Increasing self-awareness: how understanding our personality profile can act as a catalyst for change

It’s been a whole month since I attended training by The Coaching Academy on personality profiling using DISC. Since then, I’ve completed my own profile and started to think in more depth about how I will use DISC in my coaching work. When I had the training day to gain my DISC certification, I ended up in a flummox (technical term!) as to where I would sit on the profile as the basic profiles had me down as a little bit of everything. It's always worth investing in an in-depth profile rather than relying on a short online quiz.

Why use personality profiling?

If you’ve ever worked in a corporate setting, you’ll likely have come across some type of profiling tool, with Myers-Briggs and DISC being two commonly used profiling types. Through answering a series of questions, usually based on a ranking system, a profile or type can then be pulled from which our preferences can be output. Preference is the key word to use here, those which we naturally tend towards or prefer; it does not imply that we can’t inhibit or demonstrate other characteristics. Likewise, it doesn’t mean we can’t adapt or change our style.

Having a report or profile to work with can heighten our self-awareness. If we are more aware of our natural style we can learn to harness our strengths and develop our weaker areas. As I read my own report I had many “lightbulb” moments. “Oh of course, that is absolutely correct”. Furthermore, when used in team environments we can not only understand our own preferences but the preferences of others. We can both harness the strength of individuals in the team and adapt our style to others.

In the coaching room profiling is useful in supporting a client through their development areas, aligning their goals to their strengths to help them to lead a more fulfilling life. From the coach’s perspective it can help me to better understand my client and their way of thinking, feeling and doing so that I can support them in the most effective way during coaching sessions.

What is DISC Personality Profiling?

In my work I use the DISC profiling tool with my clients as it’s conceptually easy to understand and there’s now a fair bit of literature that’s been produced for the mass audience such as Thomas Erikson’s “Surrounded By Idiots”. The tool situates itself around two axes; task orientation vs people orientation and whether someone sits more extroverted or introverted.

1.     Task vs People Orientation

Do you always take tasks and follow them through? Do you like order, process and procedures? Or do you lean more towards others and focus on connection? Do you easily build rapport and have the support of others? When I received my own profile, it revealed that I have a preference for a people orientation but with a large side of detail, planning and task completion. This is where my own DISC “blend” was really created, which I’ll touch on later.

2.     Extroversion vs Introversion

Are you the life and soul of the party? Do you always volunteer first? Are you energised through being around people and willingly share your thoughts, feelings or opinions? If so you probably tend towards extraversion. If you feel drained by social connection or large groups and busy spaces you probably lean more towards introversion. On this scale I mostly led towards introversion, I prefer smaller deep connections with a few than being at a busy bar or being life and soul of the party. That doesn’t mean I’m not extroverted in these circumstances but that I am very much drained after these types of activity and need to sit in a cold, dark room for a while after to recharge the batteries

3.     The DISC Model

DISC has 4 main categories, however, as I discussed above we are all a unique blend. Below I will outline some of the unique characteristics of each segment. What do you recognise in yourself?

D – Dominance

Those with a high D preference are very driven individuals who operate in a very direct, decisive and dominant way. They are interested in the bottom line and care little for detail often focussing on the bigger picture. They are very driven and determined and can often be seen as competitive.

I – Influence

Those with a high I style are great sellers; they are inspiring, imaginative and very influential. They love to have fun while working and can provide creative solutions through out of the box thinking. They act on impulse rather than careful planning and are highly impressionable.

S – Steadiness

Those with a high S style love to build deep connection with individuals. They are steady, supporting and seen as stable in a friendship group. They can be sensitive to criticism and value security often following the status quo. They are very sincere and have a tendency towards risk aversion.

C – Conscientiousness

Those with a high C style are very precise, careful and competent. They follow the rules and are very compliant choosing to follow tried and tested methods. They are very consistent in their approach and can act with caution. They care more about the task at hand than the team they’re working with and have high quality outputs!

4.     What I learnt from my own profiling

Prior to doing the training and even on doing the training itself I was pretty sure I would tend towards extraversion and blended myself as an I or a D. However, on discovering that I was an SC blend (i.e. the polar opposites) on reflection I can understand that while I love people and socialising, I do also hate large crowds, busy pubs and quite frankly staying up after 10pm! I also need downtime after a social event to decompress and can happily entertain myself for hours on end and not feel bored.

The biggest thing I noticed about my preferences are the words that come out that featured a lot in my school reports. Conscientious, diligent, neat, sensitive, compliant, supportive. I never broke a rule at school (that’s my C at play) but had a strong friendship group and was a go-to for support from being very young (you guessed it, the S). I was also quiet at school, but quietly confident too – an inner strength of the S type. Oh, and I absolutely hate conflict and don’t really like change all that much either.

Receiving my own 15-page profile was so insightful. It was like someone had written it based on my life. Really understanding my own preferences and drivers will inevitably help me as I think about my own brand, business and value I bring. When I have creative ideas I’ll follow them through by having a detailed action plan to follow. When I work with clients I’ll come from a place of warmth and empathy. It’s also shown me where I can develop, and my favourite client question of “what can I borrow from another style to make myself even better?” will be one I ask myself frequently too.

Curious about your own style? Want to know more?

If this article has piqued your interest I can recommend the following books:

 Surrounded By Idiots – Thomas Erikson

Taking Flight! – Merrick Rosenberg and Daniel Silvert

If you’re interested in profiling yourself or your team members and having a follow up coaching session please email hello@katherineholdstockcoaching.co.uk to arrange a discovery call. Bespoke packages currently available to suit your needs.