DISC

Mar

2024

Three Ways to Create an Inspiring Environment

Many years ago I was visiting with the strength and conditioning coaches of a very successful professional football team. I had one goal in mind: to understand how they motivate their athletes.

I was talking with the head strength coach ready for some wisdom on how they motivate their athletes. Guess what he said.

“We don’t.”

Needless to say, I was a little deflated at that point and also curious why. Many years later I have heard other leaders in the business world say similar things. So, what does a leader do if we don’t motivate our team members?

I am going to suggest we create an environment that inspires them. We may not be motivating them because we hired them to do a job and don’t feel we should have to. Could it be we have a responsibility to create an inspiring environment? Allow me to provide three ideas on creating that environment for your team.

Understand Their Style

Every one of us is different. We are predictably different though. I have a file on my desk with the results of multiple assessments I have taken to understand myself. One of my favorite, which I use in trainings with organizations, is the DISC assessment.

This tool helps you understand an individual’s personal behavior style. How does this help you create an inspiring culture? Each person is inspired a little differently. Some are inspired by a goal and challenge, some by relationships, some by being a part of a team, and some by precision. When we understand the individual and collective style of our team, we can then create an environment that brings out the best in the team and each individual.

As we speak their style, we connect more effectively and inspire more powerfully.

Sort Out Their Strengths

The human experience can cause us to focus on our weak areas and how to improve them. What if we flip this, focus on our strengths, and use them more frequently? When we position people on our team so that they are working in their areas of strength, we get improved results.

People who work in their strengths will be in flow, enjoy their work, and perform at a higher level. The Maxwell DISC Personality Indicator has helped me understand individual leadership strengths, but I have also used another tool. The Working Genius helps individuals see their work performance preferences and what gives them the most fulfillment.

As a leader who understands these two areas, you will begin to be equipped to create a more inspiring environment.

What is Their Why?

Of the three, this is the most important. When facilitating an ongoing leadership academy I continually remind the leaders in the room to “align the whys.” The team you lead has a purpose, why it exists. Each individual also has a purpose, why they are on your team.

As the leader your job is to understand each individual’s “why” and align it with the teams. For example, if they work to provide for their family and the organization offers more money with increased results then you can remind that individual how their performance helps both the organization and them accomplish their purpose.

As you look at these three areas, which do you need to work on with your team? Need help understanding your team member’s style and strengths? Contact me to discuss how I may serve your team and help you strengthen them and partner with you in building an inspiring culture. Lead Well!

Dec

2021

Three Ways to Understand Your Leadership Gifts

Somebody had watched my weekly video recently where I mentioned how our individual purpose is found in our giftedness. After watching that he replied to my e-mail. (Those who get the free leadership e-book get these directly to their e-mail). He challenged me with the question: what are your gifts?

I don’t know about you, but seeing my weaknesses are easier than realizing my gifts. I took a few minutes and replied with some ideas and asked for his feedback. If you watched that video and then got a little stuck or are at a point where this type of reflection will help you lead more effectively then allow me to provide a few ways to help you discover your gifts.

Ask Others

As I mentioned above some of us can be our worst critic and only see our weak areas. Think for a moment who are up to five people who know you well. Some of them may be in a personal context and others in a professional. Reach out to those people and ask them: what are the top three to five things you see that come easily for me?

As they answer this question this will provide insight on your gifts. Gifts are the things we do so naturally we don’t realize it may be difficult for others. Maybe you easily think of new ideas. Creating order out of chaos may come naturally to you. Possibly you can quickly identify the steps to accomplish a goal. Communicating, mathematical analysis, or many other abilities.

I encourage, if you can, ask people who have known you before you were working. These people will know the abilities that have always come naturally even before you were trained or developed them further.

Reflect on Experiences

I have a friend who took me through a process of reflecting on all my life experiences to get a picture of themes in my life. Through this process we identified certain skills or qualities that were natural in me. For example, throughout my life I have always sought mentors. This reveals to me the natural desire to learn and grow. This may not be the gift but thinking and reflecting may come more naturally to me than others.

As we evaluate our present and past experiences, we recognize themes. These themes will often point us toward our strengths.

Use Tools

An excellent resource I have used and continue to reference as well as use with clients is a Maxwell DISC Personality Indicator. This tool takes only about ten minutes to complete. What is unique and beneficial about this as a leader is the POWER DISC. This helps us understand where we are strong in seven key leadership areas. This also helps us understand our personal style and strengths.

Another tool I have used is Strengths Finder by Gallup which helps us understand our top five strengths. When I originally took it, I received a keycode after investing in the book Strengths Finder 2.0.

These are only two of many tools available. The challenge is taking the information and evaluating what it means and how to leverage our strengths to lead more effectively.

How will you use this new information to lead more effectively? How can this help you determine what NOT to do? As you go through this process you may see the value of a thinking partner to help you see what you cannot see or process how to apply these gifts in your leadership. If so, and I can serve you as a thinking partner, then contact me to schedule a 30 minute no cost to you coaching session. Lead Well.

Aug

2021

What My Wife Unknowingly Taught Me About Leadership

One night I asked my wife to read one-page of my personal DISC assessment to give me feedback if she thought it sounded like me. She read it and gave some feedback and said now you have to watch this thirty-minute video with me.

I must admit I feel I got the short end of the deal, but little did I realize she was introducing me to the opportunity to learn from an amazing leader. My wife has been involved with Young Living for quite awhile, but I never realized how great a leader the founder of the organization was.

Allow me to share with you some of the wisdom I learned from this interview Scott Shuler of ManUpProject had with Gary Young.

Self-worth keeps you from quitting.

As a leader when you are pursuing a vision many voices internally and externally will discourage you. Some of those voices may be those closest to you therefore we must understand our worth personally and be confident.

Dream or Vision?

During this interview Gary Young provided an illustration. Imagine you just had a vivid dream. You wake up, but did you forget it? Maybe instead you wrote down all the details so you would not forget it. The difference, a dream fades, but a vision sticks. Which are you leading others to pursue?

Nice and passion.

Many of us have heard the phrase that “nice guys finish last.” Gary would argue that nice guys finish where their passion lies. Whether in business or life if a person operates with honesty and integrity they can finish where they want. May passion be supported by the leader’s honesty and integrity.

Passion or Excitement.

A gas grill often has an ignitor people use to start the fire. This ignitor Young would say is excitement . . . quick and sudden. Add gas to the ignitor spark and then the entire grill is full of fire. Young suggests that a leader’s passion fuels the excitement. What is the gas you are adding to fuel your vision?

Business and Family.

Young suggests we pursue our dream at a pace which will be good for everyone involved. We may have an idea, but if those closest to us are not supportive of the dream problems arise. In a respectful way we can sell our family on the idea and go at a pace that works for all involved.

These are only a few of the ideas I gathered from this brief interview. What about you? Do you know who you are as a person? Is your vision clear? How is your passion level? What do you need to do in order to refuel? How are those you love involved in your vision . . . do you need to adjust your pace so you don’t lose those closest to you? I hope these principles have been as valuable to you as they were to me. If you want help thinking into your results feel free to contact me. If you want to learn more about Young Living and all they do, contact me and put “Young Living” in the subject. In the meantime, keep pursuing your dream and lead well.

Mar

2020

Leading In A Stressful Home

We are behind closed doors in our house. Not because we are sick, but because we have three boys that will constantly interrupt us as we attempt to discuss a plan for the next month.

Both my wife and I work with mildly flexible schedules. Now we must navigate keeping three boys focused enough to accomplish their homework, work ourselves, and maintain a low stress home. This is what we were attempting to navigate during our conversation.

Our completely opposite personality styles became very apparent as we started the discussion. For those of you familiar with the Maxwell DISC Personality Indicator I use, I am on the exact opposite side of the spectrum. During this conversation I realized some ways I need to be a better leader for both our sake.

Maximize Each Other’s Strengths

I am a very task-oriented person. Combine that with a tendency to look at things black and white it creates tension with my relationship oriented spouse. At first this frustrated me, but when I created the structure my wife brought her strength of being able to think of the possible variables that could impact our kids.

After combining our strengths, we found a path that effectively provided both clear expectations and a plan for our children while leaving room for flexibility. In this flexibility we can adjust to each child’s unique personality.

Be Aware of Weaknesses

We both have weaknesses and one of mine is holding rigidly to the plan. By remaining aware of this, I can adjust my responses to neutralize the negative impact. In a situation that is ever changing and fluid I need to have a plan while recognizing the plan may need to be adjusted. This applies daily when raising children, but also in an ever-changing business or team environment.

You may not have the same weakness but understand yours and determine ways to neutralize it. This awareness prevents blind spots that can dramatically hinder our personal and professional leadership.

Work Together to Build a Unified Plan

While fending off interruptions from children, we recognized our individual strengths and weaknesses and then had to determine our best possible plan. Through gaining a unified agreement on our structure (with flexibility of course) and what we expect we will create a lower stress environment.

This sounds easy, but while implementing this process we will have to adjust. These same principles can be utilized at home and work. What helped this conversation the most for us was an awareness of our basic behavior styles. Had I not known our individual styles this conversation could have been much more difficult. If you want to learn your style go here or if you want to go deeper and learn your style and have a personalized debrief contact me writing DISC with debrief in the subject line at randy@wheelercoachingsystems.com and I will provide a blog reader’s discount. Keep focused, communicate often, and lead well.

Dec

2019

Holiday Connecting at Home and Work

Confession: small talk is not my strength. I enjoy asking questions and understanding people, but I want to have a purpose in our conversation. Because of this, holiday parties and family get togethers can be stressful at times.

I like people and I love my family, but I want purpose in what we are doing. Some of you are probably thinking: “This guy is wound a little too tight.” You are probably right.

I have a guess though, others of you feel similar. At times I provide a workshop to help people understand four different personality styles and their own style. This improves communication at work and at home.

I don’t have the time to go in depth on this as people have written entire books on the topic, but let me illustrate what you may experience during the holidays as you try to connect with others.

Jim

Jim walks in the room and everybody knows. Some people feel like they are walking on eggshells. The meal was ready, but Jim takes it on himself to take over and tell everyone how things are done.

That is how Jim behaves. He takes charge and conversations with him do not last long. He is straight to the point and direct and expects you to be the same. You see Jim is a “D”.

Julie

Julie on the other hand walks in and says hi to everyone in the room. People love seeing Julie because she brings fun and energy with her. Julie is the one with all the stories and enjoys being the center of attention. How will you know if you are talking to a Julie? She never quite seems to quit talking. Julie is an “I”.

Sam

Sam has been at the party for an hour and you just noticed he arrived. He has quietly been helping the host of the party in any way he can to make the experience better. When he is not helping, you find him listening or quietly talking with one or two other individuals in a corner of the room. Sam is an “S” and is very loyal, helpful, and when the family fights arise he is trying to maintain peace.

Charlotte

Charlotte likes being around Sam because they are both a bit quiet and reserved, but Charlotte has something about her Sam does not. Insatiable curiosity. You see Charlotte at times reminds others of their five-year-old child, but less aggravating. Charlotte likes to understand how and why things work and asks lots of questions. This can drive some of the others nuts, but this is how a “C” can be.

You have a basic understanding of these types so hopefully you can do two things now:

Appreciate the differences they bring.
Adjust how you communicate with them to be able to speak their language. If we seek to serve and adjust to others we will connect and add more value to them.

Maybe in the process we might enjoy our holiday experiences as we appreciate our unique differences. If you want to understand your personal unique differences and your style go here to invest in a Maxwell DISC Personality Indicator Report. In the meantime. Enjoy your holidays and lead well!

Apr

2018

Three Ways an Assessment is Helping Me as A Leader

In February I was at a conference learning how to be a better coach, speaker, and trainer. We are sitting around tables and the speaker describes an individual who likes to be in charge, enjoys leading, can be impatient and a few more traits. As he continues to describe these characteristics it was obvious he was describing me.

A couple months later I use a simple assessment with my boys who are 12, 10, and 7 after they have just watched a Star Wars movie. They sit at the table and place check marks next to the box that best describes them. After finishing the simple assessment they figure out what personality type they are. I then invite them to read about their specific result and each one agrees the description sounds like them.

This tool I learned about and the simple version of the tool I used with my children is a DISC assessment. Now, I can fool myself, but unlike me kids don’t overthink something like this. With that in mind, I was amazed at how accurate it described their typical behavior. How does knowing all this help me become a better leader?

Understand Me – In order for me to be able to help others I need to be aware of my strengths and weaknesses. This tool helped me understand my natural tendencies and enables me to be aware of areas I am weak so I can prevent them from negatively impacting those I lead.

Understand You – This tool describes four general types of people and of course no assessment is perfect, but it provides language that helps me understand others better. As I was in the workshop I learned ways to work with each type of individual, specifically in a sales conversation, but it applies to any conversation where we are influencing others.

Make Adjustments – When I am self-aware and also other-aware I am able to be tuned into some of my responses to others and adjust. For example, I like to get stuff done, but some people have “life of the party” personalities. This can be a point of tension so I need to be aware of my needs, adjust my approach, and set expectations so that we can “have fun” while getting work done. Maybe in the process I just might have fun.

I was working with a client who had taken this assessment I was trained on in February and it helped validate his style, but also gave him an increased understanding of different approaches others have that will arrive at the same goal. He saw his strengths and areas to be aware of and improve. The tool helped him to increase his awareness of himself and grow as a leader.

Maybe you are like me and you need to learn how to lead better both at work and home. If you want to discover more about this tool and how it helps let me know. In the meantime, continue to grow in your self-awareness and make the adjustments necessary to lead well at work and home.