The DISC model considers two basic drivers for our behaviors:
1. The Pace drive 2. The Priority drive
The Pace drive relates to the speed people move through life. You will often see it show up in terms of how quickly people move, speak, and make decisions. You can also see it in how visibly or intensely people express their emotions.
As shown in Figure 18.1, we speak about the Pace drive using the wordsoutgoingandreserved.
Outgoing (high pace) people tend to move fast, talk fast, and decide fast. They often process their thoughts by ‘‘talking them out.’’
Reserved (low pace) people often move more methodically, speak more slowly and more softly, and make decisions carefully. They often process their thoughts by ‘‘thinking them through.’’
The shading of the arrow from light to dark illustrates that different people can have varying intensities of this drive in either direction.
The other drive is the Priority drive. This drive reveals the direction people tend to think most naturally. This drive is often harder to see in people than the Pace drive. You will probably see it in how they react to situations and in what they focus on first.
We speak about the Priority drive using the wordstask-orientedand people-oriented. As with the Pace drive (Figure 18.1), we represent this drive graphically (Figure 18.2), with an arrow drawn between
d i s c m o d e l o f h u m a n b e h av i o r 117
Figure 18.1. The Pace Drive Outgoing
(Fast paced)
Reserved (Slower paced)
Figure 18.2. The Priority Drive
Task-oriented People-oriented
the two extremes of the drive where the shading represents varying intensities of it:
Task-oriented people tend to process the world through a ‘‘task’’ filter. This means that they tend to think first in terms of facts, figures, results, and actions and then in terms of how those facts, figures, results, and actions affect people.
People-oriented people often process the world through a ‘‘people’’
(you could also say ‘‘relationship’’) filter. They generally think first in terms of how people might be affected by a given decision and thenabout the facts, figures, results, and actions necessary in a given situation.
As with the Pace drive, the shading of the arrows represents that different people can have different degrees of these two drives.
Looking back at the example we used of Guy and his colleague in the previous chapter, Guy represents the task-oriented perspective—he
‘‘thinks’’ about things. His colleague represents the people-oriented perspective—he ‘‘feels’’ about things. There is nothing inherently right, wrong, good, or bad about either perspective. They are just dif- ferent ways of processing the inputs we get from the world around us.
another example of the priority drive
Here’s a personal example. We knew as we were writing Chapter Six, and talking about the components of your leadership role, that based on your Priority drive you would be likely to read that in a particular way. Some of you will be excited that a larger percentage of your work is now people focused, while others will be worried that the work won’t be as task focused as it was previously. We took care to select words that we hoped would ‘‘work’’ for everyone.
When we combine the Pace and Priority arrows into one drawing, we get a graphical representation of the DISC model of human behavior (Figure 18.3).
Notice that each quadrant of the combined drawing has a descrip- tive word that relates to key behavioral characteristics you would be likely to see in people who have that combination of drives. The descriptive words only showtraits ortendencies that describe these quadrants. Although there are other words we could use to describe each behavioral quadrant, we have only shown the main characteristic traits here: Dominant, Inspiring, Supportive, and Cautious.
Figure 18.3. The DISC Model of Human Behavior
Outgoing (Fast paced) Dominant
Cautious Supportive Inspiring
Reserved (Slower paced)
People-oriented Task-oriented
d i s c m o d e l o f h u m a n b e h av i o r 119 In conversation, we sometimes use verbal shortcuts for the purpose of discussing the different behavioral types:
❍The Dominant type is also known as High-D (a high level of Dominant traits)
❍The Inspiring type is also known as High-I (a high level of Inspiring traits)
❍The Supportive type is also known as High-S (a high level of Supportive traits)
❍The Cautious type is also known as High-C (a high level of Cautious traits)
Since all people actually have a blend of the four traits, the shortcut terminology we use when we say that someone has a high style in any of the four quadrants refers to a person who has a relatively high level of traits in that quadrant in her overall style blend. We don’t often speak of the model by referencing low-intensity traits, but it is also true that an individual’s low tendencies in a given quadrant could be helpful in understanding and communicating with her as well.
Here are some additional descriptive words for each of the four primary behavior styles:
Outgoing and task-oriented—Dominant style
Outgoing T
a s k
• Determined
• Decisive
• Directive
Outgoing and people-oriented—Inspiring style Outgoing
P e o p l e
• Interactive
• Influencing
• Interested in people (and stories)
Reserved and people-oriented—Supportive style
Reserved P e o p l e
• Status quo
• Seeking security
• Sensitive
Reserved and task-oriented—Cautious style
Reserved T
a s k
• Careful
• Consistent
• Contemplative
You can be a remarkable leader with any style. There is no good, bad, right, or wrong behavior style.