How wide is the gap between your intentions and your actions?

How aware are you of your hard-wired traits? Do you know when they show up and how they impact those around you?

If your next sentence starts with “I think…” then that’s just a hunch and you need to investigate further. 

Research shows that we are the most hard-wired versions of ourselves under stress. By hard-wired I’m talking about the traits and behaviors that are innately in us and remain consistent throughout a person's life, even when circumstances change. In layman’s terms, this is the mode we revert to under stress. 

As an example, a very common leadership profile in DiSC is Dominance/Influence. At a high level, people with this profile genuinely care about the people around them. They are oriented towards building relationships. And, the D tells us that this profile is very results-oriented. People often love working for D/I’s because they feel supported while being held to a high standard. 

Where things can go sideways for this profile as a manager is when they are under pressure. A manager who was previously communicative, supportive, and clear reverts to impatience, curtness, and is vague with their directives. This leaves the team feeling whiplash – unclear, and wary to follow up with their manager out of fear. 

Closing the gap between intention and behavior

This manager doesn’t mean to act like this, it’s just their hard wiring taking over. But, no matter how well-intentioned they are, there is a gap between intention and behavior that they are unaware of. And, it’s impacting the team. The truth is even that the most self-aware among us have blind spots. As a starting point to gain more clarity, I encourage clients to bring in both assessments and feedback.

Assessments 

I’m not dogmatic about assessments, but they are a great starting point b/c even if you strongly react to the report, that response is a thread to pull on. What did you agree and disagree with? Where are you confused? Where do you need more information?

The quickest way to get clarity on these questions is via feedback from those you interact with most often. 

The Power of Feedback

I am not going to lie to you and say that feedback is fun. But, if your goal is to see yourself more clearly, it’s necessary. And, it gets easier each time you do it. If you need to warm up your feedback muscles, request our guide HERE. 

Now what?

Where many people get tripped up with assessments and feedback is what to do with this new wealth of information and how to translate it into action. I love helping clients translate these findings into actionable tactics. When we do a 1 hr DiSC debrief, I ensure that they walk away with at least three tactics for managing their dominant traits and behaviors practically and daily. 

If you prefer to get started on your own, use the Traits + Behaviors worksheet to guide you here.