What are Personality Styles?

Personality styles are the language of observable behavior. If you took a moment (or a few hours) to "people watch," observing how people behave in a given situation, you would see personality styles in action.

In the course of your daily experiences, you will encounter a variety of personality styles that will have an impact on how you act and make decisions. As you begin to observe your friends, family members and co-workers, you will see different personalities unfold right before your eyes.

All personality styles are a combination of the four core styles.

WHY ARE PERSONALITY STYLES IMPORTANT?

Become A Better Communicator

It is terribly difficult to get along well and communicate well with people you don't understand. You will often misinterpret another person's actions or words. You will sometimes get frustrated with those whose personalities are opposite of yours. Once you understand how to determine another's personality style, you find the key to unlock better communication. It's simple: if you want to get along with the person who is forceful and direct, be forceful and direct with him/her. If you want to communicate better with the person who is friendly and optimistic, be friendly and optimistic with him/her. If you seek to be understood by the person who is patient and practical, be patient and practical with him/her. If you want to reduce conflicts with the person who is precise and analytical, be precise and analytical with him/her. Remember — you must allow your personality style to be flexible. Before you can modify your behavior to another person's personality style, you should spend time OBSERVING that person, looking for certain characteristics such as people interactions, verbal cues, body language, and living/work-space qualities.

Resolve or Prevent Conflicts

When you understand why someone did or said something, you will be less likely to react negatively. An awareness of another's underlying motivations can allow you to diffuse problems before they even start. For example, when you are out dining with a few friends and one individual constantly makes all the decisions for the group, do you get offended? Maybe, you would rather have the group discuss the options rather than have one person making all the decisions. In fact, you really don't care where you eat, you just want to enjoy the company of your friends. When you realize the person making the decisions is a high D and you are a high I, you can adjust your expectations of them accordingly — after all, he/she is interacting with you just as you would expect a high D to do.

Appreciate the Differences in Others

You know that all people are unique, but sometimes you become frustrated with those who don't quite fit your communication style. Maybe your friend is analytical and wants all the facts, while you just want him/her to care about your idea. If you understand that he/she is a high CD, and you are a high SI, you really can't expect much more from him/her. Knowing this, you can appreciate his/her style and then give him/her all the facts you can muster.

Gain Credibility and Positively Influence Others

Every interaction you have with others either increases or decreases your credibility and influence. Have you ever met a person who won't stop talking about himself/herself? When you see him/her coming, do you dread the interaction? If so, that's because his/her behavior has caused him/her to lose credibility with you. Conversely, a person who you can't wait to see has gained credibility with you and deserves your time. By knowing another's personality style, you can immediately gain credibility and influence by adapting to his/her style.

The DISC System

The DISC system of assessing personality characteristics is based upon the work of Dr. William Marston, one of the leading psychologists of the twentieth century. Dr. Marston extensively studied the characteristics, patterns and responses of thousands of individuals; and wrote The Emotions of Normal People as a result of his efforts. Based upon his incredible insights into the world of characterizing individual responses to their environment, Dr. Marston was able to develop a machine which was capable of measuring human response to various internal stimuli — the polygraph machine, more commonly known as the “lie detector.”

Scores of individuals have built upon the works of Dr. Marston over the last half-century. Of these, one of the foremost is Dr. Sanford Kulkin, Founder and President of the Institute for Motivational Living. Dr. Kulkin has invested a quarter century to the development of strategic applications for DISC materials in business and interpersonal relationships, and simplifying the DISC materials so as to put their power into the hands of laymen. Understanding human behavior and identifying patterns and preferences has given our consultants insight into successful strategies. The impact of these strategies extends well beyond a simple training or educational program into a life-long learning experience. Consultants and trainers from the Institute frequently travel to client sites both in the United States and abroad. Dr. Kulkin has surrounded himself with professionals who share his passion for “individual ownership of corporate goals.” He and his staff bring decades of executive-level and technically accomplished experience to the table, assisting clients by the creation of specialized tools and on-going processes that are assimilated into educational and corporate cultures. The Institute has developed and published several copyrighted psychometric materials that have been successfully used to develop and train a vast range of individuals in relationship and educational skills.

The DISC insights™ software from which this report was created is among the latest of these materials, and represents the cutting edge in the interpretation of individual responses to the DISC profile. It provides for the greatest depth of analysis of individual responses to the DISC profile instrument, leading to the most accurate, in-depth conclusions available. However, it is important to understand that this publication is based upon the responses entered by the subject, and is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter. It is distributed with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional psychological services. If expert assistance is required, the advice of a professional, competent person should be sought.

©2001 The Institute for Motivational Living, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2002-2012 Saga Stevin. All rights reserved.
Success Strategies International, Inc.
Email: Sagastevin@aol.com
Telephone: (612) 251-5187

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