DISC Personality Profiles

DISC Personality Profiles
The DISC Personality System is the universal language of behavior. Research has shown that behavioral characteristics can be grouped together in four major divisions called personality styles. People with similar personality profiles styles tend to exhibit specific behavioral characteristics common to that profile. All people share these four styles in varying degrees of intensity. The acronym DISC stands for the four personality styles represented by the letters:
D (Drive)
I (Influence)
S (Steadiness)
C (Compliance)

How is DISC used?
D (Drive) (top)

General Characteristics:
Direct. Decisive. High Ego Strength. Problem Solver. Risk Taker. Self Starter

Value to Team:
Bottom-line organizer. Places value on time. Challenges the status quo. Innovative

Possible Weaknesses:
Oversteps authority. Argumentative attitude. Dislikes routine. Attempts too much at once.

Greatest Fear:
Being taken advantage of.

Motivated By:
New challenges. Power and authority to take risks and make decisions. Freedom from routine and mundane tasks. Changing environments in which to work and play.

Ideal Environment:
Innovative focus on future. Non-routine challenging tasks and activities. Projects that produce tangible results. Freedom from controls, supervision, and details. Personal evaluation based on results, not methods.

Remember a High D May Want:Authority, varied activities, prestige, freedom, assignments promoting growth, "bottom line" approach, and opportunity for advancement.

DO:
Be brief, direct, and to the point. Ask "what" not "how" questions. Focus on business; remember they desire results. Suggest ways for him/her to achieve results, be in charge, and solve problems. Highlight logical benefits of featured ideas and approaches.

DON'T:
Ramble. Repeat yourself. Focus on problems. Be too sociable. Make generalizations. Make statements without support.

While analyzing information, a High D may:Ignore potential risks. Not weigh the pros and cons. Not consider others' opinions. Offer innovative and progressive systems and ideas.

D's possess these positive characteristics in teams:
Autocratic managers - great in crisis. Self-reliant. Innovative in getting results. Maintain focus on goals. Specific and direct. Overcome obstacles. Provide direction and leadership. Push group toward decisions. Willing to speak out. Generally optimistic. Welcome challenges without fear. Accept risks. See the big picture. Can handle multiple projects. Function well with heavy work loads. Personal

Growth Areas for D's:
Strive to be an "active" listener. Be attentive to other team members' ideas until everyone reaches a consensus. Be less controlling and domineering. Develop a greater appreciation for the opinions, feelings, and desires of others. Put more energy into personal relationships. Show your support for other team members. Take time to explain the "whys" of your statements and proposals. Be friendlier and more approachable.

I (Influence) (top)

General Characteristics:
Enthusiastic. Trusting; Optimistic. Persuasive; Talkative. Impulsive; Emotional

Value to Team:
Creative problem solver. Great encourager. Motivates others to achieve. Positive sense of humor. Negotiates conflicts; peace maker.

Possible Weaknesses:
More concerned with popularity than tangible results. Inattentive to detail. Overuses gestures and facial expressions. Tends to listen only when it's convenient.

Greatest Fear:
Rejection.

Motivated By: Flattery, praise, popularity, and acceptance. A friendly environment. Freedom from many rules and regulations. Other people available to handle details.

Ideal Environment: Practical procedures. Few conflicts and arguments. Freedom from controls and details. A forum to express ideas. Group activities in professional and social environments

Remember a High I May Want:
Social esteem and acceptance, freedom from details and control, people to talk to, positive working conditions, recognition for abilities, opportunity to motivate and influence others.

DO:
Build a favorable, friendly environment. Give opportunity for them to verbalize about ideas, people and their intuition. Assist them in developing ways to transfer talk into action. Share testimonials from others relating to proposed ideas. Allow time for stimulating, sociable activities. Submit details in writing, but don't dwell on them. Develop a participative relationship. Create incentives for following through on tasks.

DON'T:
Eliminate social time. Do all the talking. Ignore their ideas or accomplishments. Tell them what to do.

While analyzing information, a High I may:
Lose concentration. Miss important facts and details. Interrupt. Be creative in problem solving.

I's possess these positive characteristics in teams:
Instinctive communicators. Participative managers - influence and inspire. Motivate the team. Spontaneous and agreeable. Respond well to the unexpected. Create an atmosphere of well being. Enthusiastic. Provide direction and leadership. Express ideas well. Work well with other people. Make good spokespersons. Will offer opinions. Persuasive. Have a positive attitude. Accomplish goals through people. Good sense of humor. Accepting of others. Strong in brainstorming sessions.

Personal Growth Areas for I's:
Weigh the pros and cons before making a decision; be less impulsive. Be more results oriented. Exercise control over your actions, words, and emotions. Focus more on details and facts. Remember to slow down your pace for other team members. Talk less; listen more. Consider and evaluate ideas from other team members. Concentrate on following through with tasks.

S (Steadiness) (top)
General Characteristics:
Good listener; Team player. Possessive. Steady; Predictable. Understanding; Friendly.

Value to Team:
Reliable and dependable. Loyal team worker. Compliant towards authority. Good listener, patient and empathetic. Good at reconciling conflicts.

Possible Weaknesses:
Resists change. Takes a long time to adjust to change. Holds a grudge; sensitive to criticism. Difficulty establishing priorities.

Greatest Fear:
Loss of security.

Motivated By:
Recognition for loyalty and dependability. Safety and security. No sudden changes in procedure or lifestyle. Activities that can be started and finished.

Ideal Environment:
Practical procedures and systems. Stability and predictability. Tasks that can be completed at one time. Few conflicts and arguments. A team atmosphere. Remember a High S May Want:Security in situations, sincere appreciation, repeated work patterns, time to adjust to change, limited territory of responsibility.

DO:
Create a favorable environment: personal and agreeable. Express a genuine interest in them as a person. Provide them with clarification for tasks and answers to "how" questions. Be patient in drawing out their goals. Present ideas or departures from current practices in a non-threatening manner; give them time to adjust. Clearly define goals, procedures and their role in the overall plan. Assure them of personal follow-up support. Explain how their actions will minimize the risks involved and enhance current procedures.

DON'T:
Be pushy, overly aggressive, or demanding. Be too confrontational.

While analyzing information, a High S may:
Be openly agreeable but inwardly unyielding. Internalize their concerns and doubts. Hesitate to share feedback during presentation. Slow down the action. Provide valuable support for team goals.

S's possess these positive characteristics in teams:
Instinctive relaters. Participative managers - accomplish goals through personal relationships. Make others feel like they belong. Show sincerity. Can see an easier way of doing things. Focused and intuitive about people and relationships. Full of common sense. Buy into team goals. Dependable. Identify strongly with the team. Strive to build relationships. Provide stability. Consider elements of a total project. Realistic and practical. Even-tempered. Provide specialized skills. Show patience with others. Loyal.

Personal Growth Areas for S's:
Be more open to change. Be more direct in your interactions. Focus on overall goals of the team rather than specific procedures. Deal with confrontation constructively. Develop more flexibility. Increase pace to accomplish goals. Show more initiative. Work at expressing thoughts, opinions, and feelings.

C (Compliance) (top)
General Characteristics:
Accurate; analytical. Conscientious; careful. Fact-finder; precise. High standards; systematic.

Value to Team:
Perspective: "the anchor of reality." Conscientious and even-tempered. Thorough to all activities. Defines situation; gathers, criticizes and tests information.

Possible Weaknesses:
Needs clear-cut boundaries for actions/relationships. Bound by procedures and methods. Gets bogged down in details. Prefers not to verbalize feelings. Will give in rather that argue.

Greatest Fear: Criticism.

Motivated By: Standards of high quality. Limited social interaction. Detailed tasks. Logical organization of information. Ideal Environment: Tasks and projects that can be followed through to completion. Specialized or technical tasks. Practical work procedures and routines. Few conflicts and arguments. Instructions and reassurance that they are doing what is expected of them.

Remember a High C May Want:
Autonomy and independence, controlled work environment, reassurance, precise expectations and goals, exact job descriptions, planned change.

DO:
Prepare your case in advance. Delineate pros and cons of proposed ideas. Support ideas and statements with accurate data. Reassure them that no surprises will occur. Submit an exact job description with a precise explanation of how that task fits into the big picture. Review recommendations with them in a systematic and comprehensive manner. Be specific when agreeing. Disagree with the facts rather than the person when disagreeing. Be patient, persistent, and diplomatic while providing explanations.

DON'T:
Refuse to explain details. Answer questions vaguely or casually.

While analyzing information, a High C may:Become overly cautious and conservative. Get too bogged down in details. Avoid or postpone decisions, especially if they perceive a risk. Be an effective trouble shooter.

C's possess these positive characteristics in teams:
Instinctive organizers. "Do it yourself" managers - create and maintain systems. Strive for a logical, consistent environment. Control the details. Conscientious. Evaluate the team's progress. Ask important questions. Maintain focus on tasks. Offer conservative approaches. Emphasize quality. Think logically. Will share risks and responsibilities. Work systematically. Will strive for consensus. Diplomatic. Analyze obstacles.

Personal Growth Areas for C's:
Concentrate on doing the right things, not just doing things right. Be less critical of others' ideas and methods. Respond more quickly to accomplish team goals. Strive to build relationships with other team members. Be more decisive. Focus less on facts and more on people. Take risks along with other team members.

How is DISC used?
Discover behavioral strengths, areas for augmenting, blending, capitalizing
Value and learn to respect the strengths of others
Deal with conflict effectively by learning adaptive behaviors
Enhance work group with teamwork and minimize team conflict
Develop strategies to meet diverse needs of others
Improve communication skills by determining communication styles
Increase sales skills and understanding of the prospect, client, customer with people reading.
Improve customer relationships by identification and meeting needs
Reduce conflict and stress, in both interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships
Manage interpersonal communication better
Used by many Fortune 500 Companies, HR professionals, consultants, coaches, trainers, dentists, clergy, government agencies, sales firms, and educational institutions. DISC helps these clients to:
Build productive teams
Develop effective managers, supervisors, leaders
Train a powerful sales force
Improve customer service
Ease frustrations and interpersonal conflict
Enhance Communication
Conflict Management resolution
Team Development and team building
Improves personal diversity awareness and recognition
Improve the bottom line: productivity
Assists in hiring, recruiting, placement, promotion, outsourcing
Change management, Quality enhancement
Managing, counseling, coaching

Quoted from: http://www.discinsights.com/cyber/scripts/disc.asp

DISC - one type of description

Based upon the work of Carl Jung, the DISC approach was invented by William Moulton Marston, inventor of the lie detector and a Harvard MBA, over 30 years ago. The statistically based profiles show a person’s preferred styles on four scales of behavior — Problems, People, Pace and Procedures:
Dominance (“D” factor) How one handles problems and challenges
Influence (“I” factor) How one handles people and influences others
Steadiness (“S” factor) How one handles work environment, change and pace
Compliance (“C” factor) How one handles rules and procedures set by others
Depending on our differences in style and approach, we can either get along very easily together (because we’re much alike!) or we can have significant clashes in our relationship.

Partially quoted from: http://www.the-collaborative.com/our-services/behaviorial-tools/behavioral-and-values-assessment/

11 mistakes women make in middle age

11 mistakes women make in middle age by Health.com, on Thu Dec 23, 2010 10:26am PST

By Ashley Macha

Let’s not kid ourselves. Getting older is a drag, and middle age is particularly fraught with tension.

Do the sexy clothes you wore in the past now seem just plain wrong? Will smoky eye makeup that looks great on 19-year-olds make you appear just plain crazy?

Part of the problem is that aging often requires change, but most women don’t want to move to a frumpy town called Middle Age, where sensible shoes and boring clothes are de rigueur.

Here are the 11 most common mistakes aging women make—and how to avoid them.

Not realizing you need to change

The biggest mistake women make is not doing anything at all. Hair, makeup, and clothing that made you look fantastic in your younger years, often won’t cut it as you grow older.

If you want to age gracefully, you’ll need to make some changes.

“Many women keep doing the same things they’ve been doing for decades, which very often no longer works and may not be as flattering for a woman over 50,” says Barbara Grufferman, author of The Best of Everything After 50: The Experts’ Guide to Style, Sex, Health, Money, and More.

“They often don’t even realize they are making mistakes, so it’s all about finding what those mistakes are before they can happen.”

Not spending enough on your clothes

Remember the good old days, when you could snag a bikini off the sale rack and look like hot stuff on the beach? Unfortunately, those days are gone. (Unless you’re Madonna, Helen Mirren, or happen to look like them.)

The rest of us need to invest in clothing that’s a bit more, well, constructed. Think Lycra panels, butt-boosting jeans, and Spanx.

It’s a challenge to find flattering clothes at any age, but it’s even harder in middle age. You’ll probably need to fork over more dough for body-squeezing swimsuits and well-fitted business clothes that do the trick.

Health.com: The best jeans for your body

Comparing yourself to you in your 20s

Have your kids ever asked, “Who’s that pretty lady in your photo album?” You’re not alone.

Few people look as attractive in middle age as they did in their younger years. So take a walk down memory lane if you must, but don’t get depressed if you run into your younger self.

The goal is to look as good as you can—and be as healthy as you can—not recreate the body and face you had decades ago.

Skipping exercise

Tempted to stop working out as you get older? (Or use it as another excuse not to start?) Sorry, that won’t cut it.

You’ll have to exercise despite the aches and pains of middle age—the bum knee, tricky back, or it-just-makes-me-feel-like-hell feeling.

Exercising can actually relieve pain, and stave off health problems in coming years, such as creeping weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, or dementia.

If you can manage a marathon, great. If not, now is the time to check out the gym pool, start taking yoga, or fall in love with power walking.

Health.com: Your 50s strength workout

Not getting enough sleep

Gone are the days when you could stay up all night and still make it to work with a glowing complexion and a spring in your step.

The fact is, you may have heard a “you look tired” comment even after a good night’s sleep. (It’s OK to grit your teeth on that one.)

While it may be tempting to shortchange sleep, particularly if you’re juggling parent- and child-care duties, this may be one more thing you need to change.

Fewer hours of sleep are more likely to show up on your face, true. But it’s also linked to a greater risk of diabetes and other health problems, which become even more important as you age.

Health.com: 8 things keeping you up at night

Ignoring your teeth

You may be focusing on your wrinkles or thinning hair, but don’t forget to smile at yourself in the mirror.

One thing that can make you appear older is yellowing teeth, but it is about more than just looks. Dental health is closely linked with overall health, and gum disease—which gets more common as you age—has been associated with a higher risk of heart problems.

So don’t skip those visits to the dentist.

Overdoing anti-aging efforts

This is a common mistake made by celebrities and real women alike.

No one likes crow’s-feet or laugh lines, but a frozen Botox face or scary lip plumping isn’t a great look either.

The right skin products (such as those containing retinol) can help diminish fine lines and wrinkles. If you’re not happy with the result, then explore other alternatives—but don’t aim to look like a teen again.

“No wrinkles can be unrealistic and unnatural,” says Grufferman.

Health.com: 14 health products you probably don't need

Thinking there are hair “rules”

Do you have to cut your tresses short or above the shoulders once you’re 50? No, because there aren’t really any hair “rules” for middle-aged women, says Grufferman. “It depends on a woman’s height, shape, lifestyle, and the condition of her hair.”

The fact is that your hair will probably get more gray and thin as you age, and the texture may get coarser as well.

Choose a cut and color that’s flattering, keeping in mind that it probably won’t be the cut and color that worked for you in your 20s and 30s.

Using the wrong makeup

The makeup colors and brands you’ve been wearing for years probably don’t reflect what’s best for your skin anymore.

And resist the urge to slather on heavy-duty powders and concealers to cover up wrinkles and under-eye circles as caked-on or dark makeup can make you seem even older. For a more natural look, Grufferman suggests using a magnifying mirror and having a “lighter touch” when applying. Keep your cosmetic bag current—replace foundations, powders, and concealers every 6 months to a year, and steer clear of dated makeup styles too.

Health.com: The best colors for your complexion

Settling for a boring sex life

Our culture tends to sell the message that young equals sexy, but you don’t have to buy into it.

You should have the confidence and freedom to dress and feel as sexy as you want to, and explore your sexual needs as well.

“Women over 50 can have the best sex of their lives,” Grufferman says. “For many women, it’s the first time they are having sex for fun and enjoyment, not for a result (children)."

Health.com: 8 reasons sex is better after 50

Wearing the wrong bra

It’s inevitable—gravity has an impact on our bodies. But while you might be saggy where you were once perky, that doesn’t mean you have to stay that way.

“Many women continue to wear the same size and brand they’ve always worn, without considering that our bodies change as we age,” says Grufferman.

The right underwear can help lift and slim your body, so re-evaluate your undergarments and invest in some new pieces. Most large department stores and lingerie shops offer free bra-fitting services