Dealing with people. We all want to be better with people. Every day we interact with them and our lives revolve around the people we know, like and trust and the people that know, like and trust us.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could be better with our relationships long or short term? We study for school grades, we study for a good job, we take training at work for a better position and we even spend money (sometimes too much) on training for business. When was the last time we all took a little time with the fundamentals: dealing with the people we interact with every day?

People respond best to similar types. Opposites DO NOT attract. There was a study done with 19 men and 21 women that all watched video clips of six women. They were first asked to determine the featured women’s mood or feeling based on their facial expressions. Then they were asked, who out of those six women would they like to meet in real life. They found that, the better the subjects were at determining the mood of the women in the videos, the more they wanted to meet. People like what they know so much that sometimes our spouses end up being terrifyingly similar to our parents.

If we can identify basic personality types and recognise them well, we can use this knowledge to cater our actions or treatment toward them and be more relatable to steer the interaction in our favor. Or in other words, we can be better known, liked and trusted.

Quick back ground info:

William Moulton Marston was born in 1893. He was a phycologist who invented these four personality traits with the theory that everyone has each trait in them at different levels, one being dominant, and having some sort of levels of the others. It came to use in the courts and legal system and evolved later when he got into the study of will and sense of power. This led him to be an author of many self-help books and contribute in inventing the polygraph test. He even applied this theory in the early 1900’s in the real world at Universal Studios to encourage more audio, natural gestures and facial expressions in movies.

Get this, W.M. Marston even created the character Wonder Women.

Now let’s talk about the 4 types of personalities.

Pick three people and think of them as you read. Think of someone you spend a lot of time together with, someone you do a lot of business with and lastly, yourself.  Try and identify what types of people they all are. This can let you discover ways to communicate better, reasons for why you click so well, or why you are attracted to certain others.

The four types are Dominance, Influence, Steady and Compliant. Or D.I.S.C.

Now lets see a break down in these traits.

DOMINACE

• Priorities: Getting immidiante results, action taking, challenging self and others
• Motivated by: Power and authority, competition, winning, success.
• Fears: Loss of control, being taken advantage of, vulnerability
• You will notice: self-confidence, directness, forcefulness, risk-taking
• Limitations: lack of concern for others, impatience, insensitivity

INFLUENCE

• Priorities: Expressing enthusiasm, taking action, encouraging, collaboration
• Motivated by: social recognition, group activities, friendly relationships
• Fears: social rejection, disapproval, loss of influence, being ignored
• You will notice: charm, enthusiasm, social, optimism, talkative
• Limitations: Impulsiveness, disorganization, lack of follow through

STEADY

• Priorities: Giving support, maintaining stability, enjoying collaboration
• Motivated by: stable environments, sincere appreciation, cooperation, opportunities to help
• Fears: Loss of stability, change, loss of harmony, offending others
• You will notice: Patience, team player, clam approach, good listener, humility
• Limitations: Overly accommodating, tendency to avoid change, indecisiveness

COMPLIANCE

• Priorities: Ensuring accuracy, maintaining stability, challenging assumptions.
• Motivated by: Opportunities to use expertise to gain knowledge, attention to quality
• Fears: criticism, slipshod methods, being wrong
• You will notice: Precision, analytical, skepticism, reserved, quiet
• Limitations: overly critical, tendency to over analyze, isolates self

Now that you have read through, who did you think about most while reading? Maybe that will tell you more about yourself and your personality type.

Marston said that we have levels of all of these traits in us. Look below to see the blended traits and what lies in-between.

Now get to know them well. D.I.S.C.

Make it a practice to identify what quadrant people we interact with are so you can “talk their language” and

MAKE EVERY HUMAN INTERACTION FAVORABLE.

“It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.” Sun Tzu

Brendan