Personality Profiles (Disc) - Part 2
This is chapter 2 in my seminars on personality profiles.
As mentioned in chapter one, I will discuss the 4 different personality types of most human beings. There are several Personality Profile Systems in use today. I will be using a very popular Personality Profile System called DISC.
This is chapter two, and it is titled "Identifying the 4 different types of personalities". In this chapter we are going to separate people into 2 types, or groups. The first is called extroverts, or outgoing type people; while the second is called introverts, or shy type people. Extroverts are those who have no problem in talking to strangers or expressing themselves to anybody that is interested in listening. These people find it very easy to mix with others and make friends quickly. You will find them at parties or at meetings engaged in group conversations. Often they have the habit of interrupting others to tell their stories. In short, they are very sociable and find themselves very comfortable in the company of others.
The other group of people are made up of the shy types; or as we call them, introverts. This group of people does not mix with others very well at all. They are very shy. They will never start a conversation. Even when approached to talk, they tend to shy away and find it difficult to carry on a conversation. These introverts tend to keep to themselves, while the extroverts go out of their way to find others to be around. The introverts are often found by themselves engaged in activities they prefer to do by themselves. They are more comfortable being alone.
To help you understand these differences; and the names we use to identify them, I will ask you to prepare a picture or drawing that will make it very easy for you to understand. On a plain piece of paper draw a circle. Divide the circle into 2 halves by drawing a line across the middle of the circle. Now you should have a circle with a horizontal line from east to west. You now have divided the circle into the upper half and the lower half. At the top of the upper half write the word "Extrovert" or "Outgoing" or both, whichever is more comfortable for you. Now in the same way write the word "Introvert" or "Shy" at the bottom half of the circle. It should look like my drawing below.
Now let us turn our attention to splitting these 2 types into 2 additional groups. The first type focuses on tasks. That is they are what we call task oriented. The second type are people oriented. They focus more on people and their feelings, while the task oriented people do not care so much about people and their feelings.
Task oriented people will often focus so heavily on their task that they often ignore the feelings of others. In addition, they often hurt peoples feelings without meaning to.
On the other hand, people oriented types place the feelings of others first. They care more about what other people feel and think than they do about themselves. Others come first is their philosophy. Because of this feeling for others, they often have trouble focusing on a task or finishing a job. While task oriented people often have no trouble making decisions, people oriented types have a very difficult time making decisions.
Again, to assist you in identifying where these 2 types fit in, take the drawing and now draw a vertical line from North to South dividing the circle once again into 2 halves left half and right half. Write the word "Task" on the left half and the word "People" on the right half. You should now have the circle divided into 4 parts. See the drawing below:
So now what happens if we combine the 4 types? People either fall into mainly one of the 4. Either they are Extrovert + Task oriented, Extrovert + People oriented, Introvert + Task oriented or Introvert + People oriented. All of these 4 have been given an identity type. The top left, or Extrovert + Task types are known as "D" types. The top right, or Extrovert + People types are known as "I" types. Bottom right, or Introvert + People types are known as "S" types. Finally the last corner, Introvert + Task types are known as "C" types. (see drawing below)
D I
C S
In the next 4 chapters we will discuss each type in turn. We will learn their characteristics and how we should deal with them in order to communicate effectively.
Thank you very much.
