Understanding DISC - What is the "D" or "Dominance?"

For those who have taken a DISC Assessment, this is an opportunity to dive into understanding what the "D" means in the result. While "D" stands for "Dominance" there is more to knowing how that applies, in broadening your conception on what that means to you.

Video Transcript

" In this course, we'll be discussing components of the disc profiling system. More specifically, we're going to discuss what is a D, because I hear this a lot, every person that chart tech is well acquainted with understanding the basic understanding of what a disc profile is, they have a foundation for it. That's due in large part to our commitment to training for using it consistently, but also finding new ways to apply the science. So today, what we're going to do is find out how to understand the behaviors behind the disc assessment, we're going to start with the dominant trait of D. Now, fundamentally, what we talked about when we discuss D, meaning dominance, now a lot of people hear the word dominance and they, they might snicker, they might smile, they might smart, because they're thinking 50 Shades of Grey, right, when in fact, dominance is simply an identifiable trait that identifies gradients, so think of dominance, like a gas pedal. When we learned how to drive we learned by putting our foot on the gas, and we identified pretty quickly that if we mash on the gas, we're at 100%. It's an unwieldy environment. And but if we can slowly ebb our foot onto the gas pedal and increase with small measures, from 10 2030 40%, we learned how to have a really good starting position at a stoplight. And by proxy, we learned how to also do the same thing when hitting the brake on the brake pedal. So with this with dominance, we're talking about gradients of dominance measures, fractions of it. That's why the disc profile is measured in pages by graphs that start from zero being absent of the value and 100% being a bold amount of it. So think of it like that 100% D does not mean 100% dominance, what it means is the dominant traits and attributes will be most visible. Now, the lowest being zero doesn't mean a person's not dominant just means there's not a presentation of that trait. And you're going to see it in very small measure. So with this, what we need to discuss is when we, when we really talk about D, we're talking about knowing what to prepare for these high dominance, they have a very unique way about themselves. In our business, we have nearly I think it's 45% of our business is made up of Heidi's high dominance where their dominant trait is more than 50% of their disc profile. That's a good thing, so long as you can put it in the right places. The other thing we're going to be mindful of is how to prepare for this behavioral trait. Because if you know a person has a dominant streak, but you don't know how to prepare for it, you're not prepared to respect them for it. That's an issue. Because when we do that, the next thing we do is we ensure that respect and consideration are proffered to an individual who's simply trying to get things done. Because you're going to soon learn that a high dominant is all about progress, all about expediency and all about results. So let's start into there. See, the other question we hear about disc profiling is that we get the question of why bother knowing what does it really matter anyway? Well, let's talk about that. Fundamentally, people are pretty specific when they think about what types of themselves they want to share. Realistically, people share two sides of themselves, they they share the side that they want to because the situation dictates for sales people, they find that they put on the best part of themselves in front of a prospect. account managers show the best part of themselves in front of an existing client, Texan engineers, so the best part of themselves when they're solving problems. But the one immutable fact, as the other part of this is that people also hold parts of themselves back out of necessity. Each and every one of us has this measurable duality in ourselves, we give our best part away to other people, we give our best pieces away, but we still hold something back. So because there's going to be this dichotomy of self understanding that some individuals may share openly some parts of themselves, but knowing from the from the get go, that individuals are going to hold some things back. It's important for people like us as you're going through this training to understand that we do this to understand how to respect them, how to open a dialogue with them, how to understand which parts of themselves they may hold back. Because by doing this, we can ensure that if we place them in positions in our company, if we put them in positions of leadership or responsibility, we can be well acquainted with knowing where some potential failure points might be, or points of contention. And see, that's why we talked about this, we need to understand the measurable difference between conflict and understanding. Conflict occurs very easily when we simply just throw up our hands and say, well, that guy's just a jerk. He's just gonna always be a jerk. It just is what it is. Well, that works for about 5% of the time, the other 95% The reasonable world rushes to understanding and understanding environment, we realize that people are going to be different. That's one of the greatest things we have here at our chart tech, and art facility is that we understand and we openly share our disc profile results. For one very specific reason, we admit that each person is going to be different, we admit that we're made up of the ingredients of a diverse set of individuals and professionals. That's not the problem. That's not even the variable, that's the constant. So because we identify that as the constant, we can find a culture and reposition our culture daily, to rushing to understanding. And that's the difference between conflict versus understanding. If you start from a position of conflict, you end up there. But if you initiate from a position of understanding, you have a much higher probability of having a respectful open relationship with somebody who may have a trait like this. So let's dive into how disk creates an open people dialog. See, the interesting part about disc profiling is that it is intended from the beginning to be an understanding exercise. When a person takes it, it takes about maybe 10 to 18 minutes, a lot of your high dominance load to speed through it. They can't they can't get through it fast enough. And they're also the first ones to tell me, why is it taking so long, because to them time is absolutely a measurable currency. Now, when they're going through this profile, they're asked questions, and normally they're asked questions in a sequence between 20 to 25. Questions and what this assessment will do, it's dynamic. If a person answers a question with a D response and answers another question with a D response and answers another with a DM and all of a sudden switches to an S response. Just by me telling you this, you're gonna identify that there are specific D responses, s responses, I respond to see responses, every behavioral trait is identified. But the assessments going to understand whether there might be a change up, because what it's looking for is patterns, it is calculating patterns at a breakneck pace. And the algorithms that support this are updated and verified every single month. And because of this, we ensure that we identify behavioral traits of the most constant. So after a person takes an assessment, the result is tabulated within about a minute takes very little time to do that. But what happens is, this is a diverse report 50 some odd pages. And what I tell people is you could basically take a page a week for the entire year and learn something new about somebody. And that's a challenge I give to individuals. With this, what we do is we identify the types of D a person might see and maybe you've heard me mentioned before, the meaning dominance means gradients of dominance, the application of that trait doesn't always assure dominance as a pure term, for instance, you're going to find that high DS might be hostile. Now, when you hear the word hostile, I know you're probably thinking of your favorite politician, I get that you probably think maybe you're a celebrity, I get that too. But you also might be thinking of your boss. And so in this situation, hostility is simply an attribute. It's an attribute of a person exhibiting dominant trait. It's a byproduct as it were. Now, the other thing to consider is, is that we also see boldness, boldness is an absolute trait of high dominance. Now, you ever been in a room, maybe a trade show, or community event out in the channel, and you've been sitting down, maybe eating a meal and enjoying little downtime, and then somebody walks in the room? And they're talking really loudly? Hey, how's it going? It's good to see. And they're, they're almost commanding ownership of the environment. And you've probably thought before, great, there's that guy. We all know that guy, it's that guy didn't even have to have a name. It's just that guy, right? Because that person is trying to use boldness to command the environment, high D is high dominance like to do that. Even me, I'm a 96 D, that's my dominance score. 96. Now, if you don't know me, you're probably surprised. But if you know me, you're not surprised one bit. Even my camera guy is not surprised. But the thing about this is, is that the application of the dominance doesn't always guarantee that I will be bold, or that I'll be hostile, then don't get me wrong in the use of my career. Like many of us, if you had hostility as a component of your contribution, you probably grew out of that just like I did. Instead, we move towards other things that can be more useful in environment like being direct directness, as a dominant trait is a very good thing, especially in positions of leadership. One thing Alex is big on with us is that if he asked a question, give a direct answer. A lot of you may be like that you might be working with individuals that you need directness from, if you're a manager or a supervisor watching this, you might be thinking, Man, I wish I could tell my staff that well, that's what courses like this are for. And if you're an employee watching this wondering man, I didn't know what that meant when my boss said to be direct, tell it to me straight. That's what this means. Being direct has its virtue, but it also means that you have a basic expectation for seeing it return. What you put out into the world with what you get back. candies are very much that way. If they're going to be bold, if they're going to be gregarious, they're going to be direct, they kind of expect the same thing back because to them, I dominant see this as a social currency. Now again, we also see traits similar to being ecstatic or excited. Now, a lot of people know individuals who exhibit these traits, being excited being ecstatic. That's a good thing. not uncommon. But it's also a thing where you might see it in your youngster, child or adolescent, where you see this person being excited, bold, direct, well, and younger people, they're still learning themselves. And that's why when I ask, how have individuals asked me, can I disc a family member, I tell them, well, if it's a teenager, over the age of maybe 15, absolutely, because they've gotten to a point of understanding some of themselves, but you can be more mindful of how these traits play a part in their success in school. But younger killed, kids are still learning. And that's the same kind of expectation I'd give to you, for your workplaces. People who are new to the environment need to be assessed for all new hires coming in for us, we provide a disc profile as part of the recruiting process. Because as we've gone through these traits, while you might be thinking of certain individuals, when you put a mind to the voice and saying, Well, I know that person to be bold, I know that person to be excited, you might find individuals that you're trying to recruit, say, to a technical position. And you think pretty quickly, man, I don't want this trade as a tech, I don't want this trade as an accounting person. And that's where we start to see parody and identifying whether certain behavioral traits correlate directly to a person's success path inside of a job. Next, we'll discuss how disk is essentially a daily language. The neat part about applying a disc profiling protocol to your workplace. And while we've understood why certain behavioral traits have attributes, when it comes down to the day to day, we are we use a shorthand with individuals around us. And that comes from not having an easiness with the people around you, but having a sense of respect. When we feel like we don't have to be too guarded, we start almost speaking in similitudes, and sentence fragments, and you might find yourself doing it. If you're a business owner operator, or an executive watching this, think about how you engage with your leadership. Think about how you engage with your managers did you use to send long emails and now you're just sending one two sentence text messages? Are you sending less than that? brevity is seeming to change how we discuss in dialogue with people on the job. And because of that, when it comes to the dominant trait set, we need to be mindful of how DS expect to communicate. Now quite frankly, DS are pretty straightforward. And now I'm coming from personal circumstance. Remember, I'm in 9060, when people discuss with me, they need to be quick, and they need to be relevant. Now you're probably thinking for an HR guy. Sounds unusual, almost sounds like starting from a position of impatience. In fact, I'm not to me, I want to solve a problem. I want to get in the middle of it. And I actually have to fight with myself a little bit to not overstep c. d is while they do have this basic daily dialogue, and be quick and be relevant, be straightforward, be right now, there's an immediacy to the language that they speak every single day. I've even had to control this myself, it's actually been something I've worked on. And if you can identify with what I've said, you've probably done it too. As a D, we individuals, we have to try very hard not to overtalk people around us, and human resources, a core function of what I do is support individuals around me. So naturally, it's a supposition that I need to make sure that I'm listening twice as much as I talk. But they're in this time as a tidy, I always want to get to the point, I always want to get to the end result. And I want to get to a solution as fast as possible. Now mindful, while this is a daily language, there are other behavioral traits that are completely different. And every person has two very high or what you'd call prevailing behaviors, we're talking about D right now. But there may be people around you that have a supporting behavior. For instance, I'm a 96, D, my supporting behavior. My second behavior that is essentially prevailing is a 90 C. So if you think about this, if you look at the example on the screen, you're gonna see that I need people to be quick, I need people to be relevant. But I also need them to be accurate, be detailed, and also need to be listened to from time to time. So you can tell just by understanding a few nuances about this daily language, it gives you the ability to better understand where this person may best succeed, but also certain positions where they may not do very well. For instance, if you're to ask Alex hey, can Jason be in accounting? Sure, as long as he's as he's as long as he's in collections, for because to me, everything is what are you doing for me right now? What do you owe me I need to clear my books, I need to get this done. Thank heavens, I'm not an accounting. Leave that to people who are much smarter than I am when it comes to numbers. But when it comes into HR, for me, I'm all about accuracy, being direct being clear, but also being empathetic. I know my labor law, I know how things evolve, I have to keep abreast of those things, because that's my stock and trade. So as you can tell pretty quickly, disk is a daily language. And if you know how to articulate these functions, it becomes easier for you to understand how to apply it in your workplace, and even in your home environment. The next component of understanding this profiling, especially when it comes to the DEA, or the dominant trait, is understand that there are certain types of behaviors that do certain things. And certain that don't, quite specifically, the dominant trait applies to the understanding, if a person is going to be bold, engaging, daring, or garius, direct, the naturally, that's a person who drives now for reference, if you ever get in a car with Alex, our CEO, you're gonna identify that he likes to drive because to him, driving a vehicle is taking command is taking leadership, it's providing the most natural ability for him to lead as possible in that given situation. If I were in a meeting with him, he's gonna start it. Hey, guys, how's it going? What are we doing today? What's on our agenda, because he's trying to get to business by being direct, but also opening a dialogue with people around them to invite them to the conversation. See, there are certain types of people and certain types of trades out there. And these traits, like dominance, when you pair it with an eye the influence, that's a person who is geared towards driving, they're the people who are going to tell you, I know how to get to Disneyland and shut up, I know how to get there. Because they're very well attuned and knowing how to get there, maybe they've done it 100 times, or maybe they haven't, and they just don't want to show that they don't want to ask for directions. But nonetheless, your DS your dominance paired with the eyes are your drivers, they're open, they're gregarious, and I'll tell you this, you're going to find this type of behavioral trait in your outside sales professionals, your your corporate account managers who are dealing with high level accounts, even your senior project managers, you're gonna see this with people taking lead over a commanding or complex set of circumstances and trying to produce on a consistent basis. Those are your drivers and by consequence, you're going to find people who are thinkers on the other side of the spectrum, but dominant, dominant individuals, people who are exhibiting those traits are very clear about what they want. They want progress. They want to be direct. And they want to know exactly where they're at at all times. That's why dominant individuals are driven towards progress, and they expect that yield from the life around them. So now that we've learned more about this dominant behavioral trait, we need to get into some questions that are commonly asked. Big question I'm commonly asked is, how is a person learning dominance? Can you learn dominance? Can you increase your dominance? The short answer is yes, it's possible. Quite frankly, behaviors can change very quickly. For individuals who are selling people who are actually selling, have a commission based environment, people who are used to seeing the the yield of the production, those individuals can change behaviors very quickly, I've actually seen a person's disc change, their behavioral change come from a great commission, check our new truck, a new car, new house, even a new spouse. And so it comes down to it behaviors are expected to change. But that also means that we can change them to fundamentally We are the greatest force of change for our own behaviors. When it comes down to it, the dominant trait can be altered can be changed, it comes from being more decisive, being more bold, being more open, being more fun, loving, gregarious, but also being more flexible. One thing Alex would tell you, our chief executive is that he feels his dominance most when he is the most free, the most flexible, because then it's all about where are we going? How are we getting there? And so when you think about that, specifically, we are capable of changing but we're also capable of learning how to be more dominant. Now, another question I get is, how do you experience dominance? Because remember what I told you at the beginning, a lot of people here dominance, and they think of that movie more. This isn't what this is about. When you sometimes you'll hear around here we call call out each other, hey, you're being a D today, which here it's a shorthand for being a dominant. Now we're gonna say that's what it means. But I'm pretty sure you're drawing the parallel. But really, what it comes down to is, is that we're trying to tell somebody, hey, you're you're being a little bold, you're being a little this year, or as a kid say today, you're being a lot extra, you're being a little extra. What it comes down to it is is that people experience our dominance and how we throw it at them. I've told people time and time again, when it comes to conversation, especially those conversations that are already starting from a position of being a little heated. We tend to hurl words that people we tend to just throw words at them, hoping they'll catch them because that's what we want, when in fact, our dialogues would change our engagements our relationship would change significantly if, before we threw words at somebody, we wanted to say, How can I send you these words that you'll best receive them? Even myself? Hi, Deanna. Hi. See, I like to be quick to the point and articulate which means sometimes it can come across a little cold occurred. For me, I have to slow down and stop and say, okay, what's the best way I can deliver this? Let me slow down and get this done, and making sure I honor the person receiving the message. Now, another question I get, obviously is which roles do we expect to see dominance in? Well, quite frankly, you're going to see dominance almost every role, you're going to see it in sales roles, you're gonna see it in Project Manager roles, you'll see it in a lot of your leadership positions as well. It's about how that dominance is coming to contribute to your success, your business, if you're finding that attitudes, egos, if you're finding that all of these totals of these behavioral traits when it comes to dominance, if you're seeing that people are being too bold, too cold, to exact, too rushed, and how they're dealing with your customers and clients and you have a deep problem. Reach out to us, we can help you walk through what to look for and what to be mindful of because it's changeable. But we commonly find that there's a person who's de is running amok, whose dominance is being unchecked or unfettered. And once we find ways to bring that back under some semblance of control, we'll see it smooth out in the environment, that people see our dominance every day. If you're sitting in line, waiting for the line to move forward, you find yourself being in petulant or impatient, your DS coming out to play. If you find yourself being impatient in church waiting for the third hour to end, your D is coming out. Realistically, the dominant trait comes out, when we find ourselves feeling tight, constricted, or in high reservation, DS like to be open out and playing. That's what we like to see when it comes to dominance. And that's what we need, we need flexibility. Now, granted, you're probably snickering over what I just said, That's okay. Have fun with this language. Because when you can use this language, you can find better ways to apply it. Now, another way that we ask questions with this is, you know, how do we find ways to respect the DM behavior. Now, remember, I've told you before, even myself, and other people with these D dominant traits, they want to be heard, they want to be listened to, but they need to have a voice. One thing these like I told you a moment ago, D is commonly find themselves in positions of listening, waiting to talk. So if you find a D, just raising their voice, you're finding a D in distress. If a D has to yell, it's because they found no other way to convey it. And they're doing that to try to break through the white noise of the situation. Now, these are commonly misconstrued as people with high anger, they don't anger is a learned attribute behavior like this, this is a core function of a person's psychology. And so when it comes down to it, when a person is going through a respect deficit with individuals, they'll raise their voice, they'll be cold, they'll be distant. If you see a high dominant, withdrawing from an environment, not hanging out with team members not discussing things not returning emails quickly, not returning text messages concisely. And in a timely matter, that's a person who's in distress, and chances already best to open a dialog and say, hey, I've noticed something's up what's going on. Because the other thing that D likes to have is an opportunity to vent. That's why leaders need an opportunity to expound to discuss and then to lay things down. Because there's one other thing about a D that I haven't made mention of, but when I tell you this, it's gonna make a lot of sense. High dominance can be hot, fiery, one second, and then 10 seconds later, they're over it. High dominance can get very upset about something very passionate about something and then an hour later, they've almost forgotten it. Because dominance like the move from one thing to the next very quickly, high dominance don't like to hold on to things for very long, because to them, it's a weight. Remember, high dominance need progress, they need action, they need movement, they they need things happening. And all those things seem to weigh those things down, when it comes to holding on to things. So you may have to remind a dominant from once in a while what we just talked about, especially if you're a dominant watching this, you may have forgotten half of it, because you're all about the right now. But the idea is when we can identify how these traits play a part in our success patterns, we're more apt to find ways to respect them, to understand them, but also to open people dialogues, because one thing we can all count on, is that no matter what economy is around us, we are either strengthened by the people in our business, or were weakened by them. The choice and how you manage those, it's up to you. Now we've talked about today is identifying more about the D dominant trait. This profiling should be straightforward and to the point, we have disc profiling as a as a product line that you can use from us just hit up your account manager and they'll give you more information. We also have a lot of training material inside of core that goes over how to add Identify training material how to implement curriculum for your team, how to disseminate how to discern the stuff that may not be easy to do on the first go around. The concept is, if you provide a disc profile, it should provide an accurate result. Now past that the concept is to create and develop a people program where you're taking care of the individuals inside your business. This is a great way to start that conversation. empower your managers to come through this training once a year. empower your team members to come through here after they've taken a profile to better understand what they see and how they're intended to interpret it. The concept past this is to identify how we can access the best software in the world, which is our brains. It's our self as our psychology as the best software in the world. And we've earned it, we've built it, we've created it as individuals over the course of our careers. And naturally, there's a lot being gone through here. Make sure you take notes and also make sure that if you need any further help, there's a lot of resources here on core "