The Power of Diversity

There is a lot of power in diversity. Teams built on the unique and valuable contribution of each member are more innovative, better at solving problems, and more able to make decisions that serve the organization as a whole.

People tend to be more content in a diverse environment where everyone feels appreciated and their opinions are valued. Diverse organizations have higher employee retention and for good reasons.

Understanding Yourself and Others

It takes skill to understand yourself and others. We all have strengths and blind spots. The more diverse our team, the greater the challenges are. As Malcom Forbes said, "Diversity is the art of thinking independently together."

It is a reality of working with others that sometimes we struggle to understand why people behave the way that they do.

That is why tools like the DISC personal assessment are so essential. To learn more about your personality style, take the DISC assessment on our website. Then, use our training modules to understand yourself and others in ways you never thought possible.

Key Strengths of Personality Styles

There are four main types in the DISC personality assessment:

1. The Dominant Driving Doer Type includes people who are good at overcoming obstacles, seeing the big picture, getting results, and pushing the group ahead.
2. The Inspiring Influencing Impulsive Type includes people who are good at persuading others, expressing ideas, creating enthusiasm, and fostering harmony.
3. The Steady Stable Supportive Type includes people who are good at maintaining an even temper, being a team player, building loyalty, and seeing an easier way to do things.
4. The Competent Cautious Careful Type includes people who are good at maintaining focus, being systematic, thinking logically and evaluating situations.

Most people have some traits from multiple styles and to varying degrees.

Personality Styles Working Together

To show the power of diversity, let's imagine a scenario that your organization may have experienced in recent months.

Imagine that you were planning a large in-person event. Then, the pandemic began, and it was no longer possible to gather in person. There wasn't a lot of time to figure out how to adjust. It was essential to work together and cancelling the event would be bad for the organization.

Fortunate for you, your team had people who are dominant in each of the four DISC personality styles.

1. The Dominant Driving Doer member of your team could see the big picture and quickly came up with good ideas for a virtual gathering that would achieve the business results needed.
2. The Inspiring Influencing Impulsive member of your team helped build consensus, clarified ideas so everyone could understand, and increased enthusiasm for the new direction.
3. The Steady Stable Supportive member kept things even-tempered in spite of the stressful circumstances and helped everyone remember they are part of a team.
4. The Competent Cautious Careful Type made sure there was a logical plan, kept everyone on track, and was ready to evaluate the results after the event was held.

Knowing each person's strengths and welcoming the diversity of the team led to a successful event, even though it had to be planned quickly.

What TEAM Means

This is a simplified description of a how a diverse team of personalities can work well together. For a complete understanding of the unique diversity in your team, explore our new Understanding Your Wiring to Understand Others training program.

As Robert Rohm says, TEAM means that Together Everyone Achieves More.

Your Friends,
The UpCloseTeam