Using DISC at home

Picture the scene…a young boy staring at the cover of an LP (Long Playing Record), yes we are in the times of pre-downloads, before CD’s and even cassettes were a thing of the future!  The cover of the LP displayed a beautiful beach with large palm trees and the waves crashing upon the golden sand.  This is the magical islands of Hawaii and the album, as they were known then, was packed with the sounds of Hawaiian guitars, and tropical birds were flown in to add to the whole ambiance of the music too!  My parents had bought this record for themselves and I would play it over and over again, Elvis, Cliff Richard, even the Beatles stayed at the back of the record rack.

You may be wondering at this point, what on earth this has got to do with DISC!  Well, I’m an Influencer so stories are my thing plus that record led to me dreaming of travelling to those magical islands.  As an Influencer dreams come naturally but without the Dominant and Conscientious elements the dream could have remained just that, a dream.  Well, as the years moved on the fascination with Hawaii and the other 49 States of America grew.

Fast forward about 20 years and now the young boy is a 30 year old man who has realised that going to Hawaii doesn’t need to be just a dream and now the Dominant part of my personality is saying “let’s do it now!” In fact the dream was now to visit all of the 50 States of America.  So, being an Influencer, I started with…..Florida which is about 4,600 miles off target!  For the next few years I randomly picked States which sounded interesting; Massachusetts, Tennessee, Virginia and several more.  Then I learnt about DISC profiling and understanding how planning, for an Influencer, is not a natural trait and has to be developed.  I realised that with a bit of planning both geographically and financially the dream of visiting all 50 states was achievable.

So we arrive at 2017 and the young boy is in his mid-fifties and has now ticked off 43 States. In October this year a further 4 states will be completed.  By 2019 all 50 states will have been achieved, the thing is, though, if I had focussed on using my Dominant and Conscientious traits I would have achieved it much sooner, oh well that’s hindsight for you!

So what about using DISC to transform relationships and ensure our home life is happy and successful?  I love having a career and working at MarketMakers but I never forget that many of the things I do at work are all part of the bigger picture…Life and all it throw at us!

Having a great career and a wonderful relationship, for many, is the ultimate goal and DISC can be used very effectively to do just that. At the heart of everything is communication and DISC will always help understand how to do this and ensure that if we are to achieve our dreams, inside and outside of work then the different profiles may go about things in different ways, but, ultimately using our DISC profile will make it happen.

The first thing about DISC in relationships is that, quite often, you will have a combination of DISC profiles and this means the potential of the relationship is increased.  We need to be mindful that this might mean it could mean that in a relationship you might have different agenda’s, goals or methodology’s.  So long as you know the profile you can be aware of this and turn it to an advantage.  I started with holiday’s so let’s stay with that and think about going two people on holiday…

It is likely to start with the Influencer as they are the dreamers and will have a great idea about where to go.  Meanwhile the Dominant person in the relationship will be the driving force to make this happen and are likely to be the practical one who will be thinking about how we are going to afford this.  The Conscientious one in the relationship is going to be the planner.  This will include flights, trips and savings.  Not forgetting the Steady profile as they will be the ones making sure that everybody is happy and that all the important things like Visa’s, suntan lotion and aspirin (for hangover’s) are not left at home.

So, you can see that each profile has a part to play – the key is understanding that each profile is likely to go about things with a different approach and style.  There are two ways of looking at this; the first is that if the relationship and the task of daily life is going in opposite directions and doing things differently this likely to cause a disconnect whereas if those differences are recognised and embraced then the relationship will be far more successful and the capacity to achieve things together is greatly enhanced.

Through the years within my circle of friends I have noticed that, interestingly enough, quite often you see the combination of DISC profiles pairing up, as opposed to, all the Dominant’s or Steady guys getting together.  Perhaps there is a lot to say about the phrase of “opposites attract”?

So, here is an overview of what each for the DISC profiles can bring to a relationship:

You can see when you look at this table, if you have all these components within a relationship you have the capacity to achieve much and have a wonderful alliance of behaviours and traits.

And if you wondering if I did ever get to Hawaii – the answer is “yes” and it was amazing!

See you next time…Hang loose and Aloha dudes!

Tags: blog, DISC, DISC Profiling