Decoding DISC Leadership - Understanding the INSPIRING Leader - ep 182

Julie South [00:00:04]:
Do you love the rush of a project ignited by your leader's energy? Or are you sick of the never ending cycle of unfinished tasks? Today we're talking about the realities of working with an inspiring leader, so stick around as we dissect the excitement and the exhaustion. Thank you for tuning in to the vet staff podcast, where veterinary professionals can top up their resilience tank, get their heads screwed on straight, and get excited about going to work on Monday mornings again, just like you did when you were studying. This is episode 183 and I'm your show host, Julie south, certified disc trainer and resilience coach. You can find back copies of the Vetstaff podcast@vetstaffpodcast.com this is the third in our exciting eight part series all about leadership styles based on the disc personality model. Disc is a research backed and science based personality profiling tool used to understand our behaviours, our communication styles and our work preferences. It's about understanding what makes you and the people you work with tech so far in this series we've looked at what it's like working with the dominant leader and the dynamic leader styles. This week we're going to look at the inspiring leader personality style and I'm going to put links in any links mentioned in today's show in the show notes for you to click on using the disc personality and leadership framework inspiring leaders are outgoing, enthusiastic and optimistic. They motivate teams with their infectious energy, passion and enthusiasm.

Julie South [00:02:18]:
Their key strengths include their charisma. They captivate people's attention and imagination with their compelling visions for the future. They have motivation in spades. They're the ones who rally everyone towards the big goals with much infectious enthusiasm. They're into collaboration, they prioritize teamwork, they're into group participation, and they have a black belt in building positive relationships. And when it comes to positivity, they are all about possibilities. They provide encouragement and they're into celebrating wins like no one else. Okay, so what's it like working with an inspiring leader who's high energy and positive like I've just described? For each of the different types of disc framework personality types, let's look at the upsides and some of the blind spots.

Julie South [00:03:29]:
If the disc framework is new to you, then please tune into episode 181 where you'll get a better understanding, although I'm sure you'll recognize one of these for you as we go through them today. Remember notes or links in the show notes for you. Now, if you are a fast paced, task oriented person, you will admire your inspiring leader's knack of being able to motivate everyone towards achieving big and really impressive goals. These people you will appreciate leaders who aren't afraid to think big, so working on an inspiring leaders team is right up your alley. However, if this is your personality type and there's too much small talk going on, too much relationship building, you may find yourself losing patience with your leader. This is because you just want to cut to the chase and get on with things. The more people oriented action types will align closely with the inspiring leaders because both of you are good at prioritising collegiality. People and acknowledgement if this is you, you'll feed off your leader's positivity and charismatic way of communicating.

Julie South [00:04:53]:
However, although it might seem like a match made in heaven, being on a team with a leader like this who's as people oriented as you are, it may mean that if you don't have a focus on your team, somebody with focus, nothing much gets done because there's too much socializing going on. If you love your leaders people skills and their enthusiasm, their collaboration, but your buttons are being pushed with all of this public acknowledgement, please. Then you may also struggle with their lack of apparent plans to get things done. You're the steadiness type who cringes at all the public acknowledgement. You want plans that you can all steadily work towards at a pace that doesn't bring about the speed for you. Or maybe you might be the type who's right behind your leader who takes a collegial approach, but only if it's to get the expertise, the other person's expertise and input. You'll start getting frustrated if all of this collegiality, and I use that in air quotes, if all of this collegiality is just an excuse for a party in positivity, your focus is more on getting things done done than about all this feel good talk. You'll start to lose confidence in your leader if they continually fail to back up their plans with evidence, or the data that these other people have brought to the team, or if they fail, or when they fail to listen to the evidence, the facts, the figures, the data when it's presented to them.

Julie South [00:06:41]:
We've just talked about some of the strengths and some possible development areas for inspiring leaders to be aware of, depending on what's important to the different disc personality type team members. Now let's look at how the inspiring leader might trigger each of the different disc personality types who are on their team. And when you recognize it for you, what you might say to mitigate things. If you're being triggered, frustrated, or just plain fed up with your leader, you can do any of the following. That sound right for you? Okay, I'm going to go through four different types here with some trigger type scenarios for you. If you're the fast acting, task oriented type, you'll admire your inspiring leader's bold visions and ambition, but you'll become frustrated with too much talk and relationship building that's going on. You just want them to take some decisive action and do it fast, stop fluffing around. For example, you may start getting frustrated and triggered when team bonding exercises go on for too long without clear goals, or when your leader asks for ideas, but then just files those in a bottom drawer that never ever, that never ever get to see the light of day and that means they never get acted on.

Julie South [00:08:12]:
Or maybe when there's more focus being placed on the inspiring journey than on the actual results. If those sound like situations that you may relate to, then this is what you can say. Or something like it. You can say, I admire your big goals in the pictures for where we want to go, which is great, but I'm sick of getting bogged down doing all this fluffy socializing stuff which ends up going nowhere. I need you to give me more clarity around specific action steps you want us to take to help you get there. If you're the type of person who's into collaboration, collegiality and acknowledgement, then you'll be able to relate to your team leader really well. However, too much of a good thing ends up going nowhere, and this is where you're at the risk of feeding too much off your leader's charisma and you both end up losing sight of concrete tasks. Situations where this could happen could be where the leader provides encouragement but doesn't delegate very well.

Julie South [00:09:21]:
Or maybe there's been too much emphasis on the vision without enough doing of it. Or when team bonding just keeps going on and on and on without direction. If those types of situations might be a trigger for you might get frustrated then, or might have you be frustrated, then you could say something like this, I love connecting with you and the team. Morale is great. However, sometimes all this relationship building stuff means that we take our eyes off the ball and we lose focus of what needs to be done. I want to support you, so please give me more clearly defined responsibilities because that's what lights me up. Maybe next one maybe you're the type who appreciates your inspiring leaders, team or people focus and celebrating success and progress, but you struggle with too much emphasis on public recognition and acknowledgement and of those big visions that lack solid, concrete plans. These could include situations for you where your leader spotlights individual contributions at clinic meetings, especially your contribution that to you is cringe worthy and all you want to do is hide.

Julie South [00:10:44]:
Or maybe where there are big, bold visions being set, but there's no framework or plan or any way, any route, any path of getting where you need to go. Or there's just too much change happening too fast in the name of big dreams or big visions. If that's you, if you can relate to any of those, then here is what you could say. I appreciate you acknowledging my contributions in front of everyone, but can we make that the last time we do that in public, please? Because I'd far rather you just acknowledge me privately. Seriously, public recognition makes me uncomfortable. If you want to give me praise, please do it privately because that means a lot more to me. Thank you. And the last one, maybe these are the compliance types.

Julie South [00:11:44]:
You're into facts and figures and according to the way it's meant to be done, the data. You want data and facts. Maybe you're the type who relates well to your inspiring leaders, who solicit the specialist input from others because they are all about people. But then you get frustrated because they're more about the people on the positivity side of things than the actual expertise and the skills that those people bring to the teams. Now, situations like this might press your buttons and they could include when your leader glosses over potential risks in their drive to be positive because they're all about the people and they've kind of taken their eyes off the data side of things. Or they set big visions without any evidence to base their plans on. Or maybe decisions are made because passion and excitement has overridden and or outweigh any or all of the facts. If you can relate to that, then you could say something like this.

Julie South [00:12:56]:
I want to share your optimism about the future. I really do. However, when plans don't have any facts or research to go with them, I get worried that something is going to come back to bite us because we haven't done the necessary research. For me to get on board with you, I need evidence based plans to review which of those phrases or situations clicked for you. I hope you found this helpful as a way to understand yourself a teeny tiny incy wincey dinky little bit better in how you might relate to someone who's got an inspiring leadership, personality, style or type. Next week we're going to look at the accepting leader. These are those who are described as being approachable, compassionate and empathetic. So remember to click that follow button on your podcast app of choice so you don't miss out on that episode being dropped automatically into your audio feed.

Julie South [00:14:10]:
Have you ever wondered what makes you tick? Taking the disc personality profile assessment gives you that info, plus how to get on better with other people. If you're a leader, you'll discover your leadership style and your strengths. This means that when everyone in your clinic has been assessed, your team's collaboration levels will go through the roof because everyone understands everyone else better. So get in touch with me Julietstaff dot co dot NZ to find out. More links will be in the notes for you. Congratulations on getting this far. You're now part of an elite group of listeners who have made it all the way to the end. Because of this, I'm going to assume that you like what you've heard.

Julie South [00:15:01]:
Therefore, please help me spread the Vet staff podcast love. All you have to do is share it with three of your veterinary friends who you think might be losing their mojo, or with your manager because you can see that what we've talked about today will make a positive difference in their lives or at your clinic. Thank you. This is Julie south signing off and inviting you to go out there and be the most fantabulous, resilient and empowered version of you you can be. The Vetstaff podcast is proudly powered by vetclinicjobs.com comma, the new and innovative global job board reimagining veterinary recruitment. Connect in veterinary professionals with clinics that shine online. Vetclinicjobs.com is your go to resource for finding the perfect career opportunities and helping vet clinics power up their employer branding game. Visit vetclinicjobs.com today to find vet clinics that shine online so veterinary professionals can find them.

Julie South [00:16:12]:
Vetclinicjobs.com.