Market It With ATMA

Personality Profiling: The Key to Self-Awareness and Career Success P3:14 Consulting

• Advent Trinity Marketing Agency • Season 4 • Episode 32

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Dan Dalton, founder of P314 Consulting, shares how understanding personality profiling can help young adults make better career choices and improve family communication dynamics. His 30+ years of experience in leadership and HR led him to develop a program that helps identify personality types and leverage their strengths.

• P314 Consulting focuses on self-awareness and personality profiling to improve communication
• Dan uses the DISC personality assessment to identify four main types: D (dominant/drivers), I (includers), S (social justice/fairness), and C (detail-oriented)
• Understanding your personality type helps identify how you make decisions and recharge
• Everyone has at least one dominant trait, with some having up to three strong traits
• Knowing your personality type can help young adults choose appropriate career paths
• Parents can better support their children by understanding personality differences
• The assessment takes only 30 minutes, followed by a family debriefing session
• Both students and parents report "aha moments" that improve family dynamics
• Personality types aren't rigid - people can develop skills in non-dominant areas when needed

For more information or to connect with Dan, email him at: dan@p314consulting.com


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Storie:

Welcome back to Market it with Atma, where we share the tips, tools and strategies to help your business be successful. Today, we have a very special guest on the show, mr Dan Dalton. And strategies to help your business be successful. Today we have a very special guest on the show, mr Dan Dalton, who comes to us with over 30 years of experience in leadership, hr and professional development, and he is now the proud owner and founder of P314 Consulting. Welcome, dan, how are you?

Dan:

I'm doing fine. Thanks for having me Story.

Storie:

I'm so glad you reached out, because this is something that I've never heard of before. So can you tell us a little bit about what your business is, that you've created and your vision?

Dan:

Exactly Well, basically, I wanted to continue the consulting type work that I did as a professional human resources, getting myself in front of people who just need to know a little bit more about themselves. The basis of what P314 Consulting does is centered around self-awareness and personality profiling to improve communication, to improve just the understanding of where one is in their life, how they think, how they develop. And self-awareness is the starting point of personal development, either professionally or personal absolutely, and I know that.

Storie:

Um, recently I did a lot of different assessments to see who I was, and sometimes, based on the day, it was a little bit different when I did them, but it was very eye-opening. So can you tell me a little bit more about why this vision came to you and what need you're trying to help people with? Well, let me tell me a little bit more about why this vision came to you and what need you're trying to help people with well, let me tell you a little story about myself that kind of really brought it all home.

Dan:

When I was in high school and in college I was. I was pretty popular, I was involved, I was on the baseball team, was in the choir, but I wasn't necessarily a starter or didn't really do the solos. I was even in drama and didn't have the lead roles, but my best friends did. And I was halfway through my career and learning about personality profiles and it struck me all of a sudden I was in number two.

Dan:

I was the best friend of the leaders and I wasn't actually stepping out and taking advantage of those leadership opportunities myself. Okay. And once I began to understand just sort of how I think, how I process information, how I make decisions, I began to start looking into how can I help people come to this realization a little bit earlier in life than I did. Yeah.

Dan:

I happen to have a lot of friends that have kids who are in high school and early stages of college. And so I started just asking questions and, lo and behold, there was a lot of them who felt you know, I went to school because this is where my parents wanted me to go, or this is where my family goes, or I'm going to be an accountant because that's what dad wants, or mom wants me to be this. Yeah.

Dan:

And there was a lot of them that were changing majors, a lot of them that were repeating school, a lot of them that got comfortable being at school because they weren't really sure how to make those adult decisions.

Storie:

Do you feel like that's because they had to follow that lead from their parents. They weren't really looking for what was really making them happy.

Dan:

Exactly, and it's not anything that was, you know, a negative of their upbringing or anything. It's just that you know we have a lot of kids right now that were never allowed to fail, so they didn't. They were missing out on some learning opportunities early in life. I learned a long time ago that you can have a loss, but you only dwell on a loss long enough to learn from it. I love that when you move forward.

Dan:

The name of my company is P314. It stands for Philippians 314. And the Dan Dalton paraphrase of it is that I forget what has gone behind. I strive forward to that to which I've been called. I love it. That's the goal of my company. I want to be able to help individuals, either in business or youth, to really kind of understand you know, am I an extrovert or an introvert? Am I detail-oriented or do I make decisions based on more what feels right, right and the idea of the personality profile? From. There.

Dan:

A lot of times, the early profiles that were being used did not seem to have a lot of flexibility or make people think that they could be more than one personality type.

Storie:

Okay, okay, pigeonhole them, right, okay.

Dan:

But more understanding is that there's usually like four personality profiles or personality types.

Storie:

Typically there's those ranges of four.

Dan:

Everybody has one dominant trait.

Storie:

Okay.

Dan:

Some even have two or three that are dominant, but nobody has all four.

Storie:

Oh my goodness, that seems stressful to have all four. Yeah, so tell me about that.

Dan:

Well, for instance, one of the tools that I use is John Maxwell's DISC. Okay, disc is four different personality styles D, I, s and C.

Storie:

Okay, d is the dominant.

Dan:

They're the ones that just go, go, go. They're what some people refer to as that type A personality.

Storie:

I got you.

Dan:

They want people to get to the point and move on. Yeah. The next one over is the I, and they're the includers. They're the ones that like to be included. Their catchphrase might be put me in, coach, I'm ready to play. What sport are we playing? They're trying though, right and and they want to be involved. Their kryptonite is feeling like they've been left out okay the s is the ones.

Dan:

These are the social justice kind of people. These are the ones that want everybody to be okay. They want to the decision to benefit as many people as possible, and their kryptonite is when somebody is not being treated fair, and the C is the detail for you people. These are the ones that like to have information. They like to have data. Life has meaning when it fits in an Excel spreadsheet.

Storie:

Very analytical, exactly, okay, okay.

Dan:

And there's an interplay between all four of them. You could have somebody that's very driven but also wants to be included, but the opposites, like the I and the C, the one that likes to be included, with the ones that like detail. I am a really strong I. I lead with my I.

Storie:

Okay.

Dan:

When I was in human resources, one of my jobs was an employee relations investigator.

Storie:

Oh, wow so.

Dan:

I had to go in and look into the the nasty, gnarly things that happen in businesses sometimes. I love the chase to find out what happened. I love the hunt for the truth almost like an investigator exactly.

Storie:

Yeah, well, it very much really was but I hated writing the report.

Dan:

you know, I for me to be tied to that computer and banging away on that, on the details that I had found out and that I was very joyfully finding out, but then to sit there for two hours and write that report, that was the toughest part for me.

Storie:

You're like I already know. Let's move on. The excitement's over.

Dan:

Exactly, exactly. So how did you?

Storie:

translate that? How do you translate? Once you figure out someone's personality, how does it translate into what kind of leadership or position they should walk into?

Dan:

Well, that's the beautiful thing is that you doesn't necessarily have to have a particular personality type to be a leader. Right, you can lead in almost anything that you do, as long as you know how you make decisions and how you recharge your batteries.

Storie:

That's a great point actually. I mean because earlier in life, had I known like, okay, this is my personality and this is who I mesh with or don't mesh with, it would have made my life a little bit easier, I think you know Well and the greatest thing enhancement of that, regardless of what your role is is the improvement of your communication, absolutely.

Dan:

If you know how I take in and give out information, but, more importantly, if I know how you best take in information, then I can flex to what you're seeking, so that our communication is more meaningful. Absolutely. One of my roles as a human resources professional is I supported a very detail-oriented individual.

Storie:

Group of employees Right Okay okay, they were engineers. Oh wow, very analytical, very analytical, okay, okay.

Dan:

I knew when I met with them that. I had to have data, I had to have bullet points. That they were and they think in bullet points, they think in relational things.

Storie:

Black and white right.

Dan:

Exactly. Okay. Exactly. I had to help them understand that what I needed is confirmation every so often that I was on the right track in delivering what I needed to deliver for them. They had trouble. In fact, one of my boss said I don't do that.

Storie:

That's at least he was honest.

Dan:

He was, but again, it was very black and white. It was either on or off, and so when you, when you're in that environment, where you've learned to flex and that you end up developing some skills in a personality, portion of your personality, that's not necessarily dominant but it allows you to draw on them as needed almost like building a muscle a little bit stronger, precisely okay but just like you're, when you're building a muscle or using a muscle you don't use very often, you get more tired quickly.

Storie:

It becomes exhausting.

Dan:

So you know, after meetings with those engineers I had to go take some me time.

Storie:

I'm sure that sounds. The mental strain is almost as hard as the workout, the physical strain right? So did they. Were they ever more acceptant to what your needs were?

Dan:

Once we could start showing some success in what the initiatives were, they began to realize okay, this is what I need to keep Dan fueled. Okay. To do what he needs to do for us, and I knew, just like I knew, that I needed to come to them with data. So, whenever we did have a success, I needed to come back with the measures of what the success brought man, you know that's.

Storie:

I never thought about how that also helps other people, when you know what you need and you deliver it to what to them. So they know what you need.

Dan:

They're learning too my wife is a C, she is a very you're an I and she's a C.

Storie:

Oh, okay.

Dan:

So when I get excited about wanting to make a decision for the family, I make the decision, or want to make the decision, based on the emotional high of it or the benefit of it. This is what we're going to get out of this. This is wonderful. How much does it cost? How much time will it take?

Storie:

Oh.

Dan:

And I can make a decision spur of the moment. She needs time and over time I understand that I've got to give her time. I can't give her a short deadline, because she reverts to the note.

Storie:

The note, the note Right right.

Dan:

With a shorter period of time because they don't have enough data.

Storie:

You know what, I'm sure our audience too. I envision someone I know. In both of those I am very much the spur of the moment. My husband is very much give me information, let me know ahead of time, or things are going to be bad, you know. And so that's interesting because everyone has, I guess, at least one of those quadrants right, exactly, at least one of those quadrants right, exactly At least one, and perhaps even a strength in up to three. My goodness.

Dan:

So can you imagine someone who is a real driver, somebody that sense of urgency is key. Uh-huh but also is strong in the social justice area or wanting to be fair with everybody. So they want fairness and they want it now.

Storie:

Oh, okay, I see.

Dan:

Well, the C people are going to, people who lead with C are going to say, well, what's it going to cost us to get there? How many people are we going to affect? And the people who lead with I are going to say how can I help? And how many people do we need to include with? This and the people who lead with S are saying well, how many people are going to be benefited?

Storie:

Right, right right.

Dan:

And the person who leads with D, the driver, is going to say how quickly can we get this done?

Storie:

It's all about optimizing. Okay. So, with that being said, now that we all know we have at least one of those and we're all going to investigate, why did you pick this specific age range and kiddos getting out of school and going into college? I know it's a big milestone in life and I wish I had someone like you to help me with that. But how does this convert into helping them in the next step in life and I wish I had someone like you to help me with that, but how does this convert into helping them in the next step in life?

Dan:

I think that if one thing it does, it allows them to understand the last couple years of high school of what they can lean into, that really feeds their dominant personality type wonderful if they want to be inclusive, then manage the inclusiveness so that we can still get the schoolwork done. But be on the team, be in the choir, be in the show.

Dan:

Right that sort of thing, but the parents need to understand how they need to flex to help support the growth. I had a client where I was talking with their 15-year-old daughter. The 15-year-old daughter was very much like me, very much an I likes to be included. She was in the choir, she was on the volleyball team and was doing well, and doing well in school too. She's making good choices. She's making good grades. This was a revelation to her dad, who leads with a strong, detail-oriented personality type.

Dan:

And I could see, as we were debriefing, he was beginning to plan and structure her involvement. I said okay wait, it doesn't work that way. You can't force your detail into her involvement.

Storie:

Wow.

Dan:

Because it will stifle her desire to be involved. If she thinks she has to give you a report and give you all the stats of her volleyball game, at the end of the day it's going to ruin her involvement. Wow her involvement, Wow. So be the structure she needs as her dad. But don't kind of force your personality dominance on hers.

Storie:

Wow, so you're really doing a full circle. It's almost like a therapy session without the therapy right To an extent.

Dan:

Yeah, I don't have those credentials.

Storie:

Just educating each other, though, is so important. I'm sure that little girl was like tell him, tell him.

Dan:

Well, and it opened up an avenue of more enhanced communication.

Storie:

Wonderful.

Dan:

But at the same time, when she understood that her opposite or her lowest part of her personality profile was not detail oriented, then she automatically said I I probably would not make a very good accountant. I'm probably not going to make a very good attorney because I'm not that detail-oriented. Now I's might be good litigators, but they're going to have to depend on somebody to do a lot of the research.

Storie:

Yeah, and the push to it Right.

Dan:

So there are some personality types that lean toward each of the different personality strengths here. The true leadership and visionary people are the dominant, the d's right, the sales people, the marketing people are people who lean toward the I the s people. Those are definitely your people that are going to be associated with customer service. And your C type people. Those are your administrative people. Those are the people that are in the accounting department.

Storie:

They're doing the books and in turn, it seems like it would allow and give these they're not kids young adults the ability to almost receive more gratification from what they're doing, because they're leaning into things that they've already realized through. This is something that they enjoy doing, right.

Dan:

Yes, and it feeds them, it feeds them.

Storie:

That's great doing right.

Dan:

Yes, and it feeds them. It feeds them. That's great. You know the? If you can picture a circle, the D and the I are at the top of the circle. Okay. The S and the C are at the bottom of the circle.

Storie:

Okay.

Dan:

So those are their four quadrants of the circle. People are in the upper part. The D and I personality types are extroverts. Now that extrovert doesn't mean the thing that normally pops into your head of the lampshade on the head kind of person.

Storie:

I'm going to go out there and take everybody dancing.

Dan:

But it is. How do they recharge their batteries? An extrovert calls their friends together and goes and does something goes to the ball game, goes to movie, goes out to dinner. Those are, that's the extrovert, because that recharges them being with their tribe. Introverts are not necessarily just wallflowers.

Dan:

They're the ones that they recharge their battery by being in their favorite chair in their pink fuzzies, reading their favorite book, you know, and just kind of coming into their inner sanctum. So the introvert, extrovert thing, the left side, or the D's and the C's, make decisions based on fact, information and data. The I's and the S's make their decisions based on what feels right Now. Both can appreciate the other. As an I, somebody who leads primarily with I and has a lot of S characteristics in my personality, I appreciate the data. I was a banker for 10 years before I became a human resources professional.

Dan:

I appreciate the data and the importance, but at the end of the day, I'm going to make a decision based on what I feel is best and fair and feels best Right.

Storie:

With a little bit of black and white kind of affirming that decision Exactly, okay. Okay, now how we? You kind of were talking to me before the show. What is your process? You mentioned you had three different categories that you kind of walk these young adults through.

Dan:

Yeah Well, it's three different tools. I'm licensed in three different profiling tools.

Storie:

So you're actually licensed in this.

Dan:

Licensed or certified.

Storie:

Wow, okay, tell me more about the tools.

Dan:

Well, two of them are a version of DISC, like we've been talking about. One of them is John Maxwell's version of DISC. The other is one from a company called Wiley and it's called Everything DISC. Same basic setup of the D, the I, the S and the C.

Dan:

The other is one called Insights Discovery, and it's a similar tool that's out of the UK. I love their because their material is just really well developed, but it's pretty much the same for categories. The algorithm's just a little bit different. Okay, but again, all three of these show a flex between the different type, whereas some of the profiles tend to make you think like you're stuck is either one or the other.

Storie:

I see, I see and this is a variance of questions that they ask you, or are they a multiple choice or agree, disagree, things like that.

Dan:

They're, they're which would you rather? Type questions okay, and they're going to be on a dichotomy of things, so you might have something that is a very eye-related characteristic and a C-related characteristic and you ask okay, which would you rather?

Storie:

Oh, okay, okay.

Dan:

Or they may say here are four pairs. Okay. What are you most like, what are you least like? And of the other two, pick one of the two spots in the middle. So you've got four slots. You've got to fill all four slots. So one, two, three or four in priority order.

Storie:

You know this sounds a lot like. I mean, I think a lot of companies are adapting this personality profile when they have applicants to see which will fit. So knowing, on the other side of it, the person applying, knowing what your personality is and kind of gearing more towards those positions, would almost save both the employer and the employee time right.

Dan:

There are companies that are using this. I do need to be. You have to be careful. Oh okay, because there's not many of these tools that are actually validated as a selection tool, so you could use the information to help you differentiate your candidates. But it could be potentially unlawful for somebody to base the decision solely on a personality type, because of the lack of validation.

Storie:

Oh see, and this is why it's so important, they have you, okay. So now, once you've established with that person what their personality type is, what's the next step?

Dan:

Okay, the next step is then to debrief with all of the stakeholders.

Storie:

Okay.

Dan:

In the case of my youth initiative, it's going to be with the families, and I've had a couple of families that actually had siblings that were close enough of age and, in the range the other families that I've had, the siblings have not participated, but it does help even to have the siblings in there, because I've actually had siblings that rated out as being very, very different rated out as being very, very different. So you know, and we've all seen the dynamics in family of siblings that are just wired differently.

Storie:

Very much so.

Dan:

But I've also seen I've got one family that I did where these two sisters were very, very similar. They were both very much in the same personality profile type. Their dad is a software engineer and is very, very technically oriented but has a lot of the S-type characteristics in his profile. So he's basically on that bottom part of the circle between the. C and the S.

Storie:

Wow. So what were the girls?

Dan:

The girls were both a mixture of I and S.

Storie:

Oh nice. So once you've established that and you have that intake with the family, letting them know, you kind of guide them. I would assume the next point which is okay, this is what you would succeed in, or can you help me with that part?

Dan:

to an extent, maxwell John Maxwell does have a profile in their youth initiative. That does it takes the algorithms and shows them potential career categories.

Storie:

Wow.

Dan:

That will help them figure out. You know, perhaps this is and they're pretty exhaustive lists in each of the showing the strengths of the different personality types.

Storie:

Wow. Well, that's a lot less exhausting than completely changing your major and losing thousands of dollars. Right, Exactly.

Dan:

It could be very depending upon the school you know two semesters could be $10,000, 50, $60,000.

Storie:

Absolutely. I think I mentioned this on another podcast. My sister-in-law is one of those great student right Goes in and starts her law degree I mean going all the way through it and then decides I want to be a nurse. Completely changes. You know how expensive that is. It's incredible.

Storie:

So I'm sure that, from a parent's point of view, you helping establish this at the end of the day is really going to allow them to save a lot for the next kiddo in line right, that's the hope, that's the idea behind it. I absolutely love this so have you seen a lot of feedback from the people you've helped so far.

Dan:

Yes, the pilot group that I did to start this initiative. We're all friends, so I asked them candid questions. I said is this something that, first of all, that you find value in?

Dan:

And they said yes, I said, not only in helping their young one navigate through the tail end high school, the early parts of college, their young one navigate through the tail end high school, the early parts of college, but also they could see the benefit in the inner dynamics of their, of their family relationships as well. Said okay, is this something that you would pay for? Right because I'd love to be able to do it. You know pro bono for everybody of course, but the idea of a business is you know?

Dan:

because the irs says if you do this for three years, don't make any money, it's a business? Is you know? Because the IRS says if you do this for three years and don't make any money, it's a hobby?

Storie:

Oh, that's interesting. That's interesting. I need to remember that.

Dan:

So I've had some good feedback that everybody that I've done through the pilot and there were six families that went through the pilot have all said, yeah, this is beneficial information.

Storie:

It's valuable.

Dan:

And there were aha moments for the kids as well.

Storie:

Wow, so they have to be receptive to it right, Certainly. They have to actually take the advice. So about how long is the program from start to finish once someone says, hey, I'm interested in pretty much you helping me figure out where I want to go.

Dan:

It takes. The profile itself takes less than 30 minutes to complete. Okay, and it's about 64 questions and they're they're not, you know, mind-bending questions.

Storie:

Right.

Dan:

The assessment comes back. I usually take about an hour to debrief it with the family, but I let that be what it will be. If the discussion is rich and they were still going at the end of an hour, we keep going. Okay, great I'm not gonna let the time clock interrupt some good friction conversation, which is wonderful at the end of an hour we keep going. Okay, great, I'm not gonna let the time clock interrupt some good friction conversation, which is wonderful.

Storie:

At the end of the day, I mean, what you're doing is very, um inspiring, that you, you want to help these kids and you found an area of growth even for I think this would be a wonderful thing for foster kids. Yeah, coming out of the foster care system, I mean a lot of them um come out not knowing what to do. You know at 18, they have to go. So, um, I I feel like it would be very valuable for kiddos like that If, if you could have, you know, some of the nonprofits come to you and ask you to come in and help these guys.

Dan:

I hadn't even thought about that particular population, but those kids that are at that point where they're having to take charge.

Storie:

Yes, whether you want to or not, right.

Dan:

Yeah, of a life that they have probably had very little opportunity to take charge of, absolutely.

Storie:

It's probably a little intimidating too to have someone like you that's been trained in hr for so long very level-headed. Obviously I'm sure you had to be um kind of helping them navigate not making them feel ignorant for asking those questions oh yeah, yeah, there's. There's no dumb questions and that's wonderful to hear from, especially somebody that's been through corporate america and worked for fortune 500 companies that you've got to ask a question or make a mistake to learn right.

Dan:

Exactly.

Storie:

At the end of the day.

Dan:

You've got to be able to recover from mistakes. I mean from Philippians. Absolutely. But, at the same time, you can't measure growth if you don't have a starting point from which to measure.

Storie:

Wow, and you're doing a great thing by walking, walking these people through it, something they don't even know they probably need right.

Dan:

It is a discovery. There is some discovery there.

Storie:

That's so funny you say that because at Advent Trinity we were very structured in our processes and the first portion of our process is actually called the discovery. So it's funny that you mentioned that and that's pretty much deep diving into what you are, who you are and how it needs to flow. So it's very similar to that. Everybody needs a process. I've found out in life. You can't just wing it all the time. But finally, your message. What would you tell our listeners who are inspired by your message? How can they reach you? How can they talk with you more about this?

Dan:

I don't. My website is under construction. I can help you with that, by the way, oh great, I definitely need the assistance, but my email is dan at p314consultingcom. No dashes or anything like that. No dashes, no nothing.

Storie:

Okay, great. And then I ask everyone at the end of the show you guys already know if there was one thing that you can go back and tell yourself or tell a new business owner or entrepreneur you wish you would have known back then, you wish that you could tell them now what would it be?

Dan:

you would have known back then. You wish that you could tell them now. What would it be? It would be that you know, do the analysis so that you can start whatever you're going to do with the peace of mind of the time that you've given yourself to do it. Yeah, I was not prepared to do this five years ago, you know. Granted, I've been. I've received some blessing that I can do this at this time of my life, that it's allowed me the time to do it, and do it slowly, and do it, you know, build it carefully.

Storie:

Right.

Dan:

But at the same time you've got to get to the point where you're. Take the courage to just hold your nose and jump. Oh, I love that. You do it in a calculated way.

Storie:

Yeah, you have to have a strong foundation of a house before you can build the frame in the house. Right, exactly, that's wonderful advice. I'm going to take that one too, if that's okay. Sure, well, thank you, dan, and I hope later in the year you can come back on the show and give us an update and some more success stories.

Dan:

I'd love to Thank you very much, awesome.

Storie:

And for all of our listeners out there, Dan's information will be in the information below, If you'll just click on it. Give him a shout. I'm sure he'd love to hear from you and help you Until next time. Bye-bye.