“For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.” Paul of Tarsus in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 ESV.
Understanding and effectively using personality tests like DISC can allow you to become as adaptable and flexible as Paul so that you can influence and serve people for both their good and yours. It can allow you to “become all things to all people, that by all means,” you “might save some.” Like Paul, you can “do it all for the sake of the gospel” of peace that you may share God’s grace and love with others and share in its blessings as well.
The DISC personality is based on four personality types, each represented by one of the four letters in DISC. The four styles are Dominant(D), Interactive(I), Supportive(S), and Conscientious (C). Because the DISC is in the public domain, many different companies produce and sell their own DISC training and may use slightly different words to replace each of the letters.
Some key things to know about the DISC personality styles.
- Personality types are not boxes. They are not prophecies. They are ways we prefer to act. It doesn’t mean we can’t act otherwise. It’s also can’t be used as an excuse for behaving poorly.
- No one is just one style (e.g., a D alone). Each of us is a combination of all four styles in the DISC. However, we are more at home with one or two of the styles than with the others. It takes less energy to operate that in those two styles.
- Stressful situations tend to bring out a person’s preferred style. In less stressful situations, one can more easily act in less preferred styles as well.
- There is no good style and no bad style. Everybody is different.
- The key to effectively utilizing the DISC styles is adaptability and flexibility. This adaptability comes from learning all four styles, understanding how to spot people operating in them, and then adjusting your interaction with that person to influence the style they are operating in. This kind of adaptability within interpersonal relationships is key to success.
- Sometimes one person can prefer different styles at work than at home and so act differently at work than at home.
- The DISC profile is one of my favorite personality tests because of its effectiveness, brevity, and ease of use.
The Four Styles Explained
D: Dominant
Also called driver or doer.
Dominant people strongly value accomplishing goals.
These people are big-picture people (not detail-oriented), confident, risk-takers, direct, driven, daring, direct, decisive, determined, strong-willed, and results-oriented. They focus on getting results and doing so quickly. They are usually innovative and have a sense of urgency.
D’s can come across as abrasive, insensitive, argumentative, and overly demanding.
A creature that represents the spirit of this style is a lion or an eagle.
I: Interactive
– also called Influential, inspiring, or Inducement.
These individuals have a strong preference for transforming the world around them by influencing or persuading people.
These people are outgoing, sociable, talkative, optimistic, intuitive, inspirational, persuasive, enthusiastic, and influential. They love interacting with people and are friendly, outgoing people. They naturally have people skills that allow them to connect and interact with others easily. This allows them to be very persuasive and inspirational. They are also very imaginative and not detail-oriented.
A creature that represents the spirit of this style is a parrot.
S: Supportive
– also called Steadiness, Submission, Sympathetic, or Stable.
S-style individuals have a strong preference/bent for cooperating with others and working within established circumstances.
These people are supportive, sympathetic, empathetic, steadfast, stable, sincere, and satisfied. They are very friendly, compassionate, accommodating, and are good listeners. As a result, they connect with people and build deep relationships with them.
Their quality of steadiness means that they don’t like change. They prefer a steady pace of things and value security. They prefer tried and true methods over innovations or changes.
A creature that represents the spirit of style is a dog or a dove.
C: Conscientious
They strongly value accuracy and quality.
These people are detailed oriented, precise, analytical, thorough, cautious, critical, and consistent. They gather evidence, perform data analysis, create frameworks and procedures.
Communicating with each style
Communicating with D-style people
Remember that they are task-based, big-picture, fast-paced, and goal-oriented people. They want to get the job done quickly and get results fast. They are not detailed-oriented, analytical, or talkative. So, to communicate with them effectively make your presentation short and sweet and to the point. Give them the big-picture, be succinct/brief, get to the bottom line fast, and don’t make generalizations. Instead of talking about the problem, focus on how you are going to solve it. Don’t repeat yourself or they will think you are droning on and on. Also, don’t spend too much time chit-chatting and trying to connect with them, just get down to the business fast.
As a resident, my mentor was a D style. I came to discover this later during a personality style training workshop that our whole program had for the purpose of team building. He was such a typical D personality that I wished I had known this at the beginning of my intern year. When residents see patients in the clinic or hospital, they present the case to their attending physicians to gain guidance. If you want to present a patient by the book, it can take 3-5 minutes or more. With Dr. T, my D-type mentor, you would lose him if you don’t state your case and are done in 30 to 60 seconds. And you can tell he stops listening to you. Unlike other doctors who go by the book and would listen to you tell them about the patient’s chief complain, age, past medical history, history of present illness, medications, surgeries, allergies, etc before telling them the diagnosis and treatment plan, Dr. T would stop you and ask: why is the patient here and how are you going to help him/her. He wants you to synthesize everything and be able to give it all in the first thirty seconds. Then, if details are needed, he would ask you questions.
Communicating with I-style people
Remember that these people are outgoing, sociable, talkative and like to interact with people. So, share your stories and experiences, encourage them to talk about themselves and share their experiences. Don’t give them too many details and if you are a D-type personality, don’t interrupt home and try to redirect them to the point at hand.
While in residency, I had another mentor who was definitely I-style. I’m not kidding. As a resident in family medicine, we are required to see about 1,700 clinic patients and present each of them to a supervising doctor. The average program may have about four to six core attending physicians in the clinic that you present to. They generally sit down in a room and you go and take a sit and present the patient to them. Then, they guide your plan of care. The 1700 patient requirement is only for clinic patients in your primary clinic that count as continuity patients that you see them over and over. You also see and present lots of patients in specialty clinics that you go and work for one to three months. You get to do the same thing for patients you see in the Emergency room which adds up to be about three to four months of full-time work, and then about four months of doing the same thing for patients you see in the ICU and on the floors in a hospital setting. Malcolm Gladwell has popularized the idea that to develop expertise in something, people generally put in 10,000 hours. In medicine, you certainly get to do that. The point of this is that in three years of residency, I communicated over and over with attending physicians who were one of the four styles. In my head, I can categorize all my core attending doctors by their style.
Dr. S. was my I-style attending. She was a pleasant person to be with. Even though I worked with her both in the clinic and the hospital, most of our memorable times were in the hospital. In the clinic, patients have time schedules and you have to get them in and out or they will get backed up. In the hospital, during presentation times, Dr. S would ask us about our families, would talk about hers. I know more about her families and the challenges she went through than any other attending. We also shared with her our lives also. When we were rounding on the floors, she would interact with everybody we met. Needless to say that we always finished rounding late. We ended rounds late with some other doctors, the C-type doctors for a different reason. They would seem to want to gather all the evidence in the world before they could make a decision. D-type that I am, I was frustrated by those C-type attending doctors. Back to Dr. S. She wasn’t detailed oriented, just spent time chatting and interacting. When it came to decision-making about patient care, she was quick and to the point. Almost like a D-type might be. So I loved that part.
Communicating with S-style people
Remember that the S-type is supportive, sympathetic, empathetic, steadfast, stable, sincere, and satisfied with things as they are. They don’t like change. When communicating with them, adapt to their style and be friendly and supportive. Be polite and kind. Show your interest in them and clarify what you expect from them. Avoid D-type weaknesses like being overly direct, confrontational, and aggressive.
I have a doctor, Dr. C, who was an S-type, but I will spare you the details of her story. I think you get the idea of how S-type people act.
Communicating with C-style people
Remember that these people are detail-oriented, precise, analytical, thorough, cautious, and critical. When you communicate with them, focus on facts and details. Show them how you analyzed these facts, etc. The only language they hear is facts. So spare your pep-talk and emotional langue.
Dr. O and D come to mind as C-style doctors I worked with.
Resources
- Slideshare.net slides from DiSC.
- https://www.discprofile.com/what-is-disc/overview/
- https://www.takeflightlearning.com/dominant.html
- https://www.takeflightlearning.com/interactive.html
- https://www.takeflightlearning.com/supportive.html
- https://www.takeflightlearning.com/conscientious.html
