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 What is Barack Obama's DISC profile?

Sorry if this has been already mentioned somewhere else, but I could not find the information.

duplicate_account_MarkAus's picture

I doubt it.  He's High I if anything.   And I seriously doubt he gets to be President without a heck of a lot of D.

Read the book "Game Change" which gives you a real insight into his first campaign for President.   There's nothing introverted about him. 

Also, if you look at how he manages it doesn't seem like he's too focused on getting every specific detail done his way.  He appears to be quite a hands off guy on the small stuff, which is D/I behaviour.  

The president that confuses me is Clinton.  He appears to be off the charts High I, but he's a known policy wonk which is C behaviour.  High I and HIgh C are opposites and not usually found in the same person.    Maybe he's really a High D/High C and has just learned the tools to come across as High I.  I read somewhere that when he was 16 years old and decided he wanted to be President, he started keeping a Journal where he'd write down Personal details about people he met.   This was to make sure when he met them later that they felt like the most important person in the room when he spoke to them.  That strikes me as High C/High D stuff.

Ain't DISC fun?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ted.terakura's picture

Thank you for your comment and sorry for not replying sooner. I'm not exposed to his behaviors as much as those in the states, so I probably had the wrong image of his. Many thanks from Japan.

kddonath's picture

I agree, Obama is probably a high I.  Clinton strike me as a high I too, but much more than Obama.  Clinton was able to get a lot done in a heavily divided congress and I don't think that happens unless he had good connections with a lot of people.  Carter is the one I think would be a high C - he used to control the tennis court schedule - a real details guy. 

duplicate_account_MarkAus's picture

I also think G.W. Bush was a High I/D as well.   Apparently he was extremely charming and you only need to look at how he executed things to see that details and data collecting were not his strong suit.

His father H.W. Bush strikes me as a High C/D.  Most of his career was about managing data and relationships.

My favourite US President is Harry Truman.   I love his explanation of decision making which is high D behaviour.  I don't have the exact quote in front of me but it was along the lines of: I make a decision with the best information I have at the time, if it turns out to be wrong I take the new information and make a new decision.

It is worth 5 minutes of your time googling Truman quotes.  They're all pretty good.

 

 

ShannonCorin's picture
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I just went through some similar training to the DISC (they used colors instead of the letters).  They showed some well known President's communication styles as an example.  Obama is a High I, although he is mistaken for a High S.  Most are High I or D, and some are C. Interestingly, no High S has ever been a President.  The position doesn't appeal to High S's.  

On another note, there are a few rare people who display high opposites (High I/C, High D/S).  Bill Gates is a High I/C. He dropped out of Harvard (High I) and co-founded Microsoft with a very technical background (High C). Mother Teresa was a High D/S. She made sure people felt loved and cared for (High S) and lead others to do the same with straightforward and abrupt orders  (High D).

Shannon Corin

duplicate_account_MarkAus's picture

I bet a lot of High S people would like to be President (they'd think how great it would be to make people's lives better) but the flip side is that High S folk strive to make everyone happy - which is pretty antithetical to getting things done in politics!