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(but not necessarily easy to manage them)

As discussed in our previous articles, “Sales Hiring Mistakes” and “Sales: What Makes a Great Salesperson (for You)?“, businesses that can sell well tend to do well – so it is not surprising that there is a lot of interest in making the sales process more predictable. Yet try as they might, salespeople and sales managers are often puzzled as to why some deals seem to go like clockwork while others feel like endless uphill struggles. They blame the market, they blame the people, they look to the 80/20 rule and see that 20% of the people bring in 80% of the profit, but can’t determine how to reliably duplicate the effective ones.

Communication is often the cause at the root of sales successes and failures. The fact is it is generally easier to sell to someone who shares the same communication preferences, that has a similar behavioral style, as you do. Comfortable communication is an important factor in establishing the trust and credibility needed to create a sale. By default we all tend to approach sales communication from the old golden rule “treat others as you would like to be treated,” however that old expression overlooks the idea that “others” may not want to be treated, in behavior or communication, in the way that makes you yourself feel the most comfortable.

DISC opens the door for us to understand that the behaviors or communication modes that feel natural to one person may cause stress to another. With this insight we can amend the golden rule to say “treat others as they wish to be treated” and use this idea to build a better foundation for sales success. Teaching salespeople to recognize their own behavioral styles and those of the clients they interact with gives them the opportunity to adapt to a mode of communication better suited to the client’s need. As the salesperson’s skill in recognizing and adapting to the styles of others increases so will their ability to build trust and credibility in relationships that were previously difficult and puzzling. Although the salesperson’s natural behavioral style will remain their same they will learn when and how to adapt for better results.

Recognizing that people have different natural behavioral styles also helps us understand a mistake that is unfortunately quite commonly made by businesses: they take their best performing salesperson and promote him or her to sales manager. Consider that the track record of the person in question indicates that the behaviors demanded to be a top sales performer are well-aligned with their natural behavioral style. Does a sales manager perform the same behaviors? What would indicate that the roles are interchangeable? As an analogy would a pro football team promote someone to quarterback because they were a great receiver? Not likely – the skills, the reflexes, the behaviors wouldn’t fit.

Let’s examine a scenario from a DISC perspective to further illustrate the point. At Company X the top performing sales people tend to be people skilled at keeping people happy and emotionally vested while driving for quick decisions and buy-in that keep the process moving forward rather than slipping into stasis. Meanwhile the successful sales manager at Company X must assert authority and accountability to the team, following a strictly defined process to assure fairness in hiring, firing, and compensation systems while also tracking the endlessly detailed expense reimbursement process. In the language of DISC that successful sales person is exhibiting high I (Influence) and high D (Dominance) behaviors while the sales manager’s role requires a low I and a high C (Compliance) – essentially opposite attributes. An individual might be able to adjust temporarily to fit the requirements, but quickly the stress and energy drain of maintaining that adjustment so strongly away from the individual’s natural behavioral preferences will cause the situation to either erode or explode. Reverting to natural behaviors the ex-salesperson now manager in question starts to try to make the salespeople she is responsible for as happy as she liked to make the customers she used to interact with, she grows restless handling the details and uncomfortable enforcing the policy and procedures because her C isn’t naturally high. Simply put, the former star receiver ends up being a lousy quarterback through no fault of her own.

At Data Dome we specialize in using the science of DISC behavioral analysis to unlock the keys to better performance, improved team dynamics and creating the best fits for your organization to thrive. Contact us to find out more about training and tools that can improve sales performance while helping you understand the success criteria for different roles in your organization.

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Keeping your top performers, those key employees that really help keep your organization moving, is an item that is always near the top of any executive’s priority list. Yet the workplace is always subject to change and sometimes yesterday’s motivated MVP can become today’s flight risk.

Shifting circumstances in the work environment can force changes in the default DISC behaviors of your people. This can lead the employee to experience one or more of these four states:

1) Frustration – the individual feels thwarted by the change, unable to act in a preferred manner or feeling that the opportunity to be successful has been sabotaged.

2) Elevated energy expenditure – the shift in the work environment has pushed the individual to adapt away from her natural DISC behavioral style to a new profile of behavior, this requires energy to sustain and can be draining if required for an extended duration.

3) Stress – change brings uncertainty, disruption of the status quo, this can provoke a stressed emotional state that can be expressed in multiple ways such as anger, fear, agitation, impatience, withdrawal, etc.

4) Boredom – change can shift an individual into a state of weariness and restlessness due to lack of interest.

Of the four, the last one, boredom, is the one to watch. It may sound relatively innocuous – certainly stress gets more attention than boredom due to the linkage of stress and health issues – however, it is boredom that is in fact the least tolerable state of the four. It can be a greater indicator that an employee is about to quit or otherwise change their situation than the other three change reactions mentioned above.

Consider for a moment, how well do you personally tolerate boredom? How would you react if confronted on a daily basis with lengthy periods of tedium? Most dynamic leaders squirm at the mere thought of enduring a boring meeting, let alone an extended work session. Many leaders, although not all, have a high score in the D column of a DISC profile indicating a behavioral bias towards action. They feel boredom is a harbinger of wasted time, inefficiency and a lack of productivity and they will do anything to personally avoid it. When boredom seems inescapable the individual will take action to shift the situation, that action is all too often announced with the phrase “I quit!”

Every day talented individuals quit tasks, projects, teams, and, yes, even their jobs because of boredom. The turnover and loss of knowledge and experience is incredibly costly for organizations and much of it could be avoided with timely intervention. But how do you know when someone is bored? It is easy for you to know when you, yourself, are bored, but it isn’t always easy to outwardly observe when someone else is bored. This is an area where DISC profiles can be a valuable tool not just during the hiring process, but in the ongoing development and retention of your staff. Using DISC assessments as part of a routine employee development process allows DISC styles to be tracked over time. When anomalous shifts in behavior profiles occur they will be recognized and may provide the critical insight needed to rescue an employee who is sliding down the funnel of boredom toward the door marked exit.

In the DISC vocabulary S stands for steadiness – If in our tracking we see a strong increase in an individual’s score in the S column it is often an indicator of entrenched boredom. They may shift from a low S dynamic style to a non-demonstrative high S style indicating that the individual may not have enough to do, or may require more variety of tasks. The individual may have grown in skills and is no longer sufficiently challenged by the current activity or they may have been moved into a role that runs contrary to their behavioral profile. For example take the DISC style of a high D person who is used to driving activity in pioneering ways and putting them in a role where they have large amounts of tedious “busy work” and no options to change things or delegate the activity – we’ll see the unchanging grind lead to boredom that is expressed as an elevation in the S column. It is in this state when they feel boredom is inescapable within the situation that they start directing energy toward getting out of the situation.

Without regularly administering DISC behavioral assessments, the bored amongst your key personnel can remain a hidden, yet “at risk”, population in the work force. I’ve compared my observations from teaching in management and leadership development classes, with those of other faculty in management programs; we concur that boredom is a prime motivation for a large number of the participants enrolled in such courses. We estimate that 45 – 60% of those paying for additional education around their current working situation are doing so because they are bored in their current position and are intending to use the educational opportunity to change their current situation. Doing whatever it takes to make a change.

In summary, to keep your top performers keep them interested. To keep them interested recognize when they’re bored. DISC assessments, if used properly, can provide the objective data to help you identify when your best employee is about to yawn their way out the door.

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Art Schoeck was recently asked the following question via our Ask the Expert form:

** What do you mean by the Me-Me Conflict? Could you flesh that out a little? **

Art’s answer:

There are certain DISC behavioral styles that pose a “Me-Me” conflict, meaning there exists internal incompatibilities between behaviors. The Me-Me conflicts occur when an individual displays behaviors that are at odds with each other, that interfere with intended outcomes or reframe the behavioral dynamics due to the combination of conflicting behaviors.

To illustrate this idea let’s examine some scenarios:

An individual who wants to like people (DISC profile = high I) and looks at others with warmth and emotion, yet has high standards with which she judges things, data, and… people (DISC style = core C). So she wants to be liked and wants to like others, but she holds others to high standards, which may relegate her associates to those with high standards for instance she may date only those who pass her strict checklist of criteria. Here we see the Me-Me conflict in the competition of the core C behavior with the drive of the high I behavior. However, as in the dating example mentioned, the result might not be one behavior preventing the other, but both behaviors combining, hence the C-driven checklist criteria applied to the I-driven dating.

An individual may have a sense or urgency to get immediate results (DISC style = core D) while at the same time desire perfection (DISC profile = high C), which takes time to achieve. They constantly have internal conflict of rushing to complete, which can increase the likelihood of infractions or errors, vs slowing the pace down adequately to perform in an error-free compliant manner. The high D wants results and action now, which is in conflict with the high C behavior of making sure things are done in adherence to the standard of perfection.

One more example, although there are many more Me-Me conflict variations, can be seen with people who look at things, data, and products in an emotional way, yet look at people logically and analytically. The may buy things based on their emotions, yet look at others with skepticism and a “prove it to me” attitude. Changing situational dynamics can reframe the conflict.

Sometimes people are confused by the mention of Me-Me conflicts in part due to the explanation that accompanies the DISC Success Insights Wheel in some reports. The wheel will sometimes have the word “Cross” on it along with arrows pointing to spots on the wheel (see this post for a deeper look at the Success Insights Wheel) this can indicate the potential presence of a Me-Me conflict, because we are seeing three of the four DISC factors above the line with the individual’s core (or most prominent) DISC factor and the factor that is directly across from it on the wheel constituting two of those three factors that are above the line. The confusion can come from the use of the word “opposite” which in the Success Insights Wheel’s explanation is meant to refer to the style which is on the opposite side of the wheel, however this is not actually an opposite of the DISC style: D and S are across from each other on the wheel, as are I and C, but these are not opposite behaviors. The opposite behavior of a high D is not a high S, it is a low D. Likewise the opposite of a high I is a low I, etc. There can be some similarities between a low D and a high S but the behavioral basis is different.

What’s your question?

Data Dome’s resident expert is our founder, Art Schoeck. A member of TTI’s prestigious International Faculty, Art often receives questions through our Ask the Expert form. We try to answer questions here on this blog that are representative of common questions regarding DISC and other assessment tools.

Do you have a question about DISC? If so please submit it via the Ask the Expert form. Although it may not be possible to answer every question individually, we use the “Ask the Expert” category of this blog to answer the DISC-related questions most important to our readers.

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Well folks, it is almost Halloween – that means it is is World According to DISC time again. Time to carve your pumpkins and pick out your costume for the Diabolical DISC Masquerade Party (costumes required, of course). Devils and princesses, movie monsters and pop-stars, comic book characters and astronauts will be in your neighborhood Trick or Treating. What will this year’s most popular costumes be? Perhaps a look at one family through the lens of DISC behavioral profiles can give us a hint:

Young Dennis is a high D according to his DISC profile. He’s set a big goal for his candy gathering escapades: twice as much candy as last year. To meet his goals he has enlisted his dad to take him to the next subdivision up the road where more of the residents have kids and therefore more houses giving out treats. He’s also delegated carrying a spare sack to his younger sister, Samantha, just in case he fills up his first candy bag. Dennis’s costume choice: Darth Vader.

Irene, Dennis’s mom, took a DISC assessment at work – she is a high I and she’s excited because she is going to go to a huge costume party the night before Halloween where tons of her friends will be. She is in the costume shop now having trouble deciding what to wear. She’s chatted with every employee in the store and most of the other customers asking their opinions of what they like best and which costume would most people love to see her in. She knows she doesn’t want a big heavy mask because she wants to easily see everyone who’ll be at the party and she’s afraid that if she wore one nobody would recognize her. In the end she settles for an attention getting Marie Antoinette outfit with a little handheld mask on a stick.

If Samantha the younger sibling were to take an assessment her DISC behavioral profile would show she is a high S. She’s nervous about going with Dennis and her dad to the other neighborhood because she’s comfortable sticking to the neighbors they’ve always visited for treats in the past, but in the end she agreed to stick with Dennis’s plan because they go Trick or Treating together every year. She sometimes wants to be the one to push the doorbell, but Dennis always does that and she doesn’t like to make a fuss about. Samantha was going to dress up as Lisa Simpson like she did last year, but the costume didn’t fit anymore so this year she’s going as Snow White.

Charlie is Dennis and Samantha’s dad. His DISC style indicates he is a high C and not a big fan of Halloween. He gets grouchy thinking about all the unruly kids running across his well-manicured lawn and the inevitable toilet paper that will be lobbed across his carefully trimmed hedges. He has set a rigid timetable up for taking the kids Trick or Treating and he will inspect every piece of candy to make sure nothing has been tampered with. He’s dreading going to the party Friday with his wife, partly because the babysitter always ignores his instructions regarding what time the kids are supposed to be in bed and what TV shows they are allowed to watch. Since Irene is going as Marie Antoinette he thought it would be only right to go as Louis the Sixteenth, but none of the costumes at the shop were authentic enough for his tastes so he is going instead as Cardinal Richelieu.

Well, before we wrap up this lighthearted look at DISC behavior during one of our favorite holidays, here’s a few more quick takes on DISC meets Halloween:

The Wolfman – Low I, Low C
Dracula – High D, Low I, High S
Dr. Frankenstein – High D, High C
The Creature (Frankenstein’s Monster) – Low D, Low I, High S, Low C
Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde – High C, Low D / Low C, High D
Batman – High D, Low I, Low S, High C
Princess Leia – High D
Little Red Riding Hood – Low D, High I

And remember no DISC Halloween celebration is complete until somebody dresses up as Dr. William Moulton Marston’s other invention – Wonder Woman.

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It was a little over a year ago that we discussed five ways leaders who understood DISC profiles could reduce stress amongst their employees. For many companies the climate is even more stress-inducing today: cutbacks have forced companies to ask for even higher levels of productivity from the employees that remain, workers are being asked to take on responsibilities of those who are no longer there – constantly adapting from their natural DISC behavioral style.

Occasionally stepping away from one’s natural DISC behavioral style is usually not a big deal, in fact it is commonplace to see some variance between a person’s natural and adapted DISC profiles. Taking on a new behavior once in a while might actually be a deliberate strategy or a welcome change of pace, but long-term sustained adaptions that push an individual away from their natural DISC style can be trouble.

Maintaining an exaggerated state of adapted behavior takes energy – the person is essentially stepping on the mental gas to keep themselves in a behavioral pattern that doesn’t come naturally. This constant depletion of energy can express itself in numerous ways: irritability, poor morale, aggressiveness, “shutting down”, even physical manifestations – headaches, susceptibility to illness, etc. Unfortunately even with these changes of mood and morale it can still be difficult for an untrained observer to pinpoint causes in manner that provides information for mitigating the stressed behaviors. In the case of high S’s this can be further exacerbated by their reluctance to make waves. The stresses can build and build if the high S provides them no outlet – the situation becomes a powder keg of pent up frustration waiting to explode.

DISC profiles are a great way to see beyond the surface and recognize when there are large gaps between adapted and natural DISC styles. The greater the gap the more energy the individual is expending to reach the adapted behavior. If all four DISC behavior categories are adapting above the line then the person may be feeling forced to be “all things to everybody” – a constant state of crisis. Understanding the DISC profiles gives you a tool to diagnose the situation and take steps tailored to the individual’s causes of stress as indicated by their behavioral profile.

For a quick understanding of what stresses out people with certain DISC profiles check out our previous observations in The World According to DISC: Stress Someone Out in Style and The World According to DISC: The Low Side of Stress Styles.

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In a recent episode of Boaz Power TV recorded in Washington DC, Boaz Rauchwerger tells a story of a young Abraham Lincoln and how his harsh criticism of a local city official led to that official challenging Lincoln to a duel. Although the duel was averted at the last moment, Boaz uses the anecdote as an illustration of the downside and risk of criticizing and complaining and asks viewers to pledge to completely abstain from criticizing or complaining for an entire week.

But is criticizing always bad? Are there no situations where complaining might be useful?

Let’s take a quick look at the classic DISC behavioral styles and see if the “3 C’s Affirmation: I do not criticize, condemn, or complain. I look for the good.” is really a good or realistic idea for everybody to try to follow.

First let’s look at the high D DISC profile: Regardless of whether avoiding complaining is a good idea, the high D individual is very unlikely to stick to the pledge. He or She might say the words, but as soon as a situation is encountered that calls for corrective action (or at least appears to from the high D’s perspective) an on-the-spot critique is going to occur. The high D DISC profile rankles at things that put objectives at risk and he or she won’t brood about it – the complaint will be gotten off the chest right away and the criticism will be repeated unless or until adjustments to the situation are made.

The high I DISC profile is a completely different story. The behavioral bias of a high I DISC profile makes him or her very likely to embrace this pledge. It’s feel-good message aligns well with the high I’s habits of trying to please people and be thought of positively by those around him or her. However, the high I might actually be avoiding or procrastinating about delivering a needed complaint or critique out of a behavioral tendency to try to be too nice. For example a high I manager might not give a needed critique to an employee to avoid being perceived as a “bad guy”, but as a result a minor problem is overlooked when it may have been easily corrected and now it may fester into a larger issue because it wasn’t “nipped in the bud”.

High S individuals are very reluctant to buck the status quo. In an effort to avoid making waves he or she may bottle up complaints and critiques that are quite legitimate – they don’t need to take the pledge, they already have a natural tendency to avoid complaining, but by holding criticism inside they may be needlessly suffering abuse, or struggling with correctable situations. Their assumption is that time will smooth out the wrinkles and most problems will sort themselves out, however, this is not always the case. The person with a high S DISC profile should in fact be encouraged to critique and complain to make sure that a storm of trouble and resentment isn’t brewing beneath the laid-back surface.

Finally we come to the high C DISC profile, probably the best candidate for Boaz’s advice. High C’s are process and compliance oriented and have a habit of criticizing things and people that disrupt policy and procedure. An extreme high C is often perceived as being harsh because of a natural intolerance for anything that falls short of exacting standards. If the high C embraces the 3 C’s affirmation it may lead to more harmonious communication for him or her and those with whom he or she works. Unlike the high D, the high C may embrace the pledge if convinced, by hard data, of the value of adopting it as a policy or code of conduct against which compliance can be measured.

As you can see, different people’s DISC profiles indicate a diversity of behavioral tendencies. It is rare to find one-size-fits-all advice that actually makes sense across the full spectrum of DISC behavioral styles.

Not that I’m complaining…

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The DISC Profile world is rife with examples and explanations of the various behaviors found on the high side of the charts. High D, I, S and C behaviors are the staples of behavioral consultants and organizational designers, but we here at Data Dome want to make sure you understand that very low scores in a behavior category can be just as predictive as the high DISC styles. Fortunately for us we’ve got a couple of great celebrities to look to for examples of Low C DISC profiles in action…

It almost seems that Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton are having a contest to see who’s DISC behavior profile displays a lower C.

Let’s first look at the DISC adjectives to get a feel for what a low C DISC style is like:

• independent
• opinionated
• unconventional
• uninhibited
• free-thinker
• unconstrained
• avoid detail
• self-governing
• defiant/rebellious of rules set by others
• careless with details

Both actresses have been noted in the media for outrageous behavior and a lack of discipline in business dealings. Paris, famous for being famous, was described in an article on the 10 worst celebrity business owners as having “failed at the business of being herself.” According to the article, acting in an unconstrained way, inattentive to the details of endorsement deals has led her to being sued for millions in damages. And with several scandalous pictures and tapes floating about on the Internet, one would hardly categorize Paris Hilton as “inhibited.”

Similarly, Lindsay has had numerous run-ins with authorities, has shown flagrant disregard for public safety in her use of drugs and alcohol while driving. Despite her talent and creativity she has been called “officially unreliable” and unprofessional on movie sets. The notion of self-governing seems like an apt description of someone who smokes despite being an asthma sufferer since the age of two. With nude photo-shoots as Marylin Monroe and a movie role as a stripper, Lohan also fits the “uninhibited” adjective.

I imagine they would both nod their heads in agreement when they read in their DISC profiles: “Respect my defiant nature”.

That is they might if they bothered to show up to fill out the DISC assessment.

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There’s nothing like a summer garage sale to clear the clutter and pocket a little cash before the back to school season is in full swing. What kind of insight can we glean when we look at preparations for this common activity through the lens of DISC behaviors?

It’s no surprise with her high D DISC profile that Dianne has driven her family toward a big goal to accomplish this weekend: empty out the garage and the basement – it’s garage sale time! She’s got the whole family mobilized and she’s already thinking about the new sofa she’s going to buy with all the proceeds.

Her husband Stan, the high S, is a bit conflicted, he agrees it should be a family project, but he likes the comfort of the old sofa. In fact he’s been dragging his feet all week as Dianne has been pushing her agenda. Every item she wants to get rid of he feels nostalgic about, but since his wife and his kids all want to do this he doesn’t want to make waves.

A DISC assessment of Dianne and Stan’s daughter, Catherine, would definitely reveal her high C DISC style. She’s almost as excited about the garage sale as her mom – she always been agitated by her brother’s chaos and clutter and sees the sale as her big chance to restore order. She’s been diligently preparing an inventory list and price tags, and is giving instructions to her brother on how to properly record each sale so there is no confusion about procedure.

Ian, Catherine’s brother, has a high I DISC behavioral style, and he’s also been looking forward to the garage sale. He’s told all of his friends to come over, that it is going to be the best garage sale ever, and he is looking forward to seeing all the neighbors on Saturday – he’s certain it will be just like a big block party.

So how will the big sale go? Will high D Dianne drive the sales or drive her family crazy? Will high S Stan, surrender his favorite sweater to the cause or will he sneak it back off the table and into the drawer where he’s always kept it? Will high C Catherine’s site plan for optimal layout of the driveway be adhered too? Will she arrange the old bicycles by size, color, or number of gears? Will high I Ian’s gregarious nature help keep the buyer’s entertained, or will he disappear when his friends decide to go to the mall? What about rain? Find out more in our next installment of World According to DISC, where the behavior is predictable, but the plot lines are full of surprises….

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DISC profiles are incredibly useful tools to aid in the understanding of people’s behaviors, but it is not uncommon for characteristics in some of the DISC categories to be confused. Even those who work frequently with DISC assessments will occasionally confuse High S behavior for High C and vice-versa. S stands for Steadiness and C for Compliance, but it might be helpful to think of these terms in the context of Pace and Procedures: The S indicates how you respond to the pace of the environment, while the C indicates how you respond to rules and procedures set by others. The High S sees rapid change as disruptive and therefore reacts with resistance, the High Chas a high regard for policy and procedure and is dismayed, even outraged at times, by perceived disregard for proper or logical steps in a process.

To illustrate this idea let’s examine the birth of one magazine and the reaction of another. When the Consumers Union Reports first appeared in 1936 with the mission of providing “information and counsel on . . . goods and services” and to “maintain laboratories . . . to supervise and conduct research and tests” they ended up causing a bit of a stir: An article in the Reader’s Digest came out quite strongly against the fledgling organization. In an article entitled “Guinea Pigs, Left March!” by Stanley High, Reader’s Digest attacks Consumer Reports science-based approach to testing and recommending products based on the test results, claiming “They are out to discredit, if not to destroy, the system.” Good Housekeeping went so far as to accuse Consumer Reports of extending the Great Depression. Relations between the magazines were not helped by the fact that Consumer Reports dismissed Good Housekeeping’s Seal of Approval as a “fraud.”

Vindication and acceptance of Consumer Report’s once-heretical approach came through consistent adherence to scientific testing and verifiable data. In 1953, it reported that smokers were exposed to as much nicotine when they puffed a filter-tipped cigarette as they were when they lit up an unfiltered Lucky Strike. The U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory committee cited the magazine’s research in its landmark report warning of the dangers of smoking in 1964. Consumer Reports’ toy testing helped pave the way for the 1969 Child Protection & Toy Safety Act, which passed a year after the magazine tested a group of electric toys and found a quarter of them hazardous. These and many other examples helped prove the case for the magazine’s data-centric approach.

Consumer Reports approach from the start has been grounded in a deep-set respect for scientific process and adherence to policies designed to avoid the potential taint of unfair influence that might derive from accepting payment from a motivated manufacturer. This is exemplar of the High C behavioral style. On the other hand, the depression-era staff of Reader’s Digest and other magazines such as Good Housekeeping saw this new paradigm as threatening to the status-quo of the advertiser relationship, which funded their magazines, and their own role in that relationship among magazines, advertisers and consumers. The sudden emergence of a new approach and business model that Consumer Reports represented was threatening to the established norm and without adequate time to adjust, the magazine exhibited a similar behavior as a High S individual might when faced with an environment that is changing faster than one can comfortably adjust to.

To summarize:
The High C‘s want the data and will act on it.
The High S‘s want things the way they’ve always been and will defend the status-quo, even sometimes when there is proof available of viable (and sometimes superior) alternative.

The DISC behavior of the High C Consumer Reports is to value the process for it’s analytical rigor and to hold it’s independent procedure as sacrosanct to it’s mission. Reader’s Digest representing the High S DISC style, reacted negatively to the sudden shift in the environment of the magazine industry and the disruption of the relationship norms it was comfortable with. Hopefully this example helps clarify the difference between a High C and a High S – While people aren’t magazines, applying the insights of DISC behavioral profiles can help you and your team avoid the kind of conflicts associated with clashing communication habits expressed by differing DISC behavioral styles.

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Last week the entertainment industry was surprised by the announcement that Ellen DeGeneres was leaving American Idol after being part of just one season on the highly popular show. So what’s behind this move? Well if we look at it from the vantage point of the World According to DISC it becomes clear that we are seeing some classic High I behavior:

DeGeneres was quoted in Variety as saying, “I also realized this season that while I love discovering, supporting, and nurturing young talent, it was hard for me to judge people and sometimes hurt their feelings.” This is a common sentiment for those whose DISC assessment reveals a high measure in the Influence (or simply, “I“) category. High I‘s tend to avoid social rejection – they don’t like to make people feel uncomfortable nor do they like to feel socially uncomfortable themselves. Some of the negative attitudes and harshness associated with the show’s critiques would cause stress for someone with an I-oriented DISC profile as Ellen appears to display.

In the same article Ellen DeGeneres is also quoted on how she left things with the show’s producers, “I told them I wouldn’t leave them in a bind and that I would hold off on doing anything until they were able to figure out where they wanted to take the panel next.” Again this fits right into familiar High I territory – there is a strong impulse for the High DISC style to avoid being seen as “the bad guy,” they would prefer to part on good terms and do what they can to ensure that they will continue to be well thought of even in a situation such as quitting.

It is not hard to glance at our DISC adjective chart to see words under the “I” column that are commonly associated with Ellen, such as: gregarious, pleaser, warm, enthusiastic and magnetic. However, much as we would love to have Ellen DeGeneres visit Data Dome and take one of our DISC assessments, these World According To DISC observations made here are based solely on her general media presence and some of her quotes in the entertainment press.

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