Self-Mistyping with DISC Profiling: The Dominance Fallacy
5 minute read.
This article presumes a general knowledge of DISC profiling.
‘I don’t think that’s right.’
The woman was adamant. She looked around, searching for support from her colleagues.
‘I’m a dominant profile. There’s no way I’m anything else.’
‘Okay, well what did the assessment come up with?’
‘It says I’m not. But I am.’
Cue some scoffs in the background. I could tell the woman’s colleagues were holding themselves back. Clearly they didn't agree with her.
‘Why don’t we go through the rest of the program and see if you have the same conclusion at the end?’
I’ll always remember that moment. By the end of the session it was abundantly clear this woman was not a dominant profile – perhaps to everyone but herself. Her profile was an equally fantastic one, where her captain energy wasn't dominance.
Even though this one particular instance remains vivid to me, self-mistyping is not uncommon. If I had a dollar for every time someone adamantly declared their DISC assessment was wrong… I’d be a reasonably rich woman.
A common pattern of self-mistyping is what I have dubbed the Dominance Fallacy. It perhaps reflects the fact that I work with people in sales and leadership; combined with past societal frameworks suggesting being ‘ruthless’ or ‘emotionless’, ‘overconfident’ or ‘powerful’ are the ways to become a successful person. It also presumes people see the dominant as encapsulating these traits, which is another issue.
The Dominance Fallacy is the idea that for me to be the best version of myself, I should be a dominant. Sometimes people lament that they are not a dominant, and other times they insist they are – regardless of what any self-assessment might say to the contrary.
I started recognising this pattern several years ago when I was doing a DISC qualification course myself. We were all given long reports at the end of one day so we could indulge in our results that night. The next morning, people crowded around discussing their reports. So self-obsessed, we humans are.
I recall one distressed woman. We had a chat about it. She told me she’d hoped to have come up as a dominant. Instead, her captain energies came up differently, and she’d been sad about it all evening. From memory, she almost definitely used the word ‘inconsolable’.
This is a strong reaction to have to a report.
Moving forward to when I began my own training business, I started seeing this more and more. People would declare they couldn’t possibly be a different profile. They had to be a dominant. People who would stand up and make a scene about it, explaining all the very dominant things they did in all the very dominant ways there are.
I think sometimes they liked the label ‘dominant’, with the association that they were assertive and powerful.
When I began observing this pattern more deeply, I realised some profiles tended to do this more than others. In particular, the profiles who are more reliant on external perceptions of self. Of course, of the situations I’ve encountered, I don’t think anyone intentionally mislabelled themselves. I don’t think they were trying to ‘fool’ everyone. It comes from a genuine belief, or at the very least a subconscious aspiration driving this desire to present as a dominant profile.
Why does this happen? I think this person must come to terms with a few things:
1. No profile is bound for success more than others;
2. The title ‘dominant’ is not synonymous with ‘leader’ – it is a label and nothing more, and leadership is something anyone can demonstrate and build. Similarly, profiles have no bearing on confidence, maturity, intelligence or emotional intelligence;
3. There are strengths and weaknesses to every profile, so it makes no sense to aspire to a different one; and
4. Being open to self-understanding, rather than self-prescription, is the greatest tool for growth. You gain a lot more from being honest with yourself and embracing who you are than pretending to be what you think will impress others.
Profiling is a complex beast. It goes well beyond a few labelled ‘traits’, and seeks to get to the heart of how a person goes about the world, makes decisions, and behaves consistently. Often, I know the mistyping occurs prior to acquiring this more in-depth knowledge. Presuming we should be a particular profile beforehand can limit our thinking and stop us from actually taking in the framework properly. It’s also pretty fruitless because if you’re trying to convince yourself that you are a certain profile, you’ll be looking to develop a self that... isn’t you.
There are other common self-mistyping patterns, of course. This one I find the most interesting, perhaps because I have seen it a lot. I wonder if it goes back as far as an internalised patriarchal idea: That the dominant, as a very ‘masculine’ energy, may be more aspirational than the more ‘feminine’ energies in business. As we are developing more ‘feminine’ constructions of leadership, business and sales, I wonder if this mistyping will change over time. It may also be the case that in the particular industries I work in, there so happens to be a chunk of dominant profiles in management roles. The dominance fallacy may arise from someone looking up to a mentor figure and trying to find similarities with them.
As an ironic example, when someone feels inclined to stand up and tell everyone how often other people describe them with dominant traits, this inclination is usually a confirmation that they probably aren’t a dominant profile.
In my training, I strive to teach the gifts that come with each different profile. If we were all the same – or all trying to be the same – we wouldn’t have a functioning society, a great team, meaningful relationships or innovation. Each profile brings with it incredible benefits to the world around them. Each profile also has an unresourceful side that may come out under pressure.
The real benefit of profiling comes with being honest and using the tools to understand yourself and others better. When used properly, you can develop true self-awareness, build on your strengths and work on mitigating weaknesses, lead others and influence more effectively. If instead, you’re stuck on the fact that you didn’t come up as a ‘dominant’ profile, you won’t be able to embrace the inevitable gifts that come from your actual profile.
Have you experienced this before?
What do you think?
Sonia
This blog post was originally posted on my training website, Statusone.com.au, on Jul 30, 2019. I have since been moving some of my favourite blog posts from there over to here, as this is now my ‘content hub’ and I want you to have access to some of the cool stuff I’ve written about before. You can still check out the Status One site if you’re interested in corporate training if you want. Also, don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter below for updates and weekly exclusive content.