Do you move toward or away from problems, people, pace or procedure?
We all have natural tendencies in how we lead in local government. There are four important words that will provide insights into how you lead that all point to your overall DISC personality type. DISC is a personality assessment that helps you better understand your natural style and how your style can be an asset or sometimes lead to unhealthy leadership.
The four words are: Problems, People, Pace and Procedure
Problems: Every leader encounters problems. But how we approach them varies greatly. Do you naturally move toward problems to resolve them or do you move away from problems? Maybe you hope they'll diminish or resolve themselves. But D-style personality types naturally move toward problems. They like addressing problems directly. But if you don't naturally move toward problems (as another style), you may want to consider a more assertive stance toward problems. As we all know, unaddressed problems usually don't get better.
People: Other leaders move toward people. They naturally gravitate to others and enjoy engaging with them. These leaders usually keep their office doors open as they like to talk to and get to know others. If you score high on the I-Style portion of DISC, then you are considered a high-I and are drawn to people. If you score low in this area, you may want to think about connecting more with others on your team. By not connecting to people in a relational way, you may not build the kind of trust you want on your team.
Pace: The pace of local government changes a lot. At times the pace may be moderate or slow and at others, the pace may be fast and furious. Your ability to adjust to and thrive in a high change of pace environment will tell you if you are a S-style leader or not. If you are high in the S-style, you have a more difficult time with change of pace, but if you score low, you have little issue with changing pace. As a leader, you must be flexible to changing speed and pace otherwise progress can be thwarted, delayed or missed.
Procedure: Because of the nature of local government there is usually a lot of procedure. Most of it is necessary and in other cases perhaps your team may not be entrepreneurial enough and they may rely on process too much. But in any case, as a leader you either move toward procedure and embrace it or you tend to move away from it. If you are a D-style or I-style you may find your score low in this area. But all leaders need a certain concern with procedure as it is often the source of quality, order and stability.
Being a balanced leader and being open to 'moving towards' areas that are not natural for you is vital. Well rounded leaders have some degree of appreciation to all four styles and know when to invest in each of these four areas to be most effective.
Take a free DISC assessment and then download your personalized DISC report.
If you want your team to grow in this area, we would enjoy speaking to you around our innovative and affordable leadership workshop program. You can email [email protected] or call 678-833-4310.
