This week I head into my next assessment – the Everything DiSC Productive Conflict Profile. Just like with the Everything DiSC Management Profile, taking this took less time because the general DiSC questions had already been answered in my first assessment and got incorporated into this report - bonus!
Similar to other profiles, the first section is a recap of my DiSC Style and would be a great start for anyone, even if they hadn't taken a DiSC assessment before. It provides all the key information someone would need to understand the basics.
The first new section describes my style during conflict. It’s important to note that this isn’t about how to ‘win’, but to better understand my own style when conflict is occurring and how to make that conflict productive. The bullets describing what is important to me during conflict where no surprise – the Mr. Spock approach. Separating emotions from facts, catching errors or flaws in arguments and solving problems through logic all resonate very strongly for me.
On the flip side, the things that drain my energy during conflict were things like being in a chaotic situation, lacking the details or facts of a situation and being forced to ignore issues or problems. I can definitely see how these have led to frustration for me in the past.
So, what do I do with my new awareness? Go on to the next section! This contains a lot of great information on understanding the needs of other styles in conflict and how best to work with them in these types of situations. Looking at things like what each style’s goals, overuses and fears are is incredibly helpful in navigating conflict.
The next area gets really juicy! This is all about the possible destructive behaviors that may come from automatic thoughts people with my style may have. Things like arguing, belittling etc. (there are literally pages or them described along with the automatic thoughts that can trigger that behavior). After seeing all of the possible destructive behaviors comes a bunch of strategies to avoid those responses by re framing thoughts to more productive responses.
There is even a whole section on action planning, which is helpful for anyone who is serious about learning about themselves and improving. Conflict is a vital and necessary part of life and learning to make it productive and helpful is a key part of any individual’s growth.
There is a lot to this report (23 pages!) and it really applies to everyone – whether you want to work on this area in your work life or any area. You will learn a lot about yourself, no doubt about it. And if you have done any of the Everything DiSC assessments, connect with me on www.MyEverythingDiSC.com and let's run a comparison between our styles. Let the understanding and learning continue!