Have you ever had a moment in your life where you were trying to make a connection with somebody, but it just doesn’t happen? Are there also times when you feel like it’s so easy to connect with certain people than others?
This might be because of varying traits, such as your age, gender, interests, field of work or the fact that you both have kids. Today, I’ll be writing about the DISC personality test which I discussed on the Thriving Dentist Podcast Show to help you understand these dynamics better.
Let’s go through DISC initials and what sort of personalities they describe in the personality test.
D – Dominant, Driven
Often known as a dominant or driven personality. 10% of the world are D’s, they are the least common. D personality types, are what we classically think of as a type A personality. They take decisions very quickly. They tend to own their own business or they work in a management capacity. They have very strong opinions. They know their direction and they stick to it.
Within each personality type, there’s the issue of maturity. This isn’t about age, but rather, intellectual maturity and emotional intelligence. A mature ‘D’ is very easy to deal with, they know what they want and they’ll be clear with their expectations and you know exactly how to apply that. An immature D can be the most difficult person to deal with, and somewhat of a narcissist.
I – Influencing
These are the people persons, they love people, they’re gregarious, they are the life of the party. They’re very social and absolutely love being around other people. They’re very extroverted. 25% of the world are high ‘I’s.
The mature ‘I’’s are an absolute delight to associate, they get energy from being around other people, they are the people persons. These are the employees that you want interacting with your patients. An immature ‘I’s can also suffer from narcissism. I’s make decisions very quickly similar to the ‘D’s and the ‘I’s and the ‘D’s are both dominant in their creative side of the brain.
S – Steady
These people are on the other side of the brain. The analytical side. 40% of the world are high ‘S’s. The high ‘S’ they are much more analytical and they want more information to process. They are also very cautious and slow to make a decision. They are very amicable and they make awesome team members. Many high ‘S’s are drawn to healthcare because they love to help people. They don’t like confrontation. The mature high ‘S’ will be the best team member on the planet, they will be the first one there and the last one to leave. The less mature ‘S’ will be a challenge because they can never make a decision.
Who should you hire?
C – Compliant
They tend to be the engineers of the world. Think of your stereotype of an engineer. I think of order and structure. They love information, you can never give them too much information. If it’s on dental implants, they want to know how long implants have been around, whether there are any peer reviewed case studies of successful implant placement, and the materials used for it. The C’s will often question the doctor, but not in an antagonistic way. The mature C’s when you lay down things to them step by step, they are some of the most devoted patients. They will be committed and loyal.
We need all these types of personalities in our practice. 90% of dentists are ‘S’s or ‘C’s. But with a team, you need to have team members representing all these personality types. Otherwise, if you’ve only hired people that were in your personality likeness, it will be like fielding a baseball team where you’ve got 9 right fielders.
I hope this introduction to the DISC personality test helped, and encouraged you and your team to take this test to better understand and apply these dynamics to your practice.
Here is the link to listen to my podcast episode to understand better.
