Are you a ‘What, Why, Who, and How’?
So, which one are you?
When working with Team leaders, especially when they are relatively new in their own leadership journey, one question that comes up is ‘How should I lead others?’
What the person is really asking is ‘What is my personality, and based on that, what is the best way for me to lead?’
The answer from me is usually ‘lead as yourself. But do you know who you are?’
Most participants do not, and so I get them to go through a simple DISC profile assessment.
DISC = Dominant, Influence, Steady, and Compliant.
DISC is a behaviour profiling assessment tool, designed to easily identify the 4 quadrants that people tend to think, speak, and behave.
- Dominant = These people who prefer to ask or know ‘What’ they have to do in terms of goals and targets.
- Influence = These people prefer to first know ‘Why’ they are to do something or go somewhere.
- Steady = These people want to know ‘Who’ they will be completing a task or collaborating with.
- Compliant = These people want to know the ‘How’, or the steps’ needed, to complete a task.
Knowing and leading yourself
Knowing your DISC quadrant is very helpful, because when you know which quadrant you are, for example, a Goal driven person, then you tend to speak, think, and behave in that manner.
Knowing and leading others.
Of course, the issue is that the world is not made up of just people from one quadrant, but from all 4 quadrants. So that means you have to recognise that others do not speak, behaviour, and think in the same way as you do. You have to recognise the signs of when someone is from another quadrant.
The takeaway
Knowing how you lead can greatly enhance your ability to interact successfully with others, because now you know what works for you and for them, and what you can do to meet them halfway.
Here is the free website that I use with my participants for the DISC profiling assessment: https://www.123test.com/disc-personality-test/. I am not associated with them in any way.
Check it out.
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