Source: Unsplash – Hunters Race
Becoming an effective ‘D’ coach-leader
You’re working towards becoming a coach-leader. You recognise you may need to equipped with coaching skills and schedule practise sessions too. However, you are concerned that your natural disposition or behavioural leaning may pose a challenge to a coaching relationship or a coach-leader role. What can you do to become an effective coach leader?
D.I.S.C
D.I.S.C is an acronym for the four behavioural leanings that make up the DISC model of behaviour as we know them today. It’s a way to understand how people interact with others. It gives you an insight into each other’s strengths, limitations, and communication preferences. It also helps you to communicate with other DISC personality types.
The founder of DISC is William Moulton Marston (1893-1947), a Harvard PhD graduate in Psychology. DISC was a product of his lifelong interest in the study of human emotions. His colourful and successful career included being a psychologist, inventor, and author as well as a lawyer and a philosopher. He was a devoted advocate for women’s rights and dedicated the last six years of his life writing for DC Comics under the pen name, Charles Mouton, writing the text for the Wonder Woman comics from her inception in 1941 up to his death in 1947.
Back to DISC. Here’s what each letter stands for:
Source: Unsplash – Dylan Gillis, Hunters Race, & Krakenimages
The ‘D’ as a coach-leader
If you’re a ‘D’ type, your natural tendency is to be goal-oriented, think big-picture, and respond well to logic, reason, and information but not emotion. As a coach-leader, you’ll probably tend to ask ‘what’ questions, moving the conversation to actionable items since you’re driven by results. Some examples of questions you may lean towards include “what are you going to do’, “what options are you considering?”, “what are some possible obstacles?”
As a ‘D’ coach-leader, you can become more effective if you make the effort to take on a more supportive role rather than a controlling or directive role. “What support do you need?” “How can I support you?” “Who can you approach for help?”
Being results-oriented, ‘D’ types tend to speak fast, move fast and expect others to do the same. Practice slowing down your speech when communicating with your coachee or team member. Exercise more patience during your conversations. Make an effort to let your team member speak and express themselves by keeping silent, even if you have the desire to step in, interrupt and offer a solution.
Mission impossible?
Seems like mission impossible? Research has shown that it is possible to change our thinking patterns and develop new mindsets, new memories, new skills, and new abilities. Neuroplasticity – the brain’s capacity to continue growing and evolving in response to life experiences enables this mental and behavioural flexibility.
So it is possible to adapt your natural behavioural tendencies to different situations and people. It takes effort and practice and it is possible.
Take Amanda, a regional stakeholder manager at a logistics firm. Her quick, decisive and problem-solving behaviour caused a little bit of a strain in the team dynamics as team members felt dishevelled at the pace of change as well as disrespected as changes were made without their input. With some coaching, Amanda came to the realisation of her own tendencies as a ‘D’ type and adapted her management style to suit her team members.
She began to practice patience by not chasing team members for the progress on the project but left it to them to update her during their scheduled meetings with her. And instead of jumping in to offer a solution or being the solution, Amanda asked her team member who she can find support from to resolve an issue.
Amanda found that over time her efforts were paying off as team members began to trust her leadership more and would be forthcoming with updates. They were also taking more initiative and responsibility in finding solutions to issues that came up. Overall, she saw her efforts paying off in strengthening team relationships.
Adapting to other types
When coaching team members of different types or behavioural leanings, it is worth your while to understand each type and adapt your communication with each type accordingly to improve your effectiveness as a coach-leader.
Here are some tips when communicating with the four types:
Source: Unsplash – Dylan Gillis, Hunters Race, & Krakenimages
Mission possible
Like Amanda, you too can make a difference in team dynamics, relationships and performance when you get equipped with coaching skills and adapt your communication skills to reach out to the other types in your team. You might want to rehearse your coaching conversations either mentally, with a coach or a practice partner before actually executing it.
In addition to understanding your natural behavioural inclination and being able to flex it to suit your coachee’s inclination, you might also want to learn about the six dominant behavioural patterns of outstanding coaches to help you become an effective coach-leader.
©Published by Lifeskills Institute Pte Ltd
The Institute for Motivational Living (IML) is a world leader in developing, publishing and delivering customised, behavioral assessments. For over 30 years, IML has been observing, analysing, and enhancing human behavior in personal and corporate relationships.
Lifeskills Institute is IML’s Master Training and Certification Centre for Asia as well as its Master Distributor for Asia.