Welcome to part 1 of an 8-episode series exploring the 8 DISC leadership styles: Commanding, Dynamic, Inspiring, Accepting, Accommodating, Modest, Methodical and Perfectionist.
Kicking off the series, your host Julie South, a Certified DISC Coach and Resilience Trainer for veterinary professionals, dives into the hard-driving mindset of Commanding Leaders.
What motivates you at work – an ambitious pace-setter or a patient mentor?
Do rapid-fire decisions ignite your potential or make you want to tune out?
Discover techniques to collaborate with Commanding Leaders while avoiding friction with other personality types.
In this actionable first episode, learn how Dominant “D-type" Commanding Leaders:
- Confidently take charge in crisis mode
- Set the pace through rapid decisions
- Motivate and reward drive towards bold goals
You’ll also hear tips on how Commanding Leaders can better interact with every DISC style on their veterinary team from like-minded Dominant colleagues to detail-oriented Compliance members.
Whether you’re leading the pack or seeking to harmonise, join Certified DISC Trainer and Resilience Coach Julie South in part 1 to maximise your and your team's potential!
Contact Julie South
About DISC-Flow®
DISC is a research-backed and science-based personality profiling tool used to understand our behaviours, communication styles, and work preferences. It’s about understanding what makes you – and the people you work with – tick.
Julie South is a DISC Flow® Certified Trainer, who describes DISC-Flow® profiling as being like having a cheat sheet to better understand yourself and other people. When you know this, it helps you play to your personality strengths, work better in teams, and communicate better.
If you’re keen to find out what your personal DISC type is, what type of leader you are, or what your clinic’s team composition looks like, then get in touch with Julie to find out what's involved.
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Julie South [00:00:04]:
Thank you for tuning into the vet staff podcast, the show where veterinary professionals can top up their resilience tank, get their heads screwed on straight and get excited about going to work on Monday mornings again, just like you did when you were studying. This is episode 181 and I'm your show host, Julie south, certified disc coach and resilience trainer. You can find back copies of the Vet Staff podcast@vetstaffpodcast.com. This week we're kicking off an exciting new eight part series all about leadership styles based on the disc personality model. If you're unfamiliar with disc, it's a research backed, science based personality profiling tool used to understand our behaviours, our communication styles and our work preferences. The model is based on four primary personality types. You have the d, the dominance. If this is you, you are usually assertive, results oriented and prefer to lead.
Julie South [00:01:18]:
You enjoy challenges and quick decision making. The influences influence I if this is you, you're generally social, enthusiastic and love to interact with others. You're persuasive, outgoing and you thrive in team situations. The steadies S's. You're usually calm, reliable and value cooperation. You prefer a stable environment and you work consistently towards your goals. And then we have the compliance the C's. You'll be analytical, detail oriented, and love rules and structure.
Julie South [00:02:01]:
You value quality and accuracy. We all have a combination of these personality traits, but we're usually more dominant in one or two. For example, I'm a combination of dominant supported by influence, so I'm known as a di. None of these are more good or more bad or more better or more worse than any others. Each of them just is. As a discflow certified trainer, I describe disc profiling as being a bit like having a cheat sheet to better understand ourselves and other people. When we have this information, it helps us play to our strengths, work better in teams, and communicate more effectively. It's all about knowing what makes us tick, how we can gel with others so that we can live our best lives.
Julie South [00:02:55]:
So please stay tuned because whether you already lead teams or aspire to lead, someday you'll discover how to connect with different disc personality styles, build better and stronger relationships, inspire others, and boost both team cohesion and collaboration. If you want to know what your personal disc type is, what type of leader you are, or what your clinic's team's composition looks like, then please get in touch with me at Julietstaff dot co dot NZ. That address will be in the show notes for you, just in case you're multitasking while you're listening to this episode. Now let's get started. There are eight different disc leadership types and these are commanding, dynamic, inspiring, accepting, perfectionist, methodical, modest and accommodating. Today we're going to start by looking at the commanding leader, which is typically categorised under the d, the dominant personality type. These leaders are often seen as the classic and the assertive leader. If this is you when it comes to your strength characteristics, they include being decisive and action oriented.
Julie South [00:04:20]:
You excel in making decisions and completing tasks fast. You're also very goal oriented and ambitious. You set high benchmarks and motivate yourself and your team to reach them. You're confident and assertive. You somehow naturally draw respect and can be highly persuasive. You're a risk taker. You're comfortable exploring new areas and facing challenges, usually head on and problem solving is one of your super talents. In a crisis, you're adept at taking control and making difficult decisions.
Julie South [00:05:01]:
Your leadership style is usually direct and succinct. You don't pussyfoot around and usually communicate clearly and expect others to do the same. You're also results focused, which means that you prioritise achieving goals. Efficiency. You're the give me the bottom line type of results person independent as well. You prefer to take the reins. This means that you may find delegation to be a bit of a challenge. Of course, as we know, no leader is perfect.
Julie South [00:05:38]:
We all have our blind spots and areas we can enhance and develop. Some of the potential downsides of being a commanding leader means that they may come across or appear as being a bit dominant or aggressive. Their strong approach might not sit well with some. They have an apparent or an actual lack of patience because they focus on quick results. This could lead to overlooking some of the finer details or even ignoring valuable input and ideas from others, especially those type of people who like to weigh up all the pros and cons or do a stack of research and analyze the data first. Commanding leaders with their strong independent streak often find collaboration somewhat challenging. Their drive for results can sometimes clash with teams that thrive on a more democratic or team members that thrive on a more democratic decision making process. As you can probably get, commanding leaders are determined and proficient at driving action.
Julie South [00:06:50]:
These leaders excel in dynamic environments where decisiveness is required. Let's now look at how other disc personality types, your individual type might interact with a commanding leader. Let's start off with the D's. The dominants, the commanding leader who's a D themselves and D type team members would create a high energy, results focused place to be. Both types share a strong drive for achieving goals and a preference for quick decision making. Usually the commanding leader sets very ambitious targets and then the D type team members. The DS would be motivated to meet these expectations. However, potential challenges can arise because of their similar character traits.
Julie South [00:07:49]:
Both the leader and their D type team members have strong desires to lead and assert their ideas, which, as you can probably imagine, could lead to power struggles and or conflict situations together. They might also be prone to rushing decisions or overlooking details in their shared need to get results so they can, or to get fast results so they can move on to the next thing. This means that although they might achieve something very fast, it mightn't be the best outcome because it could break or it could be incomplete. And this is because outcome and speed are what spins their wheels, quite literally, literally, of the D's. They'll happily agree that they love the concept and appreciate having high attention to detail, but it's definitely not their happy place to spend time. Even sometimes even a little time is not their happy place because that just slows things down. In their opinion, the commanding leader, who acknowledges the strengths of their fast acting fellow deas, who encourages their initiative while at the same time also sets clear roles and responsibilities, will be better positioned to avoid any potential conflict. On the flip side, the D team members need to respect the authority of their commanding leader and be open to constructive feedback.
Julie South [00:09:27]:
Now let's look at the commanding D type leader. With influential I type team members in this team. It would be dynamic, it would also be high energy, and it would be an engaging place to be. The eyes would bring their communication skills, their passion, their enthusiasm and creativity to the table, all of which complement the decisive, goal oriented approach of their commanding D type leader. The leader would set high targets and the eyes would use their influence to motivate the team towards these goals. However, potential challenges could arise because the commanding d leaders, usually very assertive nature might overwhelm the more people oriented eyes. Similarly, the eyes penchants their preference for collaboration and sociability could clash with the leaders focus on getting quick, fast results and getting things done fast and efficiently. This means that, therefore, that while there's probably a great and energetic team spirit, there could also be conflicts or clashes due to different priorities or differing priorities.
Julie South [00:10:50]:
Rather, the key to successful teamwork in this relationship is balance and understanding. The commanding D leader should appreciate the itype's ability to promote a positive team spirit and use their influence effectively. The leader should also provide clear direction and constructive feedback to help the eyes stay focused on the goals. On the flip side, the eyes should respect the leader's need and it is a need for quick decision making and results and adapt their communicative style accordingly. Now the studies the S's a commanding leader with steady team members would result in a balanced work environment. The S's, the steadies. They would bring their need for consistency, reliability and cooperative spirit that would complement their dynamic leaders ambitious, action oriented approach. The leader would set ambitious goals and the steadies would provide the steady support needed to achieve those targets.
Julie South [00:12:05]:
However, because they're opposites and different, we've got task oriented with the leader and people oriented with the steady team members. It means that the potential for challenges to arise is real and it needs to be managed. The leader's fast paced and assertive approach could unsettle the S's who prefer stability and patience. This means that while they might provide a stable foundation for achieving goals, tension could arise from fast changes and or aggressive goal setting. The key here, therefore, is having mutual respect and understanding. As it is always, the leader needs to value the S's steadiness, reliability and their ability to maintain team harmony, especially as the SS are more people focused than the results focused D type leader. The commanding leader needs to provide clear instructions and support to help the S's adapt to changes. As you can imagine, fast change to the steadies to the S's is somewhat unsettling.
Julie South [00:13:20]:
S types, on the other hand, need to respect their leader's need for quick action and results and strive to be more adaptable in the face of change. And then we have finally the compliance the C types. Just like with the steadies, the compliance C types are the moderate are at the moderate end of the action, the pace spectrum. This means that the combination of having a fast paced, commanding D type leader with a moderately paced C type team members would result in a balanced, focused, detail oriented workplace. And that's a good thing. The C types would bring their high level of precision analytical skills and their adherence to systems and procedures that help balance out the leaders decisive, results driven approach. The leader sets the high performance targets and the CS ensure that these are met with accuracy and quality. This is because both the D and the C types are generally more task focused and they both want results.
Julie South [00:14:39]:
However, potential challenges can come about because of their differing styles in achieving the results. The D type commanding leader's quick decision making and risk taking approach could clash with the C's preference for thorough analysis and caution. This means that while they might ensure high quality results. There could be tension over differing approaches to decision making and risk assessment. The key to success here is mutual respect and clear communication. The commanding leader should value the CE's attention to detail, their analytical skills and their commitment to quality. The leader should also provide clear expectations and encourage and support their cs to be more decisive and open to calculated risks. The Cs, on the other hand, should respect their leaders need for quick results and adapt their meticulous approach to support their team's goals.
Julie South [00:15:54]:
So what do you say to your commanding D type leader when you feel your buttons are being pushed? When you feel feel like you're maybe being bulldozed, ignored, taken for granted or not appreciated? Whatever your style and preference is, you need to remember that this type of leader prefers direct communication. So don't pussyfoot around with your communicating with them because they're likely to switch off. They don't mean to. It's just that if you don't get to the point and get to it fast, the head will be somewhere else. So provided you're not insulting, this type of leader can handle what might feel to you. Perhaps a very blunt statement. How might each different style feel triggered? Well, probably it will be something along the lines of for the D's. So this is a dominant person with a dominant style of leader.
Julie South [00:16:57]:
They might still feel conflicted. They might feel like there are power struggles and that they're being rushed, even though that's typical for them, or that they're being overlooked. The eyes might feel overwhelmed, dismissed, undervalued, pressured, or maybe even isolated. The steadies. If this is you, you might feel like your leader is aggressive, that any change is too rapid and even unstable, and you'll probably feel somewhat undervalued. The seize, the compliance. You'll feel like you might be triggered by your impulsive leader, dismissed, pressured, rushed and or overlooked. When and if any of those feelings start to emerge for you, here are some simple sentences that you could use with your commanding D type letter to make it easy for you to remember.
Julie South [00:17:57]:
I've used the when you I feel framework and it's pretty easy to adopt and adapt in any situation. So when you I feel. So let's start again. When you whatever it is, I feel how you feel. And then the reason easy to remember, I hope. Let's have a look. If you're a D so you're a dominant yourself, then say something like when you steamroll over everyone's ideas, I feel like I'm being ignored and it's like my two cent don't matter if you're a d a dominant yourself, say something like when you steamroll over people's ideas, I feel like I'm being ignored. It's like.
Julie South [00:18:43]:
Or it's because my two cent don't matter for the eyes, the influentials. When you shoot down my ideas without giving them a chance, I feel like I'm not being taken seriously. It's like my creative input isn't being appreciated for the seas. The compliance when you jump to decisions without looking at the facts and the figures, I feel like my work doesn't matter. It's like my careful analysis is just being tossed aside. So when you I feel it's like. Or it's because I hope you found this helpful as a way to understand yourself just a teeny tiny incy wincy dinky little bit better and how you might relate to someone who has a commanding leadership personality style. Have you ever wondered what makes you take well, taking the disc personality profile assessment gives you that info, plus how to gel better with other people.
Julie South [00:20:01]:
For leaders, you'll discover your leadership style and strengths. When everyone in your clinic has been assessed. Your team's collaboration levels will go through the roof because everyone understands everyone else better. If you're interested to learn more then please get in touch. Julietstaff dot co dot NZ can I ask you to do me a favour please and help me spread the Vetstaff podcast love. All you have to do is share it with three of your veterinary friends who may be losing their mojo. It'll help rekindle the passion you all had when you started studying and being excited about going to work on Monday mornings. Thank you.
Julie South [00:20:49]:
This is Julie south signing off and inviting you to go out there and be the most fantabulous, resilient and empowered version of you you can be. The Vet staff podcast is proudly powered.
Julie South [00:21:05]:
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