detector in 1915. He contracted poliomyelitis in 1944 which left him partly paralyzed.

In the last five years of his life he created, wrote and produced “Wonder Woman,” a successful comic strip that appeared in book form. Marston was only 53 when he died.

This is the person who doesn’t believe a short 20 question test can reveal accurate information about a person’s behaviour. They are sceptical before they do the questionnaire, and try to find fault with it once they have the profile.

The sceptic is generally a high ‘C’ individual who of course requires proof that DISC is a valid and accurate model of behaviour. You can give then the historical background of Behavioural Profiling, which started with Hippocrates around 370BC, known as the ‘Father of Medicine’, who developed the idea of the Four Temperaments of behaviour.

The DISC model is attributed to Dr William Moulton Marston, whose book “Emotions Of Normal People” (1928) first explained the model using the DISC terminology, and also provided the descriptive words used in the DISC model.

In a particular car dealership business, the owner identified that the best salespeople were very high D/I types…assertive, outgoing and friendly, the “go-getters” but unfortunately they only lasted a few months in the business. They were often approached by competitors or looked for higher pay elsewhere. On studying their profiles he saw that these individuals had also low ‘S’ for steadiness.

When he next recruited he paid close attention to the percentages of all four styles and chose salespeople who, although their ‘D’ & ‘I’ were high, did not have a low ‘S’. These people were loyal employees whom he then trained how to sell more cars.

Always study the percentages of all four styles….the whole person.

Wishing you Lots of Success
Beverly

Here’s an easy way to explain DISC and how it can help in relationships, both personal and business.

The way a person behaves is a habit, that’s all it is. For any situation people will usually behave in predictable ways.

For example, in a meeting the high ‘D’ will take control, want people to speak briefly and make decisions quickly whereas you can expect the high ‘I’ to spend time socializing and doing lots of talking.

The high ‘S’ will remain quiet, listen intently and give opinions only when asked whilst the high ‘C’ will be thoroughly prepared and explain everything at great length.

But these behaviours are just your habits – the way you behave when you don’t think about it.

At any time you can change your behaviour if you think about it first.

The ‘D’ can be less domineering, the ‘I’ less talkative. The ‘S’ can speak up and be noticed while the ‘C’ can control the amount of detail they go into.

Wishing you Lots of Success
Beverly

A friend of mine, let’s call her Isobelle (because she’s a high ‘I’), was talking to me about her partner, Colin, (very high ‘C’) who has been unemployed for about 6 months now. Isobelle commented that Colin had a couple of interviews lined up, seemed to be coping well but would not talk about how he was feeling.

“I just want to help” she said. “He needs to talk about it. Tell me how he’s feeling. Get it off his chest.”

I replied “No, Isobelle, that’s you. You need to talk about it because that is what high ‘I’s need to do. High ‘C’s like to protect themselves from getting hurt, by not talking about it. They build a little wall around themselves.”

“But how can I help?”

“Just be there. When Colin wants to talk he will.”

Each style has its own needs, its own way of dealing with situations.

Wishing you Lots of Success
Beverly

Last week I talked about using DISC when recruiting. It is also a valuable tool to use when applying for a job.

Identify in the first few minutes the main Behavioural Style of the interviewer(s) and answer their questions dealing to their style.

For the high ‘D’ expect the pleasantries at the beginning to be short. Keep your answers brief and to the point about your skills, knowledge and experience.

If your interviewer is a high ‘I’ the interview will be relaxed, conversational and probably quite long. You will need to be friendly and ask questions.

When you have a high ‘S’ interviewer it is very important that you build their trust by being sincere and listening attentively. If you are fast-paced you need to slow down your speech to match theirs.

The high ‘C’ interviewer will be very business-like and expect you to be the same. Arrive prepared with all your material and knowledge. Answer questions giving accurate detail that the high ‘C’ wants to hear.

Good luck with that interview!

Wishing you Lots of Success
Beverly

Many people think they don’t need to because they are good judges of character or their interview questions sort out the candidates. Although this can be true, there is more to it than that.

The Internal Profile of the candidate will show the behaviour that person will revert to when there are troubled times at work, like tension between members, criticism, long hours, challenging deadlines etc.

When anything out of the ordinary happens, people cope for awhile but if it continues the person reverts to their Natural Behaviour…that shown by the Internal Profile.

The natural high ‘D’ gets very angry, aggressive and in this state can make rash decisions.

The high ‘I’ becomes even more talkative, sarcastic if criticized, exaggerates more and has difficulty finishing tasks.

When under pressure the natural high ‘S’ person will become submissive, saying what they want others to hear but at the same time building up resentment. They become silent and withdrawn. This builds up until eventually they have an explosive outburst that surprises everyone.

The natural high ‘C’ behaviour is to immerse themselves in the detail. They become quite stubborn and overly critical of others.

So, recruit the right person for the job, but know their expected behaviour when the “going gets tough” by studying their Internal Profile.

Wishing you Lots of Success
Beverly

Driving to work this morning I noticed (well you can’t help but notice) an aggressive driver, fast, over-taking a lot, squeezing in, making sure he was OK, never mind anyone else. A very high ‘D’ I thought.

The high ‘I’ is likely to drive fast too but will use the time to talk to others using their Bluetooth connection or perhaps dictate to their recorder. Being on their own in the car does not feel comfortable to them.

High ‘S’ and ‘C’ styles will drive slower. The ‘S’ is likely to be very courteous, letting others in the queue and may give others a lift to work. The high ‘C’ will never drive over the speed limit and will adhere to road rules all the time.

This reminds me of David, a fellow student who used to give me a lift to University ages ago. Well he charged me to travel with him. David created a travel card for me to use with him. It had little strips to tear off each time to indicate I had taken a ride…like those baby-sitting adverts with tear off telephone numbers you see in supermarkets. I suspect David was a C/D profile.

If you want your clients or team to understand more about DISC, buy them my book….only £7.99….email me now.

Wishing you Lots of Success
Beverly

On the Trait Page of a profile all the traits are shown on a Grid.  They are plotted by comparing the candidate’s values of D, I, S and C in their Internal Profile against their External Profile. Each trait then falls into one of four quadrants:

Permanent Traits
These are shown in the top right of the Grid. These are the traits that will be seen most often, and most strongly, in the candidate’s behaviour. They result when there is very little difference between the Internal and External Profile

Potential Traits
Traits shown to the top left of the Grid are strong traits only in a candidate’s Internal Profile. This means that they are unlikely to be seen often in the candidate’s working style, but they are present, and may emerge under other circumstances, for instance when under pressure.

Transient Traits
These are shown to the bottom right of the Grid are strongly represented only in a candidate’s External Profile. This means that they are likely to be seen frequently in a candidate’s working behaviour, but they may change if the working situation changes.

Inactive Traits
Traits shown to the bottom left of the Grid are the low points of a candidate’s style. They may arise occasionally if the situation changes but they would not be expected to appear frequently in any aspect of the candidate’s behaviour.

Wishing you Lots of Success
Beverly

In the DISC Profile Report there is a page that explains the traits of an individual. These are colour-coded according to style.

• Red traits are related to Dominance, and represent assertive or direct factors such as Independence or Self-motivation.
• Yellow traits are related to Influence, and represent communicative factors such as Enthusiasm or Self-confidence.
• Green traits are related to Steadiness, and represent patient, accepting factors such as Persistence or Thoughtfulness.
• Blue traits are related to Compliance, and represent detailed or precise factors such as Accuracy or Sensitivity.

Some traits result from a combination of two styles so orange is a combination of red for Dominance and yellow for Influence.

Next week I’ll explain the Trait Grid and how the traits are assigned the terms; Permanent, Potential, Transient and Inactive.
wishing you Lots of Success

Beverly