One of the greatest signs of emotional intelligence is self-awareness. When we become cognizant of our instincts, habits, communication styles, perceptions, strengths, and opportunities for betterment, we are then able to identify what a path for growth looks like. This growth not only helps us reach our full potential as individuals, but it also nurtures our personal and professional relationships along the way.
Some people are wired with higher self-awareness than others, but luckily, there are tools available to help every individual improve in this area.
One of the tools I like to use in my leadership coaching curriculum to help healthcare leaders become more self-aware is the DiSC® personality assessment.
What Is The DiSC Personality Assessment?
DiSC® is a personal assessment tool used in thousands of organizations around the world to help improve teamwork, communication, and productivity in the workplace by building stronger, more effective working relationships.
The “DiSC” acronym represents the four overarching personality profiles identified in the model: (D)ominance, (i)nfluence, (S)teadiness, and (C)onscientiousness.
- People with “D” personalities (Green) tend to be direct, to-the-point, confident, and results-driven by nature
- People with “i” personalities (Red) place high value on building relationships and they are particularly skilled at influencing and persuading others
- People with “S” (Blue) personalities are notoriously dependable, cooperative, peace-keeping, and sincere
- People with “C” (Yellow) personalities are data-driven and place a large emphasis on accuracy and right vs. wrong
Why Is The DiSC Personality Assessment Important?
The purpose of the assessment is to uncover an individual’s baseline personality type to then identify their natural strengths and opportunities for improvement.
Take me, for example. I am a “D”/Green personality type. By nature, I am strong-willed, high-achieving, competitive, and very straightforward in my communication. This is simply how I am wired. While these can all be used as strengths in effective leadership, they can also very easily turn into negative traits that rub my team the wrong way if I am not aware of them, as is the case with the traits of each personality type.
If I’m not self-aware of my behaviors and how they can be perceived by my team, there’s a good chance I can come off as domineering, forceful, bossy, and judgmental. Once I know this, I can set new systems and habits in place to correct these perceptions and communicate with my team more effectively.
Since no behavior tendency is right or wrong, nor is one better than the other, self-awareness of our own tendencies helps us improve and “flex” our individual behaviors. As a result, we can better communicate and collaborate intentionally and more effectively with others — a key element of outstanding leadership!
Every personality type has their own roadblocks to overcome on their journey to becoming the best leaders they can be, but they have to know what those roadblocks are first.
Why Should Healthcare Leaders Take The DiSC Assessment?
For healthcare leaders specifically, this level of self-awareness is crucial for maintaining positive relationships with patients and guiding their teams towards success. The assessment is able to identify the gaps in your leadership as it pertains to relationship-building and how you are likely to be perceived by the people who work with you as well as the patients under your care.
If you are experiencing any of these challenges, it may be a sign that you need to improve your self-awareness in the workplace:
- Patients don’t seem to like you
- You are struggling to achieve buy-in from your team
- Your staff experiences a high turnover rate
- Your hospital, pharmacy, or other medical office receives negative reviews
It’s time to take the next step in becoming an extraordinary leader.
You can get started in one of the following ways:
- Take my FREE leadership assessment to see how your leadership style and people management skills stack up against best practices.
- Learn more about my 6-session coaching package, designed to help you craft a vision for your business, achieve buy-in from your team, and execute the necessary goals to bring you towards success.
- Learn more about my 12-session coaching package, which features all the benefits of the 6-session package in addition to 6 weeks of emotional intelligence coaching to help you become an extraordinary leader.
About Dr. Wilkerson, PD, MBA, PCC.
Do you want to increase your impact? Do you want to increase profits under your leadership? Do you want to develop and use your abilities to the fullest to better connect with and lead others? Executive Leadership Coaching covers these bases. Dr. Jerrund Wilkerson, PD, MBA, PCC, has more than 30 years of successful executive leadership coaching in the United States and internationally.
As a licensed pharmacist, he is particularly passionate about helping develop effective leaders in the healthcare community. Dr. Wilkerson has coached and trained thousands of managers and leaders. He is a certified coach and member of the John Maxwell Leadership Team.
CLICK HERE to learn more.