Everyone encounters challenging personalities from time to time, but professionals in the corporate world often face a unique set of interpersonal dynamics. Whether it’s dealing with demanding clients, navigating office politics, or managing challenging personalities and clashes among team members, corporate professionals are constantly surrounded by diverse personalities and potential conflicts.
The truth is that anyone, even ourselves, can become “challenging” under enough stress or pressure. Often, challenging relationship dynamics arise from a lack of understanding of how our own personality style’s values, preferences, or priorities clash with those of others. Therefore, the key to successfully navigating interactions with others, including difficult individuals, is to increase our self-awareness by understanding our own behavioral patterns and those of our colleagues.
We all have a unique personality style that shapes our priorities, communication preferences, strengths, weaknesses, and reactions to stress. By gaining a deeper understanding of our own behavioral blueprint and those of others, we become more equipped to manage our reactions and those of others, no matter how challenging they may seem.
A Strategic Tool for Managing Challenging Personalities in the Workplace
A valuable tool we’ve successfully used to help corporate professionals navigate challenging personalities is the DiSC Personality Style Assessment (“DiSC”). With a history spanning nearly 100 years and used by millions worldwide, DiSC provides insights into both our own innate personality styles and those of the people around us. This knowledge directly translates to better understanding, more effective communication, increased collaboration, healthier conflict resolution, and stronger workplace relationships.
Understanding the Four Primary Personality Styles
Let’s explore the four primary DiSC personality styles and explore strategies for effectively managing interactions with each: Dominance (“D”), Influence (“I”), Steadiness (“S”), and Conscientiousness (“C”):
The D Style (“Let’s Get It Done!”)
D-style individuals are fast-paced, driven, direct, decisive, self-confident, and daring. Motivated by winning, competition, success, and achievement, they value swift action, concrete results, competence, personal freedom, and flexibility. Their biggest fears are losing control, being taken advantage of, and appearing vulnerable. Their communication style is direct and to the point, sometimes perceived as curt or unappreciative.
Under stress: D-style individuals can become explosive, resorting to yelling, interrupting, or dismissing others. They express opinions bluntly and may appear to bulldoze over others.
To manage this style: Address issues quickly and directly, without challenging their authority. Instead, focus on helping them achieve their goals and maintain a big-picture perspective. Avoid taking their directness personally and address any inappropriate language calmly and professionally.
The I Style (“Let’s Do It Together!”)
I-style individuals are charming, collaborative, trusting, enthusiastic, and persuasive. Specifically, they are motivated by social recognition, teamwork, and relationship building. They value motivating and inspiring others, as well as expressing themselves freely. Their fears include social rejection, disapproval, loss of influence, and being ignored or isolated.
Under stress: I-style individuals can become overly emotional and seek attention. Their frustration often stems from having to perform repetitive tasks or being unable to express themselves openly.
To manage this style: Avoid personal attacks, acknowledge their feelings, and reassure them about the relationship. Show enthusiasm for their work or offer assistance to alleviate their frustration.
The S Style (“Let Me Help You Do It”)
S-style individuals are calm, patient, diplomatic, deliberate, stable, warm, and loyal. Motivated by cooperation, sincere appreciation, and stable environments, they actively seek to help others. They value loyalty, helping others, security, stability, and predictability. Their fears include loss of stability through sudden changes, loss of harmony, and offending others.
Under stress: S-style individuals tend to withdraw or become passive-aggressive. They experience stress when dealing with confrontation, sudden changes, or feeling unappreciated.
To manage this style: Address conflicts directly but without confrontation. Instead, avoid forceful tactics while still acknowledging the conflict. Show sincere interest in resolving the issue and actively listen to their concerns.
The C Style (“Let’s Do This Right”)
C-style individuals are cautious, systematic, private, objective, analytical, accurate, and reserved. Motivated by gaining knowledge, demonstrating expertise, and producing quality work, they value quality, precision, logic, and accuracy. Their fears include being criticized, wrong, or accused of using sloppy methods.
Under stress: C-style individuals become overly critical, avoidant, disagreeable, or even hostile. They are frustrated by having to deal with emotional or erratic people, not having enough time for thorough analysis, or being rushed into unprepared situations.
To manage this style: Focus on objective facts, avoid pressuring them for immediate decisions and appreciate their skepticism as a means of ensuring quality. In conflicts, rely on logic and facts rather than emotions, and give them space to process before confronting issues.
Implementing DiSC in Your Organization
DiSC can be seamlessly integrated into various aspects of your organization’s development programs. Consider incorporating it into leadership training, onboarding processes for new employees, team-building workshops, or individual coaching sessions.
In addition to personalized assessment reports, DISC offers “Comparison Reports” between any two employees, “Team View” reports, and “Group Culture” reports for no extra cost. Facilitated DISC-based workshops are also excellent for team building and live kick-off sessions for long-term training programs.
If you are curious to see what a sample report looks like, please click here for the following DISC-related resources:
- Video:
- Introduction to DiSC Workplace Personality Profile Assessment
- Sample Reports:
- Sample DiSC Workplace Personality Profile Report
- Sample DiSC Comparison Reports:
- Sample Comparison Person A to Person B
- Sample Comparison Person B to Person A
- Sample DiSC Team View Report
- Sample DiSC Group Culture Report
DiSC: A Pathway to Improved Workplace Dynamics
When it comes to the corporate world, challenging personalities are a reality. However, under stress, anyone can become reactive and difficult. The key to managing challenging personalities lies in understanding their behavioral patterns and approaching interactions with empathy and compassion. Often, challenging behavior stems from feeling threatened or triggered. Ultimately, by putting aside our egos and focusing on understanding others with empathy and self-awareness, we create a more positive and productive work environment for everyone.
