Go read that if you haven’t yet. It’s all there. Done? Great.
Let’s continue.
As I was saying, we spoke about DISC profiles. Some people are Dominant, some are Influencing, some others are Steady, and finally, some more are Compliant.
That’s a little simplified, but should be good enough for us, as long as you remember that it’s really a spectrum and not absolute labels.
This is all great fun, but how do you know what type of person you’re talking to?
Typically, you take a test.
You can find them online, and they’re more or less reliable. You answer a bunch of questions, by scoring them (1 – not like me at all, 5 – very much like me), or by selecting the option you feel more aligned with you among a few choices. You then submit the test, in some cases pay a small fee, and you get a report with your “personality profile”.
That’s all very nice, but it’s pretty unactionable if you ask me: how often would you go to someone in a meeting and ask them to take this quick test before you can start discussing their plans?
Yeah, I thought so.
Well, turns out there’s a reasonable approximation that lets you infer the profile of someone by observing them and taking into account a fairly small amount of information.
Here’s how it works.
Extraversion
First, you want to assess roughly where the person you’re looking at stands on the extraversion dimension.
Now, let’s be clear: introverted people are not necessarily shy or unsocial. Extraverted people are not necessarily brash party goers and socialites.
Technically, extraversion is about how strongly someone reacts to positive emotions and social situations. Extroverts enjoy joyfully the “fun”, while introverts need less stimulation to be at ease, and too much will overwhelm them.
The practical implication of that is the well known, “extroverts gain energy through social interactions, introverts expend energy through social interactions”. However, that doesn’t mean extroverts can’t be alone or introverts can’t go to parties.
So, you can’t really assess extraversion just by saying “this person talks to lots of people or not”.
Here are some signs you can use though. One caveat though: each of these signs by itself is not very significant. If you find clusters of them, and repeated behaviours though, that’s a better indicator.
How do they interact with larger groups of people vs. one on one?
Extroverts interact with groups more easily than one-on-one, and viceversa for introverts.
Note however that this is a relative sign: it’s how they behave in one situation relative to the other, not relative to other people.
How do they prefer to learn?
Extroverts tend to prefer learning by doing: they try things and iterate on their mistakes. They experiment and poke around, especially with their peers.
Introverts prefer to learn by watching others, reading the theory, and try out what the learned by themselves.
Where do the prefer to work?
Extroverts on average like open space work more. They’re going to prefer, say, working in a Starbucks with all the voices and noises.
Introverts generally will prefer proper isolation, headphones on, personal offices, work from home with peace and quiet for maximum focus.
Task or People orientation
The second dimension you want to assess is around being people oriented or task oriented.
This is about what makes people tick more: is it social connection or tinkering with things? Is it building relationships or building widgets?
You can sense this in various ways, though it might be subtle.
Task oriented people tend to focus on the task at hand, while people oriented people tend to prioritise the people doing the task. For example, task oriented managers will more likely celebrate the successful release of a feature, while people oriented managers will celebrate the great work the amazing team did.
Again, this is often nuanced and subtle, and you should look for confirmation and clusters.
Putting it all together
Ok, this whole thing sounds harder than it is, with a little practice.
Now that you know if your buddy is an extrovert or an introvert, and people or task oriented, here’s what you do. Easy peasy.
you get your DISC disk.
| D | I |
| C | S |
The vertical axis is your extrovert – introvert spectrum. Up near the top is extroverts, down near the bottom is introverts.
The horizontal axis is your task – people spectrum. Left is task oriented, right is people oriented.
So, extroverts who are task oriented are DISC Dominants, people oriented extroverts are Influencers, people oriented introverts are Steady, and introverted task oriented people are Compliant.
For example, I am fairly people oriented and definitely an introvert. So I’m Steady. Which totally fits with my profile.
What’s yours?
Tomorrow, we close up this with how to interact and manage each profile. Hope to see you then!