It is important for student affairs professional to be self-aware and understand how they work and how that affects a working environment with others. Last week I took the DISC Personality Assessment. The results showed that my natural style fluctuates between a high I (Influence) - 40% and a high S (Steadiness) – 40% with low C (Conscientiousness) – 20% and a very low D (Dominance) – 0%. Depending on the environment, I can be very calm and stable but in other environments, I can be the life of the party and full of energy. I am a very friendly and loving person and that shows in all of the work that I do. I am people oriented and really value connections with others so it is no surprise to me that my D-style is low. When it comes to dealing with serious situations and conduct issues, my C-style rarely comes out in my role as residence director. My perceived need to adjust falls heavily on my I-style. I think that this stems from working in a freshman residence hall. Many of the residents in the hall look up to me and it is important for me to interact with them and maintain a great relationship with them.
When I am working with others, I like taking a step back and allowing everyone to get their thoughts, suggestions, and ideas out. I tend to go with the flow and allow the leader to allocate tasks for everyone to do. It is not until I do not like something or disagree with something where I step in and voice my opinion. Nevertheless, I try to make sure that everyone’s voice is heard first and I tend to put everyone else’s needs first. In addition, while working with others, I like to feel that I am valued and that my work is good (moderately). Too much appraisal does not satisfy me and comes off disingenuous. Unless it is a topic that I am really interested in or very confident in, I go with the flow and do not put in much input in group projects. My influence-style in other environments can come off as very annoying. I think If I assess the room and the personalities of the people around me, I will be able to adapt and tone down my influence-style and match the styles of others. I do not like working with “D’s” and very high “C’s”. I feel that these two styles would micromanage me and be too critical of everything that I am doing. When trying to figure out the styles of some of my staff members, I realized that I have one very high “D”/ “C” on my staff. Observing, assessing, and recognizing the different styles of the people I work with will be able to help me navigate through issues and help me in addressing and issues in a different way that I have not tried before. I can use DISC to inform my future employers and others that I work with, my strengths and weakness and how we can all work collaboratively, despite our different styles, to effectively get the job done. Moving forward, I will use the guidelines of DISC to evaluate future resident assistant candidates to see what styles would work great with my staff.
Comments