Julie South [00:00:04]:
Thank you for tuning in to the Vet staff podcast, 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 Judy south, certified disc trainer and resilience coach. You can find back copies of the Vet staff podcast@vetstaffpodcast.com. This is the second in our exciting eight part series all about leadership styles based on the disc personality model. Disc is a research backed, science based personality profiling tool used to understand our behaviours, communication styles and our work preferences. It's about understanding what makes you and the people you work with tick. Last week we introduced the dominant leader and did a quick overview on each of the four disc personality archetypes which we'll be referring to again today. The disc personality types.
Julie South [00:01:23]:
I'll put links mentioned in today's show in the show notes for you to click on if you would like. So that's at vetstaffpodcast.com. All of us have a combination of different personality traits, but we're usually more dominant in one or two. For example, using the disc model, I'm a combination of dominant supported by influential. Now, none of these are better or worse, gooder or badder than any of the other types. Each of them just of is and each of them is great. As a disc flow certified trainer, I describe disc profiling as being a bit like having a cheat sheet to better understand ourselves and other people. When we know this, it helps us play to our personality strengths, work better in teams and communicate better.
Julie South [00:02:19]:
It's about what knowing makes you tick and how you can get along with others better so you can live your best life. Stay tuned because whether you already lead a team or you aspire to lead, someday you'll find out how to connect with different disc personality styles, build stronger and better relationships, be able to inspire others, and boost both team cohesion and collaboration. 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 please get in touch with me. Julietstaff dot co dot NZ let's get started. Today we're looking at the dynamic leader. If this is you and I can totally relate because that's my leadership personality style too. Using the disc personality and leadership framework, we're known as dynamic leaders. We thrive on challenge and change.
Julie South [00:03:26]:
We have strong opinions and we're not afraid to challenge ideas or the status quo. Some might say that we are the types who are comfortable rocking the boat when others won't. Dynamic leaders are fast paced, outspoken and usually focused on getting results. Dynamic leaders key strengths include their decisiveness and their drive. They make quick decisions. They don't muck around when it comes to taking action towards achieving ambitious big goals. They're comfortable pushing boundaries, exploring new directions and tackling problems head on. They have an ability to take risks.
Julie South [00:04:19]:
They are also innovative thinkers. They bring fresh perspectives, new concepts, and they're creative and problem solving. They have resilience. Dynamic leaders are persistent in overcoming obstacles to achieve outcomes. The dynamic leader sets ambitious and usually innovative goals. They motivate their team to push limits, to test themselves and to grow. Dynamic leaders believe in leading by example. If you're anything like me, you won't ask your team to do anything that you won't do yourself.
Julie South [00:04:58]:
If your lead vet or head nurse has no issue rolling up their sleeves and picking up a mop, it could be that they're a dynamic leader as well. However, everyone has a shadow, a blind spot. And in the dynamic leaders case, with our excitement for quick results, we can be known to overlook potential obstacles. Sometimes we fail to provide enough structure. And as you can imagine, that's not always a good look. Dynamics thrive on change. Now, this could mean that we've been known to move things along too quickly for some, and we don't always slow down to make sure our team is still with us. We need to stop often.
Julie South [00:05:47]:
We need to look behind us often, because dynamics need to make sure we slow down and we adapt. And we hope that those whose pace isn't as fast as ours, because we need those people on our team who are worried about all the essential details that we are not worried about. Okay, so what's it like working with a dynamic leader for other different disc personality types? Let's have a look at some of the upsides and some of the blind spots. Let's start with those who are most similar to the dynamic leader. We have those with the D type personalities, the dominant types, because it's likely that a dynamic leader will have a shade of D in them, they should be able to relate to those D members on their teams. The Ds are motivated by the dynamic leaders drive to achieve big results and their drive to plow through obstacles and to deal with challenges fast. That's what a D is like as well. Now, if you're a D type, you'll appreciate a leader who is into setting those big, hairy, audacious goals the bhags and then charges decisively towards them.
Julie South [00:07:16]:
DS also align with the dynamics comfort for risk taking and pushing change and innovation forward at a speed wobbling pace most of all, D types relate to leaders who are direct, assertive communicators. However, it's not a good idea always to assume that just because a D is most like the dynamic leader than probably most other personality types, so that everything is going to be plain sailing if you have them on your team with you, just like their leader. Their dynamic leader, Deez want freedom and autonomy to drive outcomes themselves. This means that they can clash with dynamics who might come across as perhaps too controlling around decision making and delegation. Because D's are vision and goal oriented as well. They want to be involved in deciding what the vision is going to be when the dynamic leader charges ahead, driving change at pace without explaining the big picture. De's can sometimes feel overlooked that their ideas and or their input isn't being valued. De's want their ideas considered as well.
Julie South [00:08:36]:
So remember that for dynamic leaders, if that is you and you have other fast paced people on your team, influentials, these are the eye types. Now, they align well with dynamic leaders because they're good at inspiring teams towards big, innovative visions of the future. Eyes appreciate the enthusiasm, the passion and the high energy that the dynamics bring in rallying everyone around towards goals. Eye types also admire the dynamic leaders who motivate through persuasive and charismatic communication and positive acknowledgement. This is what lights up those influentials on the team. They also relate well to the dynamic leader's outgoing and engaging personality. However, eyes value and they prioritize collaboration and collegiality. They want involvement and they want inclusion in coming up with solutions together as a team.
Julie South [00:09:43]:
This means that as a dynamic leader, if you don't do this, they can feel dismissed by dynamic leaders who drive too independently towards their own goals without their team's buy in. Also, by focusing hard on fast results, the eyes feel that their dynamic leaders lack empathy for the teammates who are struggling to keep up with the super fast, the smoking pace that's being set by their dynamic leader. Eyes need more personal reassurance when being stretched by change. This is something the dynamic leaders can overlook if they're not careful because they're in too much of a rush. We also have steadiness, the steady types on a team. Now s's steadies. S's appreciate the dynamic leaders who take the initiative to tackle problems head on rather than pussyfoot around and avoid the difficult issues. The S's the steadies contribute their support and stability to help the dynamic leader achieve their big and bold goals.
Julie South [00:10:59]:
The steadies also admire the persistence and the resilience the dynamics show in overcoming obstacles. However, the shadow the dynamics bold, fast pace of change conflicts and it upsets a bit with the steadys preference for predictable and steady progress towards defined goals. When us dynamics drive change too much, too quickly, too fast, without providing stability, the S types on our team feel anxious and somewhat unsettled. Our blunt, direct communication style can come across as aggressive and or abrasive to the S's. Most of all, the steady types can feel undervalued when dynamics charge ahead, driving change without considering their slower pace of work. So watch out for that if you've got studies on your team as well. Compliance types the C types just to clarify here, because compliance and compliance sound the same, we are talking compliance. That is C o M p L I A N C E, not a N t.
Julie South [00:12:19]:
So it's compliance, not the plural of compliant compliance. Cs relate well to dynamic leaders who take on an analytical driven approach towards decision making and problem solving. They align with their dynamic leaders comfort, pushing of intellectual boundaries with their innovative thinking. If you want to get the best out of your compliance type team member, your C type team member then give them complex issues and puzzles to analyze and solve. Solve. Because this is where they thrive. This is their strong suit. They love using their specialized analytical skills, of which the C types have in spades.
Julie South [00:13:09]:
However, the dynamics desire for fast decisions and constant innovation and bringing about change often conflicts with the sea's attention to detail, their passion for analysis and their desire for structure. When us dynamics drive change too fast without planning the C's on our team, the compliance people on our team feel we overlook potential risks and the importance of accuracy goes by the wayside. Most of all, CS get frustrated when dynamics dismiss their concerns about quality control and managing the unintended consequences in our seemingly to them, relentless push to keep things moving forward and to keep changing. We've just talked about some of the strengths and the possible development areas, in other words, weaknesses development areas for dynamic leaders to be aware of. Now let's look at how this leader might trigger the different disc personality archetypes that they have on their team. Here are some statements that each personality type could use. If that's you and you're feeling a bit triggered by your dynamic leader, the D's, the dominants on your team may feel that you're perhaps too controlling and or dismissive of their ideas as a combination, you and they may have power struggles when it comes to decision making authority. Remember, because the dominants, the D's, are high autonomous and go getters themselves, just like you as their dynamic leader.
Julie South [00:15:05]:
If you're a D, if you're a dominant and you're feeling triggered in this way, you could say something like, I get that you've got big plans and you want things done fast, but sometimes it's like you're shooting down my ideas without even considering them. For me, I need you to hear me out with my ideas. That's the D's, the dominants. Now, if you've got eyes on your team, they may feel deflated and defeated. When you, as the dynamic leader, doesn't pay attention to their needs and you become too task oriented, this is because the influentials on your team are more people than task oriented than you. This means that they might be feeling isolated, perhaps that the people on your team don't even matter to you. If that's you as an influential and your dynamic leader is moving things through just a little bit too fast, they're too task oriented, then this is what you can say when you charge full steam ahead like you do without checking in. I feel like I'm not part of what's going on and that you don't appreciate what I'm doing.
Julie South [00:16:22]:
I need you to dial back the pace a bit now and then, and for us to have a bit more teamwork, because the influentials are team focused. Are people focused now with the studies on your team, the steadiness types, as a dynamic leader with S's on your team, your speed, and what could for them feel like your constant need for change could have them feeling a tad, actually, probably more than a tad overwhelmed to the eyes on your team, you can come across as being aggressive and possibly insensitive. If this is you with a steady and you're on a dynamic leaders team, this is how you might be feeling and this is what you say. I appreciate that you want to shake things up, but when you push big changes through too fast without explaining things, I feel totally stressed out trying to keep up. All of this change unsettles me. I need you to stay the course on one thing and get that done first before you change things up again. So that's for the steadies talking to the dynamic leader, because things are moving forward too fast and there's too much change now for the compliance types on the teams. The C.
Julie South [00:17:47]:
If you are the dynamic leader and you have C's or when you have C's on your team, they may feel like you don't value their expertise and their amazing attention to detail because you drive and rush decisions without thinking things through. They want thorough analysis, which is their thing. It's not yours. If analysis is your thing and you're feeling a bit discombobulated by your dynamic leader, here's what you can say to them. When you keep skipping the essential research and plough ahead with your half baked ideas, I feel like none of my research even matters to you. It's like you have no idea how risky it is to move this fast without assessing all of the possibilities, all of the downsides. I need you to take my research into account. This last statement has shades of what I hear from time to time from my husband.
Julie South [00:18:47]:
He's known in my family for his analysis prowess and his research skills because I'm a get things done type of person person. His propensity for to research everything drives me crazy sometimes, but to him, research and analysis are critical. They're important. He needs to know all the potential pros and cons in the absolute. What feels to me like the most minutest detail, what I see as being sometimes analogous, he sees as being critical. Research us dynamic leaders appreciate the research, we really do, but we don't want to be paralyzed by it. This is where the term analysis paralysis came from. I hope you found this helpful as a way to understand yourself a little bit better and how you might relate to someone who has dynamic leadership, personality style, style.
Julie South [00:19:52]:
Or if that's you, how do you can relate to others on your team? Next week we're going to look at the inspiring leader. These are described as those who are charming, motivational, and persuasive. So remember to click that follow button on your podcast app of choice so you don't miss out on that episode. Have you ever wondered what makes you tick? Well, taking the disc personality profile assessment gives you that information, plus how to gel better with other people. For leaders, you'll discover your leadership style and strength when everyone in your clinic has been assessed. Your team's collaboration and collegiality levels will go through the roof because everyone understands everyone else better. Interested to know more? Then please get in touch. Julietaff congratulations on getting this far.
Julie South [00:20:55]:
You're part of an elite group of listeners who have made it all the way to the end. I'm going to assume that you've liked what you've heard. Therefore, can you do me a favor, please, and help spread the Vetstaff podcast? Love all you have to do is share it with three veterinary friends who are maybe losing their mojo, or your manager because you can see. See what we've talked about today, being beneficial to your clinic. Thank you. Doing that will help rekindle the passion that you all had when you started studying and will help you get excited about going to work on Monday mornings. 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 [00:21:48]:
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