All Mixed Up – How Personality Blends Make Us Unique
Understanding People
If you’re familiar with the DISC Personality Assessments, you know that there are four major personality types that we can see in ourselves and others. Each of us tend to display a strongly Driven, Inspiring, Supportive, or Cautious personality type to those around us. By understanding someone’s dominant personality type, we can drastically improve our ability to connect, communicate, and accomplish things with them.
Like speaking someone’s language, communication in harmony with someone’s dominant personality type helps the message actually get through! It allows us to make people feel valuable, give them energy, draw the highest quality information and performance out of them, and improve our connection with them.
Beyond our Dominant Type
Often, we express more than one personality type in a powerful way – and everyone has a full “Personality Blend” that makes them unique! That blend colors the major message you send into the world. If you think about yourself, you know that many things impact the “side of yourself” you show to the world.
- The Situation
- Who is Present
- Our Own Energy
- If We’re in a Hurry
- Whether We’re Stressed or Not
The way people react in stressful situations, the methods they use to “get stuff done” when time is tight, and how they recharge depends not only on their dominant personality type. It depends on their blend. To understand them and navigate the real life stresses of living or working together, you’ve got to understand their blend.
Never Take Personality for Granted
One important thing to remember is this: even if you share someone’s personality blend, the elements of their personality may be expressed at a different intensity level than you. Use your understanding of that person to create common ground, and stay curious to understand their own uniqueness. Be open, take note when they surprise you, and keep looking for their unique attributes.
Mixed Up With Your Family
Often when we’ve known someone our whole lives, we feel like we know them. We feel like we know what they’ll say, do, or expect in any situation. Whether your the parent or the grown child, family relationships are the easiest ones to take personality for granted in. We stop asking for a parent’s opinion, we stop asking our kids what their interests are because we feel like we would know. But what would happen if we stepped back, and looked at these long-term relationships through the lens of the personality blend? Start looking for them to surprise you. I’ll bet you anything that if you can step away from what you think you know about your family and get curious about their blend, you will be surprised.