This cast addresses a behavioral change for an insidious practice of High D Managers: always putting results in front of relationships. People MATTER!

All bosses have weaknesses. In our first in the series, we said the error that so many High C bosses make is being so perfectionist that no idea is ever good enough. When someone else suggests something, they immediately "try to add too much value" as Marshall Goldsmith says, by pointing something that isn't as perfect as it could be, and other ways the idea could be made better. We said that High I's tend to start a lot of stuff, but then not finish well.

And for High D's . . . well, where do we start? High D managers are the most feared, and some would say most hated of all of the categories of managers. [That is, if you're just looking at DiSC behavioral analyses – abusive bosses are probably the most hated of all. Sadly, most abusive bosses are . . . High D's. – M&M] High D's step on others to get what they want. They're driven to achieve, even at the expense of the resources they'll have to go to again. High D's don't sugarcoat their communications, which is another way of saying their bluntness goes past political incorrectness into rudeness and into relationship destroying. They take risks that others would never take. If they win, they're celebrated, and if they lose, many suffer, including them. But only long enough to set another BHAG, and start thinking about Everest again.

Here's what to do.

1. Don't Assume Your Boss is a High D
2. Don't Kill The Goose For Its Golden Eggs: Get To Know Your Team
3. Results Don't ALWAYS Trump People: Invest In Relationships With Others
4. Mind Your Tongue: Truth And Relationships Don't Always Mix

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This cast addresses a behavioral change for an insidious practice of High S Managers: overprotecting your team.

All bosses have weaknesses. In our first in the series, we said the error that so many High C bosses make is being so perfectionist that no idea is ever good enough. When someone else suggests something, they immediately "try to add too much value" as Marshall Goldsmith says, by pointing something that isn't as perfect as it could be, and other ways the idea could be made better. We said that High I's tend to start a lot of stuff, but then not finish well.

And for High S's . . . we see you overprotecting your team, and we see you delaying decisions and change. We know that you struggle with asking too much of your team, and identifying with them so much that you hesitate when it's time to ask them to work really hard. We know you're less comfortable with the rapid change your peers might want, and so you delay decisions and actions, taking a "wait and see" approach. We understand you, we respect you, we're glad you're sensitive. And it's holding you and your team back.

Here's what to do.

1. Stop Overprotecting: Be Willing To Delegate
2. Stop Overprotecting: Don't Accept Reverse Delegation – Your Favorite Letter
3. Stop Waiting: Remember the One Third/Two Thirds Rule

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This cast addresses a behavioral change for an insidious practice of High I Managers: starting well and ending poorly.

When we started this series on the most common failings of different types of bosses, we said all bosses have foibles. In our first in the series, we said the error that so many High C bosses make is being so perfectionist that no idea is ever good enough. When someone else suggests something, they immediately "try to add too much value" as Marshall Goldsmith says, by pointing something that isn't as perfect as it could be, and other ways the idea could be made better.

Alas, the direct who hears this doesn't hear, "this is good, let's make it better, because I would never suggest making improvements to a truly BAD idea". What they hear is, "this is wrong, and this is how I can make your wrongness right."

Oh, and by the way, if you're thinking to yourself, why wouldn't anyone want their idea made better, then you're likely a High C boss and you need to go listen. ;‐)

But what about a High I boss? What is their common foible? We said that many High C managers can be found in IT and technical areas. High I bosses, if you want to increase your chances of seeing one in the wild, are likely over in Sales and Marketing. (This is an overgeneralization! One of Mike and Mark's favorite managers ever is an off the charts High I working software development in the telecom space, and she knows who she is.)

The High I manager often is one step away from chaos in managing their work and their team. They don't plan, and they believe that their insights and network can solve any problem. They start work and then lose interest, and their team feels pulled in a hundred directions, and at risk of working on the wrong thing, never being sure (because of never being told which is most important).

1. Follow Through ‐ Stop Starting Stuff You Don't Finish
2. Follow Through ‐ Work The Plan and Make Sure Your Details Are RIGHT
3. Follow Through ‐ Report Professionally on Your Work

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This cast concludes our conversation on a behavioral change for an insidious practice of High C Managers: finding fault with recommendations and ideas.

1. Stop Giving Voice Only To Corrections and Improvements
2. Verbalise The Positive First
3. Don't Give Introductory Praise BUT
4. Praise Then Amplify ONLY in One Sentence
5. End With Thank You

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This cast addresses a behavioral change for an insidious practice of High C Managers: finding fault with recommendations and ideas.

As managers, all of us have our foibles. For the High D Dominants, it's interrupting, and not praising combined with nerve-shattering demands. For High I's, it's narcissistic messiness without follow through. For High S's, it's dithering on deadlines to protect a culture of well, protection. For High C's, well, they're always right, so maybe they have no foibles. HA! Caught you! We're kidding of course. High C's have foibles just like everybody else.

All managers – whether we characterize them or not – have foibles. The High C's foible is often that he or she can't leave well enough alone. Marshall Goldsmith calls this, in his FANTASTIC book, What Got You Here Won't Get You There, "adding too much value".

How does this play out? The perfectionist manager, technical or not, hears an idea, or a suggestion, and feels compelled to improve by pointing out something that either isn't right or in his opinion could be made even better. It's all in the pursuit of perfection, meant usually, though not always, as a good thing, an improvement, something better. The direct who hears this, though, doesn't hear, "this is good". What he or she hears is, "this is wrong, and here's how it can be improved. Or, when the direct shares a potential solution to a problem, and the High C manager says, "well, that won't work, because of this flaw in your recommended action".

High C's will argue with us here, saying that they are NOT saying that the idea or recommendation they are commenting on is "wrong". But, alas, their own desire to be right makes them wrong here. ;-) We didn't say the High C manager SAID it was wrong. We said that's what the direct heard.

And that is the fundamental problem with most communication: what is said is not what is heard. DiSC profiles help us see the gaps between what our own and others' tendencies are, and help us avoid these subtle miscommunications. (We call them subtle not because they're slight, but because neither side positively addresses the potential disconnect.) High C's tend to discount praise, and stay factual. They discount the people involved, and focus more on the work, the process, the task, the project.

If you're a High C boss, and you do this a lot – and by the way, if you're an IT manager and you're not a big party guy, then we'd guess you DO do this a lot – you'd better hope you have some really bright, really tough directs. Because all your improvements are going to irritate the hell out of them, enough so that they're going to stop suggesting things, and you'll increasing be running things by doing things. If it seems lately that you've been getting more involved in more details than you used to, this very issue might be the longstanding, slow-burning cause.

And yet, the solution is EASY to understand, and pretty easy to do. Here it is.

1. Stop Giving Voice Only To Corrections and Improvements
2. Verbalise The Positive First
3. Don't Give Introductory Praise BUT
4. Praise Then Amplify ONLY in One Sentence
5. End With Thank You

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In this cast, we conclude our conversation on how to delegate and manage projects more effectively based on the DiSC profiles of your team members.

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This cast describes how to delegate and manage projects more effectively based on the DiSC profiles of your team members.

Cast Note: This cast does not address in detail each of the four general styles of behavior suggested by the DiSC behavioral profile. We'll take a minute and give a quick overview, but you'll probably want to know more. For that, please refer to our series of 4 casts to get much more detail on the model and how each of the 4 "styles" behaves. And, we do provide a way on our site to order and take the DiSC assessment. We price it lower than most websites do, because we're more interested in you learning your natural behavioral preference than we are in making money from it.

Two of the most frustrating "lessons" when we're starting out as managers are ones that many of us ignore. The first one is, "Hey! Not everyone is just like me!" Some of us just ignore it, rely on our power, and struggle through with less than ideal relationships with our team members. Some folks Mike and Mark know never change this behavior their entire careers. And the second one is closely related to it, but still different: "Hey! Not only is everyone not like me . . . they're not like each other, either! THEY'RE ALL DIFFERENT!"

If we want to be effective as managers, we've got to manager everyone who works for us as an individual. [Hey – maybe we need to meet with them one on one every week ;-) ] And using the DiSC profile, the best behavioral profile and communication tool we know of, makes one to one managing within all of our reach. Here's how to use DiSC in a simple way.

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In this cast, we START to describe how to respond to feedback AFTER you've received it, specifically: FEEDBACK NOT IN THE MODEL.

For our classic April Fools cast, we talked about how to receive feedback, but only partly. We discussed the Physical, Facial and Verbal responses to someone asking, "May I give you some feedback?"

But obviously, you're going to get a lot of inputs regarding your performance.

Finally we tackle a topic that we're surprised no one asks about: How does one receive feedback? We know how to deliver it (even if far too many of us shy away from it all too often). But that's only half the battle. One of the things many managers realize is that once you start giving feedback, you're going to start receiving it as well.

Sometimes it's well intentioned - your directs realize that you really mean it, and they're willing to give you feedback. And yes, sometimes it's intended to be a riposte from a nervous or insecure subordinate.

Today's show is the fourth of our shows on the DiSC® model, a highly effective model for improving our ability to communicate with different behavioral styles at work. Over the last three months, Mark covered both the "D" (Dominance), the "I" (Influence), and the "S" (Steadiness) in DiSC; in this show he'll walk us through the "C" (Conscientious) profile in detail.

Like last month, it isn't necessary that you have listened to all the previous detailed DiSC shows, but you should listen to the "Improve Your Feedback" show from Feb 17, 2006 show where we first introduced the DiSC model. This will give you a high-level overview of the DiSC model that will make this particular cast more effective.

Also, remember about the "How To Use The DiSC To Be More Effective Every Day" cheat sheet (available in the members section on the website). Print it out and have it next to you for reference during the podcast.

If you are interested in learning in detail about YOUR profile, you may purchase the online version of the DiSC Profile here.
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