Have you ever tried to explain or present your point of view and end up with confusion and or frustration? This may have something to do with the communication comfort zone you are in. You may be communicating how you would like to be spoken too. Not the words, per-say but the approach that you are using. Most everyone has had heard the term know your audience, well I want to share how I have learned to take this concept to a whole new level. Last month, I just finished up a course to become a DISC certified trainer. DISC is a behavior assessment tool based on the DISC theory of psychologist William Marston. It centers on four different behavioral traits, which today are called: dominance, influence, steadiness, and compliance. His method has been applied in business for many years and is used as a way of identifying predictable actions and personality traits within human behavior.
I learned about DISC as I was taking my coaching training and fell in love with it. This has led me to want to increase my knowledge and experience with it so I can share with my coaching clients. What I have found, is it has helped me to identify the “communication comfort zone” of others I work with and increase my overall effectiveness with connecting with them.
Let me share an example of how this became an ah-ha for me. A colleague and I were putting together a training agenda for an upcoming meeting. She had also been through the DISC training and was familiar with how to stretch and become aware of others and their comfort style when working. I am notoriously a careful planner and like to address things on a linear level. First we figure out step 1, then step 2, then step 3 and so on. She on the other hand was more of a creative thinker and loved to jump around from step to step with complete disregard to how I wanted to do it. Honestly, we were spinning through our planning with no progress at all and both become very frustrated. As I was killing her creativity, she was making me a nervous wreck being so frivolous with our precious time. (Have you ever experienced a meeting like this?) I bet you have!
I am not sure exactly what triggered it, but we both stopped at the height of our frustration and took a deep breath and laughed out loud. She exclaimed “Oh this is your C personality coming out” and I said, “Yep, and this is your I”. After the sweeping wave of relief, we were able to adjust our comfort zones to be more accommodating with each other knowing that if we can both be on purpose with our communication with each other, we can maximize our time together and dare I say even enjoy and appreciate what the other brought to the table.
This is just one example of many benefits that understanding DISC has helped me to connect with another. If you are interested in taking your own DISC assessment and learning more about your communication comfort zone and how to identify others, contact me today.
Intentional Coaching 