How the Behaviors of DISC are Destroying Business

In my last article on this subject, we identified how the “D” (Doer) and the “C” (Compliant) personality traits are negatively impacting leadership in business. In this article, we will deal with the fact that the “I” (influencer) and “S” (Steady) are doing the same.

Before I get into the problems associated with these leadership behaviors, allow me to preface this by declaring the importance of these various personality traits. They have their place in leadership, and we do not aspire to change who people are. However, our research has discovered that leading exclusively from who and what we are is not the way to create sustainable success within the structure of a team. That said (written), on we go!

Influencer

The “Influencer” and the “Doer” are both extroverted personality types. Their temperaments are Choleric (the Doer), and Sanguine (the Influencer). They are both very strong personality types with the Choleric/Doer being the most bold and audacious of the two. The Sanguine/Influencer is also bold but is very charismatic. These folks are the party people; the individuals who have never met a stranger, so they are typically best in sales positions. The behavioral flow for the “influencer” looks like this:

Extroverted/ Sanguine/ Charismatic

To get the broader picture of these flow charts, see my first article on this subject by clicking here.

So how does this type, temperament and behavior negatively impact business. First, can we agree that true and effective leadership is all about the followers and their needs? Personality leadership suggests that a leader leads out of the natural tendencies of his or herself with the spoken, or unspoken, proclamation that “this is who I am; take it or leave it”. The greatest leaders among us work very hard to discover what their followers need from them, then provide that kind of expression and action, or lack of expression and action if the situation calls for it.

Influencers are very much “out there” with their character and expressions. They are, generally speaking, a lot of fun to be around but this can be too much for the introverted followers who are extremely uncomfortable with large amounts of energy in a small amount of time. Additionally, they can be so enthusiastic about a plan, solution, or challenge, that they overwhelm their introverted counterparts who need more time to process the problem, not to mention processing the sudden solution that was just exploded in front of them like a gender reveal party favor. Boom, there it is!

Influencers, or as we call them ESC (extroverted/sanguine/charismatic) leaders, can be superficial in their relationships. This is not to suggest that they are in artificial friendships; it is better said that they have so many acquaintances that they simply cannot invest a fair amount of quality time into any of them. It is equivalent to the idea of doing a few things and doing them well rather than taking on a ton of tasks and not doing any of them well. In a leadership context, the charismatic leader can struggle with empowering followers out of fear that he or she may create such fantastic workers that they will one day leave the organization to go on to bigger and better things for them. Charismatic leaders do not like the thought of losing followers, they relish the reality of maintaining a large number of followers. Relative to the failure to empower is the failure to cast vision into the hearts of each follower. The reason for this is due to the fact that many ESC leaders live in the moment which lowers their ability to be visionary. Now, to be fair, most extroverts are better visionaries than introverts, but their downfall is that they fail at transmitting that vision to the point of radically inspiring a follower to see a better future for themselves, whether it be with the leader or somewhere else. They can articulate the vision, which more than likely involved only THEIR ideas but they are also vague with the details. They can get people to follow but they struggle at getting them to lead. Why? Leading is their position to hold and following is everyone else’s.

Many ESC leaders fail at dealing with serious problems within a business due to their often subconscious need to be accepted by their peers. Of the leadership behaviors equivocated with DISC: Laissez-faire, Bureaucratic, Charismatic and Autocratic, there is yet another that is also directly tied to the sanguine temperament and that is Transactional Leadership. Transactional leadership shares both the Phlegmatic (Bureaucratic) and the Sanguine (Charismatic) temperaments, which I will deal with next. But for now, it is important to understand how transactional leadership is connected to the influencer (Extrovert/Sanguine/Charismatic).

A dimension of transactional leadership is the willingness on the leader’s part to compromise values in order to motivate a stuck worker. This compromise is a form of transaction and can lead to some very dangerous relationships in the working environment. The negative impact is that the worker now has leverage when the next problem hits and conflict takes place between leader and follower. There will be an expectation that the leader will compromise for the worker to move forward, again. The same principle is why the U.S. does not negotiate with terrorists; you do it once then they will always expect it.

This may work for the moment but there will ALWAYS come a time when giving cannot be done but expectations must still be met. Unfortunately, at this point in the leader/follower relationship, it will be too late. The result is that the leader has only attempted to inspire a worker to effectiveness rather than transform worker weakness. If the influencer only continues to influence rather than transform, then this leader will one day find himself or herself leading someone who wants more than just a big smile and a shiny reward.

Steady

The “S’ in Disc stands for Steady and is an introvert who is very comfortable with status quo. Many leaders today know that there is little room for “the way we’ve always done things” but these leaders are nevertheless comfortable the familiar. We call them the IPB leaders or Introvert/Phlegmatic/Bureaucratic leaders.

To begin, let me revisit the transactional aspect to this leader. The IPB functions as a transactional leader insomuch as he or she will lean heavily on incentive to inspire a struggling worker. Again, this may work in the moment, but studies show that leaders who abandon the incentive program and create a culture of empowering, decisiveness and creativity do far better than organizations who bribe their workers with year-end or quarter-end bonuses. When times are lean and finances are tight, will those workers still produce? Likely not; they have been conditioned to follow the money rather than be committed to the dream.

The “Steady” leader is a leader who will point toward the rules and policy when it comes to solving problems and overcoming obstacles. For example, let’s say a worker is trying to solve a problem and finds a method that is new and certainly goes against SOP. The IPB leader will not be comfortable with the new and creative idea and will instruct the worker to fall in line with company policy. Steady means bureaucratic and bureaucracy is the enemy to creativity.

This type of leadership is oppressive for two reasons. First, as the IPB leader expresses transaction, he or she fails to find the key to elevating the struggling worker since he or she is simply throwing money at the problem; it does not create leaders, it only solidifies the position of follower. This is a problem. After all, is not the job of a leader to recreate leaders?

The second reason this leader is a problem is due to the fact that introverts, especially the bureaucratic leader, is overly analytical. This over analyzing has nothing to do with analyzing the solution to ensure success; it has everything to do with finding reasons why the new idea will fail. This will most certainly discourage followers and elevate employee turnover.

The reality of all four DISC types is that the behaviors associated with them...

Doer- Autocratic

Influencer- Charismatic/ Transactional, compromising

Steady- Bureaucratic/ Transactional, incentive

Compliant- laissez-faire

…all have some adjusting to do when it comes to leading others more effectively.

Counterintuitive leadership, which is supported by seven competencies…

Empathy, Assuring, Spiritual, Decisive, Creative, Empowering, Visionary

…do not work well with personality leadership. These competencies are negatively affected by the DISC behaviors because undisciplined leaders lead from what is natural or comfortable to them. There is a technique used in many contexts to move an individual to a particular point. This technique is called “mirroring” and it is a powerful tool taught by many leadership gurus of today including one Tony Robbins. The premise is this: Simply be for your follower what THEY need you to be rather than who you are.

If a strong autocratic leader is dealing with an introverted, laissez-faire follower then it is the leader’s responsibility to move to where the follower is. She needs to step back and approach the follower more laissez-faire rather than autocratically and visa-versa. Many leaders fail miserably here because they carry the attitude that “if they [workers] want to benefit from the company then they need to work hard to get to where I am.” This attitude is more from the extrovert than the introvert. Introverted leaders frustrate extroverted followers due to their extremely slow paced and fear of risk.

Success never stands on the mountaintop screaming instructions on how to get up there. NO! It is getting beneath your workers and becoming a foothold for them to achieve their own success according to their own abilities.

Leader, make your team great! Don’t hire and send the message that greatness is expected or you’re out.

You can learn more about our philosophy of leadership by purchasing my book.

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Dr. Mike Rhodabarger| CEO

ExecuSpect Leadership Development