Building Better Teams

The Inspiring High I Personality Style

Throughout our lives, we all knew people in our school, family, neighbourhood or workplace who somehow always had almost all attention on them, and they seemed to attract it in such a natural way. They are little bundles of joy and people feel great in their company. Those people were probably a member of 25 to 30 percent of the population that gladly call themselves high I.

I’s are definitely okay with their personality. They adore being in the spotlight and just having fun all the time. To recognize a high I you should look for these characteristics:

INSPIRING: Those who can be described as a high I inspire other people and do so easily. One of the best examples of this type of behaviour is Martin Luther King Jr. A person who inspired a whole nation to do what it should have done a long time before him. And how did he do it? By having the next trait of a high I:

INFLUENCING: I’s are naturally talented in finding ways to link to people, to get others to see things their way. Every I have a unique way of showing you new angles from which you can see a problem that lies before you, and they are persuasive like no other personality.

IMPRESSIONABLE: High I love everything! Meaning, the last meal they just had is the best meal they EVER had. At least that’s what they feel at the moment, even though the feeling will disappear and be replaced with awe for another shiny object of admiration before they take that last bite.

INTERACTIVE: Engaging with others is something I’s really love. They feed off an audience so it’s common to find them among comedians (think of Robin Williams who was a perfect high I example: loves to have fun, inspired people and loved performing.)

IMPRESSIVE: When a high I’s communicate, you will notice them. Big gestures, crazy outfits, that’s their style (think Old School Elthon John). Their style of communication also makes them crazy if you isolate them. The more people you put around them, the better!

While all of these characteristics are admirable for most of us, it is not uncommon to describe a high I as illogical. And that’s where you need to be careful. High I’s do things their way and yes, sometimes they will go to the grocery store with a list of 7 things and come back with only 5, and they will have no explanation about what happened. However, it is important to understand they are easily distracted and can’t help it. The world is full of wonders and they are here to notice all of them, so in an amazing world we live in it’s illogical to expect a high I do not notice and get distracted.

It is also important that even if you feel as if you could have done a better job at a task that was given to a high I to remember that they feel the need to be liked. Regardless of the area of life where you meet a high I, if you tell them that a task could have been done in a better way, they will take it personally.

An approach that will keep them happy (and we all need them to be happy because I’s create happiness wherever they go and love to share it) is to acknowledge them. Whether that’s when they enter the room or when they are describing how they are dealing with a task. “That’s a good idea, excellent job” etc. are short sentences that will give them the boost they need and it will make them contribute more and more in a positive way.

High I entertain us and inspire us, they are bigger than life. But it is not always easy to keep up with their energy. To understand it better, you can listen to my podcast HERE where Liz Parker, certified behavioural analyst, Strategic growth consultant, and job benchmarking wiz joined me. The best part? We are both high I personalities so who better to explain what goes through high I thoughts all day long.

For more info about different DISC personality types, you can check my YouTube channel HERE or find your style right HERE.

By Alex Swire-Clark

Avoiding conflict at work by simply working (High C personality)

More or less everyone needs to have a job and earn money. Work gets you access to money, and we all need money to survive from day to day. But it’s not so easy for everyone to have that in mind eight hours a day and dedicate every moment to actual work.

However, there are employees who do that: they come to work to: work. That’s why they are there and that’s what they want to do. These employees are a beloved C personality type.

High C personality types will come to work early, clock in, sit down with their noise-cancelling headphones on and they will start and finish only when they need to clock out.

No time for chit-chat with a High C personality

High C personality types don’t mind doing any work, but only until there is a justification or rationalization for it. That means that they want to and need to know the scale of the scope. What is it that I’m trying to do? What is step one, all the way down to step 10? And why are we doing this piece of the process? And then why are we doing this next? Why are we doing this after that? All of those questions run around in the mind of a high C.

If the questions are not met with a specific answer, that’s when they will experience conflict. They will be frozen because it makes no logical sense for them to do the task.

Important step to take when a perfectionist (what a high C is!) is part of your team is to outline all the steps that they need to do. Or if they are new to the team, to outline everything they will be doing on a daily basis or what skills and knowledge will they need to use.

High C personality types really need to have clear directions, clear instructions to be able to thrive in an environment. Let them know the scope of the activities they’re going to be involved with on a daily basis, and you’re going to see high performance from those folks!

Find out more about conflict avoidance at the workplace on my Podcast HERE or watch a video on my YouTube channel.

By Alex Swire-Clark

The Dominant High D Personality Style

We all have someone at the workplace or at home who is always leading people around, asking for impossible tasks to be done or seems to never stop, right? Or maybe you have been “accused” of never taking it slow, or being aggressive all the time? All of the mentioned characteristics come from a high D personality style.

It starts with understanding ourselves first, then understanding others and finally adapting our behavior to the personality styles around us. In order to speak the same language, and you want that of course, it’s important to recognize key points of high D personality style: they are outgoing and task-oriented people.

To recognize a high D and understand them better, here are few of behaviors that you will often observe:

DOMINANT: They are bigger than life and they take charge. Reason? They want to be in leadership roles. They have too many good ideas to just follow someone else.

DIRECT: What comes to their mind, comes out of their mouth. They are not trying to be rude, but they cut to the chase and almost never waste time on any extra words. They’ve got places to be.

DEMANDING: They want what they want, when they want it. That’s the reason you can find them in managerial positions so often. High D’s are visionaries and extremely innovative. Think of Walt Disney, a guy who kept getting knocked down but never stopped until he reached his goal. Not just that, but the world he created is so innovative that there was never anyone else like him. Perfect example of a high D.

DECISIVE: If you could describe them through a phrase, it would be one of these: “Put up or shut up”, “Fish or cut bait”, “Do something or move out of the way”. In the business world, they love to get a return on investment, and they can’t have that if they are not really decisive and brave about making every decision.

DETERMINED: They are huge challenge lovers and love to win. A good example is Bear Grills or contestants of Survivor. They are wired to persevere until they achieve their goal. Generally speaking, if you want something done, give a high D a challenge and say “I don’t think you can get it done”. This will be the fuel that will push them to not stop, not sleep, not eat until they achieve the goal.

DOER: People who fall into the high D category tick a lot of boxes on a daily basis. They love to get things done during their long days. Even if you think that’s not a proper way to lead life (getting up before 5am and going to bed after 1am), you have to understand this is their natural habitat and they adore it.

Did someone come to mind while you were reading this? Or you just ticked every box next to this description thinking of your own behavior?

Whatever the answer is, it’s the correct one! The point is to be self–aware and to understand others better.

To understand high D even better, check out my Podcast about this subject to get some practical examples from the high D life and ways on how to communicate with a high D, avoid conflict or how to adapt your high D behavior so that people understand you better.

Find the podcast HERE.

To find out are you a high D, check HERE.

By Alex Swire-Clark

How do high S personality styles avoid conflict at work by helping others?

Do you have a Sally in your office? You know, just someone whose name you hear very often through the day. Usually in this manner:

– Hey Sally, can you do this for me?
– Absolutely! 100%. I got you.

Two minutes later you hear someone else going:

– Hey Sally, can you help me with this presentation to make sure everything looks good?
– Sure! Glad to help you.

It’s not about the name though. Not all Sally’s are super helpful. That person might be called Jane, or Bob, or Derek. But one thing is for sure: it’s a person you can rely on to help you at any time you need them to.

Did you ever wonder why they do that? The reason is they are building a relationship with you by helping you. The ancillary benefit to them is that they create advocates within their organization so that when stress comes along for them, they will be more likely to ask for help from others. But don’t think their help is false: they are actually super helpful and super kind. A typical example of an S personality style.

Being an S personality style is not easy, though. They so often suffer from analysis paralysis. They feel the conflict in themselves: who to help first? Where to start? I also have my things to do. How can this be solved?

If you want to “help the helper”, make sure that the S’s in your organization; whether you’re working with them, or for them, know what’s on the plates of the people that they’re working for.

It is (well, not just because of S styles) important that it is known in your department who’s reporting to who and what time they’re supposed to be doing what, what are the parameters, what’s their job description.

“Sally” in your organization will benefit tremendously from this. “She” wants to help everyone, but can’t necessarily do that all the time. Giving that little bit of clarification for that S personality style in the means of prioritization will go a long way both for them, and your team as a whole by working together. Teamwork makes the dream work, right? Cheesy? Yes, but it is true. Find out more about finding that perfect balance of having an S style finishing their job and helping others as well HERE in my podcast, or on my YouTube channel.

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By Alex Swire-Clark

How Can High I Styles Avoid Conflict At Work?

How do High I styles avoid conflict at work? By getting their party on of course!! Check out this week’s podcast to find out more and help your High I styles be successful!!

Building Better Teams

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