The Trap of Staying in Your Behavioral Pattern
Using DISC to Master your Behavior Pattern
Get it Done with a Simple 4 Step Process
Sometimes what got you the success you enjoy today won’t always be what gets you to the next level. Whether this is in your career (or in life). That’s a universal truth. Your biggest strength is precisely what might hold you back.
Once you know the preference of your DISC pattern, the challenge is to begin giving up the way you live it out. The challenge is to change for every situation you face. This is called behavioral flexing. There are both positive and negative aspects of your style. Mitigating weak areas and playing to your strengths is preferable, but this doesn’t always happen. Sometimes you just can’t avoid situations where you’re at a disadvantage; where your strengths can’t play.
Further complicating matters, without awareness of how their behavioral style operates, most people go through life using their pattern’s compulsions and avoidances. They do what they’ve always done and try to power through the situation. Or they stay away from doing things they don’t like. If your strong suit is communicating, you will talk things through; if it isn’t, you’ll avoid talking about it, perhaps taking independent decisive action without consulting anyone. This is how the trap of your behavior pattern limits you.
One behavioral size doesn’t fit all situations.
By understanding this you will operate with more freedom and flexibility. How? If you understand what your behavior pattern is; its strengths and weaknesses, and you are able to assess what ideal behaviors and actions work for the situations you face, you can access the strengths and avoid the weaknesses of the different DISC factors. In doing so you can expand your behavioral flexibility. If you want an analogy, you’ve probably been using your best dance moves. You probably also leave the dance floor when you’re not comfortable moving to the music. Knowing a variety of dance steps lets you stay on the dance floor, no matter what song is playing. No special magic is needed to bring this about. Knowledge of DISC factors in general and knowledge of your preferred pattern is all it takes and a little dance practice!
The benefits are profound: Becoming aware of the hidden structure of your behavior – its compulsions and avoidance patterns lets you dance through life putting your best foot forward (and not stepping on anyone’s toes!).
Here’s the 4 step process:
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Uncover your behavior pattern.
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Start examining your behavior.
- How do you behave in different situations? Read your DISC report. This will provide you with self-awareness. Through observing yourself, we’ll guarantee you’ll catch yourself doing the same thing, time and time again. Listen to your inner voice: your self-talk will say things like: “Heck, you just did it again.” Whenever you hear it, listen and congratulate yourself. You just took the first step in recognizing. You’ve successfully become observant! enough to catch yourself in the act! Much more preferable than berating yourself after the fact, don’t you agree?
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Get the knowledge you need.
- How? Use your accompanying eLearning to learn about different behaviors; what to dial up and dial down for the four DISC Factors.
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Master your behavior.
- How? Practice! Change what needs to be changed. Keep listening and you’ll soon hear things like: “You’re doing it again.” Immediately, counter with: “what should I do now?” Determine what behavior and actions might work better. Change the dance, change the results! This is where your habits start changing when you get to a play where you hear your self-talk say: “You are thinking about doing it again.” When you get to this point, you are at the threshold of nailing down your compulsiveness and avoidances. Once more you continue with the behavior. You truly beak those patterns when you get further and further ahead, catching yourself in the act sooner and sooner; ultimately being able to re-think what the best behavior is for every situation. It’s easier than you think. Keep listening and somewhere along the line, you’ll hear, “Careful! You might not want to do that. This might be a better approach.” This is the way to dance the dance the music dictates. This is how you ensure that you don’t become your worst enemy, bungling through life trapped in your behavior pattern. Far better to flex your reactions perfectly and consciously to what life throws at you.