High I in DISC and Teamwork Weaknesses (MTDISC) - Part 2

This episode explores the common teamwork and communication challenges faced by individuals with a high 'I' personality type in the DISC model, focusing on practical strategies for improvement.

1. High 'I's often prioritize relationships over tasks, which can lead to missed deadlines and commitments.
2. Improving task follow-through and respecting deadlines is crucial for maintaining trust and respect in professional relationships.
3. Listening and paying attention to details are essential skills that high 'I's need to develop to enhance their workplace effectiveness.
4. Communicating changes in deadline expectations can prevent misunderstandings and maintain team harmony.
5. High 'I's should practice under-promising and over-delivering to improve their reliability and professional reputation.

1: Introduction and Recap

Recaps the focus from the previous episode on high 'I' personality types and introduces the agenda for improving teamwork weaknesses. Wendy Axelrod: "This week, we continue our focus on high 'I' behaviors that can undermine team success."

2: Commitment to Deadlines

Discusses the impact of missed deadlines on relationships with other DISC profiles, highlighting the importance of honoring commitments. Sarah McVanel: "Every missed deadline is like a slap in the face to your teammates."

3: Importance of Details

Emphasizes the need for high 'I's to attend to details and improve their listening skills to avoid misunderstandings and errors. Wendy Axelrod: "Paying attention to details is not just about being meticulous; it's about respecting the workflow and expectations of your team."

4: Communication Strategies

Offers strategies for high 'I's to enhance communication about deadlines and task progress, suggesting proactive transparency. Sarah McVanel: "If a deadline must be moved, communicate early to mitigate impacts on the team."

5: Conclusion and Next Steps

Summarizes the discussion and previews the next episode on the high 'S' personality type. Wendy Axelrod: "Next week, we'll explore the unique challenges and strengths of the high 'S' profile."

1. Meet Deadlines: Prioritize deadlines to maintain trust. Use reminders and alerts to keep track.
2. Detail Orientation: Practice active listening and take detailed notes during meetings.
3. Effective Communication: Always inform team members of any potential delays as soon as possible.
4. Respect Different DISC Profiles: Learn about the expectations and communication styles of other DISC types.
5. Under-Promise and Over-Deliver: Manage expectations realistically to enhance your credibility.

Part 2 of our guidance for High I's when working as a part of a team.

People

Wendy Axelrod, Sarah McVanel

Content Warnings:

None

Wendy Axelrod

Welcome to career tools. This week, the high I in disc and teamwork weaknesses, part two the questions this cast answers as a high I how might I be hurting my relationship with my team? As a high aye, what behaviours should I stop doing to improve my relationship with my teammates? And as a high eye, what behaviours should I start doing to improve my relationships with my teammates?

Sarah McVanel

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We help you find an organizational process with individual responsibilities and how your communication and behavior for the first 180 days is absolutely critical. Let us come on site to your organization to deliver our effective hiring manager training. Contact Maggie at customer serviceanager dash tools.com to learn more. Sarah, last week we asked our higheyes to focus their efforts, and I'm curious now as to how they did and if they found themselves surprised about how many tangents they go off on. This week we have four more things for them to do.

Wendy Axelrod

So we're going to start with meeting deadlines and following through on tasks. Exactly. So hi. Do what you said you were going to do when you said you were going to do it. This is probably the simplest instruction we could possibly give you.

Sarah McVanel

But somehow between your focus on people over tasks and your belief that you can bend the environment to your will, it is the hardest thing for the high eyes to carry out. Not only do we find high eyes miss deadlines and not follow through on tasks, it appears to other people that high eyes also don't care about the fact that they haven't met their deadlines or carried out any of those tasks. In fact, hi guys, let's admit it, you actually don't like. I mean, does it really matter that I met the deadline, that I did that exact thing? Either the task is really insignificant or there is more important things to do.

Yeah, all work happens on a spectrum. But here's a different way to think about it. This classic high height behavior of missing deadlines and forgetting your commitments harms your relationship with every one of the other profiles. Every time you miss a deadline with one of them, it is like slapping them in the face, quite literally, because they think differently about deadlines and commitments than you do. I would say, wendy, this is a bit of an interjection, a little bit of a segue, but it's all right.

Wendy Axelrod

Their eyes. We're good. I know they can forgive me for it. Thank you. I eyes.

Sarah McVanel

Something I've heard often of high eyes when thinking about the work itself, the incremental tasks, the deadlines for those incremental tasks is eyes often feel they've been assigned busy work, busy unimportant work, because eyes often undervalue those small incremental details. So it's not just the not following through on tasks and the not meeting deadlines for those tasks, it's the feeling that the work you've been asked to do isn't important enough for your time, which again that plays into this problem with our ability to build good relationships. So at work, the high d thinks of deadlines as the highest form of energy. Deadlines drive everything in the company. The deadline for any given task is the single most important part of that task.

So if you would just blow it off, you clearly don't care about what matters to the high d. And the. High c thinks of deadlines as part of the governance of the company. They are as inviable to her as the laws of state. So when you miss them, she would convene a judge and jury.

Wendy Axelrod

That's how important they are to her. So when you miss a deadline, that's what she's thinking, there should be a judge and jury and you clearly don't care about what matters. That's exactly it. And for the highest, a deadline is a personal agreement, it's a commitment, it's two honorable professionals shaking hands on a deal that's sacred. And you would renege on the agreement that the two of you made.

Sarah McVanel

Two, one another. Well if that's true, then you don't care what's important to the highest. And maybe that sounds like overkill for oh, I'll get you the report by a closer business today, which is a deadline. But that's not because whether it's large or small deadlines and promises to complete tasks, all of the profiles ascribe the same, meaning you are as likely to miss a big deadline as a small one. It doesn't matter whether it's I'll get you that report by the close of business or we'll finish this project to build a freeway in four years.

Wendy Axelrod

Either one you'd miss justice with the same compunction. And that's how they think about deadlines as well. It doesn't matter to our high c whether it's I'll get you that report or you miss the freeway deadline, it's still so important that it should have a judge and jury. So that's how they feel. And now if you think from their point of view about how important these things are now, can you understand why not doing what you say you're going to do gets them so upset or drives a wedge between you is just so important to a good working relationship with them.

Sarah McVanel

Mm hmm. And folks, we know that deadlines sometimes get missed if you have to be late. Just let people know. None of the profiles believe that deadlines cannot and should not be moved for fear of death. It's just the missing of deadlines.

Without communication that harms the relationship so much, other people are counting on those deadlines to be met to plan their future work efforts. And while that little deadline might not mean much to you, it's a domino effect which harms feelings and causes other people to miss their ability to meet their commitments on their deadlines. So it's just, it's a cascade of negative effects. But again, you can alleviate the entire concern with communication. Just let people know, hey, I'm not going to be able to meet this deadline.

Can we adjust? And most of the profiles, most of the time will be accepting of your need to adjust. And part of the reason you miss deadlines is because you don't know when they are. So the next category is pay attention to details, which will help you know when the deadlines are. And the only way to get better at details is to pay attention to them.

Wendy Axelrod

You have to just go through your day with an intent to be more careful about details. And it sucks. It does sucks. It just sucks. Like, sorry, but we've got some strategies for you.

Sarah McVanel

The first of them is listen more. Listen more and listen carefully. Don't get the main point and then start drifting off in your mind thinking about something completely unrelated or something that's like tangentially related but not really related. Instead, stay focused on everything that's said. Listen so closely.

It's as if you're going to have to repeat the entire conversation back verbatim after the conversation's been had. Pay attention to all the words from all the people throughout the conversation. Take notes. Taking handwritten notes helps with listening, and it also helps with remembering, even if you don't have your notes in front of you, which is why you remember what you wanted at the store. If you write a list, even if you leave the list at home, it's weird, but it does.

Wendy Axelrod

Taking notes about the details helps you get the details right. Take the notes, though. With the knowledge that you are going to have to read them again and you are going to use them to remind yourself about the details. Put the decimals in the right place. Put full names next to the actions so that you're sure what they meant when you read them again.

You have to write the notes neatly enough so that you can read them again and you can get the details from them accurately. So you have to have that intent when you start writing of I'm going to need this again, I'm going to go slowly enough that I make it so that future me can read this. Now, a nice notebook and a fancy pen will help you. It will a lot. Or there's some really cool e ink devices and everybody will ask you about them because they're that cool.

So one of those will help a lot. Absolutely. Absolutely. Additionally, take more time. Now, we know you want to move about 1000 miles an hour, but if you slow down, you'll have more time to be careful.

Sarah McVanel

Now here's the good news. Slowing down is not a problem. The high ss and cs won't even notice you've slowed down because you're essentially slowing down to what is their speed. And high DS will appreciate you getting things right the first time and not having to go back and clean them up. So you have more time than you think to get it right, even though youve slowed down.

Wendy Axelrod

Okay, ask questions and ask for help. Two things that you dont want to do. We know asking questions slows you down, so nobody wants to ask questions. But on the other hand, if you think about it, it has a twofold first, it makes other people feel important, which improves your relationship with them. And you didn't have to do anything.

Like literally, you're asking them a question to get information for them, which is beneficial for you, but it improves your relationship with them because they feel important and you didn't have to do anything. And then you get the answers you need in order to get the details right. It's like a self licking ice cream cone. It's like, wow. Exactly.

Sarah McVanel

And ask others who are good at the things that you're not so good at for help. There's no shame in asking a high c to check your work before you send it because you're pretty sure you're struggling to get the details right. Keep three things in mind to make sure that this is relationship building, not relationship destroying. So the first being tell them. You're asking them because they're good at it.

Like for example, Jim, I have to send this spreadsheet up to corporate, and I'm pretty sure there are some errors in it that I'm missing. Would you double check it for me? You're the best on our team at catching that kind of thing. Or another thing to consider, keep in mind is don't be mad. When they find errors.

They will find errors. Say thank you. Thank you, Jim. I really appreciate you covering for my weaknesses. I'm envious of your accuracy and attention to detail.

And then, of course, return the favor. There are things that you're good at that Jim isn't so good at. Offer to help, and then once you've offered to help, follow through. Something to keep in mind, though. High eyes.

Watch your personal compliments. High eyes. You love giving personal compliments. High eyes. High C's hate getting your personal compliments.

And again, you exaggerate. Right, so that's. It's a compounding problem. But don't go to Jim and say, oh, my gosh, Jim, I totally need your help. You are like the smartest person I know.

Please, please, please, can you help me? Because the moment those words come out of your mouth, Jim's gonna think to himself, you sneaky little, and he does not want to help you in that moment. Don't exaggerate. Be matter of fact in your requests for assistance. Say things that are logically accurate, not, you're the smartest person I know, rather, you're the best on our team at catching those kinds of things.

Logically accurate. Don't embellish. Yeah, this probably sounds very, very stilted to a high eye, and it is to some extent, but it's also aimed at a high c. Who is. You're right.

Wendy Axelrod

When you say to them, oh, you're the best guy I know. They're just like, yeah, no, that can't logically be true. So now I'm going to discount everything. You say, everything you say, and I don't want to help you on top of that. I'm going to do everything in my power to find a way not to help you because I don't know why you're buttering me up.

Sarah McVanel

Exactly, and I don't trust it. This is actually one of as Wendy, you know, but audience, you probably know this. We teach these conferences all over the world on communication, that the personal compliments thing is one of the single most I'm going to say, poignant, compelling, accurate details that we say in person. Because the high seas moment when everyone gets it. Oh, my gosh.

Exactly. It's like crack the world right open, cut a moment. It's just like the high seas are like, yes, please stop giving us compliments. And it's so contrary to everything in the fabric of the high eye because the high eyes, let's face it, you're wearing things to entice people to compliment you, right? Like you're wearing, like, colorful socks or like a fedora on a Tuesday.

Like, you're wearing things that actually cause other people to walk up to you and say, dude, cool hat. Yeah. Like you. You're doing things to cause people to compliment you to understand. Then there are people in the world who do not want to be complimented.

It's so contrary as to be almost unbelievable. But it's true. It is so true. Yeah. I think that it's for us as D's.

Wendy Axelrod

It's hardest to understand the s's for I's. It's hardest to understand the s. Oh, for sure. This month we have on offer a virtual EMC and a virtual eccentric. The virtual EMC starts on May 13 at 10:00 a.m..

Maggie

Eastern. And the sessions are over two weeks on zoom. ECC is one session, May 15 starting at 10:00 a.m.. Eastern. Come and learn about the Trinity or communication with disc.

Either way, we got you. Sign up at manager dash tools.com training. Okay, so now we've got some good news. You only have to do as much as you have to do. So let's explain.

Wendy Axelrod

In engineering, there is a concept of tolerance, meaning the total amount, a dimension may vary and the difference between the maximum and lower minimum limits. And you know this, you just don't know this. For example, the air conditioning in your house keeps the temperature at 70 degrees, plus or minus two degrees. And the plus or minus is the tolerance. So if it's 71 or 72, the air conditioning is still good.

But if it gets to 73, it's not working properly. So those 71, 72, that's the tolerance. And your air conditioner is thinking, okay, I have to be accurate between 70 and 72. Well, at work there's a tolerance for your accuracy too. And you only have to do as much as you have to do.

Sarah McVanel

Mhm, exactly. Like the pesky details at work have tolerances in that. If you're not in finance, then maybe tolerance for sales numbers is plus or -10% meaning if your actual sales were $500,000, any number between $450,001 and $549,999 would be accurate enough. There's room for rounding, I suppose. I was going to say room for error, but there's room for rounding.

More likely you'll have a number like $476,437, and you can just make it $500,000. And it is still accurate by definition. While you're in that situation, you don't have to go to the nth degree of detail of every single situation, because the situation here just doesn't demand it. Just go as far as you have to go and save your energy that that energy around being precise and accurate for things that require the accuracy. So your next problem of the problems that we picked out at the beginning to mitigate was unrealistic optimism.

Wendy Axelrod

And the way to mitigate that is estimate, don't guess. And you'd think that estimation and guessing are the same thing, but they're not, because what happens is unrealistic optimism means creating goals that can't be achieved. And we know you love the aphorism. Optimism is a force multiplier, and it's true. And you go around repeating it because you love it.

And at 02:00 a.m. In the war room on launch day, your energy and optimism is exactly what's needed. So it's a great motto to be living by. Mm hmm, exactly. And hi note.

Sarah McVanel

This is why when you say guesstimate, the high cs laugh at you. Because one guesstimate isn't a word, and guesses and estimates are completely different things. It's hurting you when you constantly miss targets or deadlines because you've overestimated what you or others can do. You're adding to your reputation for being unreliable. What's more, it grinds people down.

You might be able to slough it off, move on to the next most exciting idea, but other people take the loss personally. They blame themselves for missing deadlines and targets that you set, and they blame you for setting unrealistic deadlines and putting them in that position in the first place. And the more it happens, the more negative feelings build up between you. And these are feelings, again, that you're not even noticing, but are contributing to your inability to have strong relationships with colleagues. So instead of using optimism is a force multiplier as your go to motto, use this one instead.

Wendy Axelrod

Under promise and over deliver. Because you get as much, if not more, kudos for under promising and over delivering as you do for setting some outrageous target, whether you know, because what you do is set an outrageous target at the beginning of a project, get loads of kudos for it, right? And you have no idea whether you can hit it or not. And then the end of the project is a drag because you've missed it. Whereas if you under promise and over deliver, you get even more kudos at the end of the project.

Sarah McVanel

Mm hmm. That's exactly it. And stop picking a number out of thin air when you're asked to give an estimate. Instead, tell people that you're going to get back to them when you've had some time to make a considered estimate, start by overestimating how long things will take and how difficult those things are, and then work toward what you want to say as you prove yourself right. Or ask someone who's really, really good at estimating to help you.

However you got to the number, add a third every time. It is way, way better to have people annoyed that your estimates are suggestive of the fact that you're going to take too long than hounding you because the deadline's passed and you're already sick of the project, so you don't want to be working on it anymore, and it's still not done because of this estimation issue. Yeah, that would suck. Okay, interrupting. Stop interrupting.

Wendy Axelrod

And you can stop interrupting, but like talking over people and going off on tangents, you have to notice that you're doing it first. And we said, watch a recorded meeting. You watch it again, you'll see yourself interrupting. And it's almost certain that you interrupt in order to go off on a tangent. Mm hmm.

Sarah McVanel

And, you know, I know I don't even think eyes think of the times that they speak as being actual interruptions again, because eyes are comfortable with more than one person speaking at a time. So I think that's why it obscures for eyes the fact that they're interrupting at all, because they think of language. Conversation is much more fluid than that. But hi, I's. You interrupt because you're excited because you want to share an idea, because all your brain cells clang together in your brain and give you the best idea that has ever been come up with by a human being on the planet Earth ever.

But think about it. If you have the best idea ever right now, what about that best idea ever you had last week? I guess what I'm saying is it can't be the best idea ever. And that occur to you every single week in terms of ideas, keep in mind, couldn't somebody else on the team's idea be the best idea ever? And how are you even going to know if you don't give them a chance to tell you what their idea is?

How cool would it be to get excited about someone else's idea instead and. Stopping interrupting is hard. Oh, yes, absolutely. When we're in conversation, we are not really listening to the sounds of the room and the conversation and everything that's happening. We're listening to an interpretation of the sound in our own heads because there's so much going on in a room, there's so many noises that we could be hearing that our brain has to filter out a lot of the noise, otherwise we wouldn't be able to hear the things that we need to hear.

Wendy Axelrod

So it also filters out the sound of our own voice and it substitutes the things we think we're saying. So what you hear is what you're saying is what you think you're saying. And when you tune into your own voice, you will be surprised to hear the ums and ahs and so's and likes and all the verbal tics you have and how often you are talking over others. And as hard as it is to tune into your own voice, the tuning into your own voice is not enough to stop you from actually interrupting. All it does is allows you to hear.

Sarah McVanel

When you do interrupt and it's going to happen, you're not going to be able to pay attention to the voice inside your head and be so good at this immediately anyway, that you can stop yourself from saying things. You're going to say things, and that's okay. When you realize it, stop what you're saying and say, I'm so sorry I interrupted. Please finish. Don't just go ahead, because you've already interrupted anyway.

So, I mean, what does it hurt? And finish your idea. Stop talking. I'm so sorry I've interrupted. Please continue and let the other person have the floor.

Wendy Axelrod

And the other styles are not excusing you because they think you're excited. They're not excusing you because, oh, what you interrupted me to say was so cool. It was the best idea ever. It was the best story. What I was going to say was not half as much fun as what you interrupted me to say.

They think you're unprofessional and childish. They think you can't control yourself and you're rude. And what's more, they think you're being rude to them specifically so that relationship between you and them is being damaged. You're the one person on the team who wants to work with their friends, and you are going around damaging your relationship with your friends by being thoughtless. Yeah, that's exactly it.

Sarah McVanel

I think one of the saddest things that I share, Wendy, when we're doing the effective communicator conference with people is when I share with the eyes and also with the more reserved people, but share with the eyes that they would be baffled by the number of times they are having conversations with a person and are super jazzed. I mean, like, just, like, crazy excited. Like, this is the best conversation I've ever had in my whole life, ever. And the other person to whom they're speaking is just sitting there nodding and smiling and waiting for the first opportunity to leave this conversation, just thinking to themselves, literally, like, how do I get out of here? I mean, I wish there was an opportunity to get a word in edgewise here because I need to, like, get out of here.

Like, I've got a meeting. Like, I've got stuff. Like, I really don't want to be having this conversation anymore. And it's natural, right? You're having so much fun.

You are having so much fun. You can't even fathom the idea that the other people in the conversation aren't having as much fun as you. But keep in mind, communication is what the listener does. You have to tune into them. So, in summary, being a high I is not a strength or a weakness, any more than being a high d or an s or a c is a strength or a weakness.

All that label means is that we have a natural set of behaviors that may or may not support our effectiveness in any given situation. And we as human beings have the gift of being able to change those behaviors anytime we like. And since working on a team is what we all do every day, whether we want to or not, learning to recognize the behaviors that work for and against us will help us learn lessons that will allow us to have better skills and, in turn, better relationships after all. Hi. I just want to get all the work out of the way so we can all celebrate with all of our friends.

And if that's what it takes to do it, it's worth doing. Sure. Thanks, Sarah. Thank you, Wendy. That's all for this week.

Wendy Axelrod

We'll be back next week with the high s. Bye.