How To Manage Up
(𝘖𝘙 𝘏𝘖𝘞 𝘛𝘖 𝘋𝘌𝘈𝘓 𝘞𝘐𝘛𝘏 𝘈𝘕𝘕𝘖𝘠𝘐𝘕𝘎 𝘉𝘖𝘚𝘚𝘌𝘚!)
A funny thing happened during one of my discovery coaching sessions the other day.
Zoom appointment all set up, I had an outline of the client’s background and experience – Senior Manager in a large organisation, with excellent global experience and I assumed that they had an excellent career path ahead. Immediately I started to speculate about the various Leadership programmes I could discuss to propel them from great to excellent. However, the chosen topic of discussion turned out to be something entirely different. After a major restructuring, they now had a new boss and their communication with the boss was far from smooth – it was, in their own words, “annoying”.
As I delved more into the conversation, I started to identify a definite behavioural style, which also explained how they had reached the level of seniority at such a young age. Through further investigation, I uncovered their boss’s behavioural style and - there it was!
Complete opposites.
You may know that just like different behavioural styles like eDiSC (extended DiSC), communication styles follow a very similar structure. For example, if you’re a High Dominant style – a person who wants results, gets to the point, is controlling, is competitive and they encounter someone who is a High S style – a person who is caring, calm, steady, supportive, with a thoughtful approach and begins to tell a story about an unhappy customer with a tone of “once upon a time, there was a customer who wasn’t happy….” The D is likely to interrupt them and ask for the bottom line. However, this can come across as either arrogant or rude to the High S individual, and they take a while to recover.
This is precisely how miscommunication happens in teams leading to dissatisfaction with bosses.
Investing in training that helps understand how DiSC profiles behave, speak, and listen can be an excellent management tool to overcome these misconceptions and improve communication and to be heard differently – or more accurately, heard in the intended style.
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Need some help?
Learning DiSC is helpful, especially if you want to effectively communication with others. If you’d like a specialised training on how DiSC works and how it can enhance your team’s communication skills. It may be time to have your DiSC Behaviour Profile tested, just send us a message or book us a call.