Christmas and New Year is a good time of year for parties but will you get along with all the other guests? Here are some ways to spot and respond to each of the DISC styles. If you think about the basics of extraversion and introversion when socialising with others, your ability to people-read and the impact you are having on others will make sense, but when we think about DISC styles it can make any party even more interesting!
Our Doers will typically be dressed to the nines and look and smell good! These “expensive to run” people will often take the lead showing confidence and charisma. They might take charge at someone else’s event, not just when hosting their own party. They will often ask “what do you do?” as an, ice breaker, and typically, they will have goals attached to the event – “come on this will be fun!” or “right here we go, but we are leaving in two hours” or “don’t let me get stuck with Mike!”. Doers will move purposefully and will create a “presence” in any room. When they are ready to leave, let them leave. They don’t like to linger once they have made their mind up.
Our Influencers might be late (if they remember to come at all!) and that might just be because they are squeezing two or three parties into a single night – they are popular people! You know when they arrive because they light up any party, not just with their colourful and snazzy outfits, but with their engaging personalities. Influencers make people laugh, they naturally put others at ease and often the noise and energy of an event increases when they arrive! They talk a lot! They will have fun even if the party isn’t that much fun (yet!) and they will create their own entertainment and make good things happen. No wonder people think to invite them – these people make great guests! They will be first to start a singalong, be the first up on the dance floor or to initiate a party game but they can misinterpret what “fun” means to others and will be the ones dragging others onto the dance floor against their will. They are often the last to leave because they don’t want to miss out on anything interesting!
Our Supporters are helpers. They take on hosting roles, naturally, even when it isn’t their party. They will often create a job for themselves, like managing the cloakroom, giving them a justified excuse for meeting everyone on arrival. Supporters notice what is happening and make others feel comfortable. You can go a whole party without necessarily knowing who they are as they may not have introduced themselves, but you will later find yourself saying something like “you know that nice woman who looked after Sammy when he fell over?” or “you know that nice man who got me a cloth when I spilt my drink…” They want to build relationships but won’t get deep with everyone and have a genuine interest in others. If they offer to help, let them. They often stay to the end so they can help to clear up!
Our Considerers will always arrive on time or early to an event. They prefer to know what to expect. If your invitation hasn’t spelled that information out clearly, when they arrive, tell them what the plan is for the party – food, music, a rough home time. When meeting others Considerers prefer another guest to introduce them, rather than step up themselves, so be sure to accurately and appropriately introduce them to a few people. They like to observe others and once they have had a good look and seen how the land lies, they are quite self-sufficient. You often find them in a location at a party where they can see what is going on, but don’t want to be in the thick of it. Considerers are happy on their own or just with one person and don’t need to meet a lot of people to have fun. Just a few good ones! Avoid dragging them up onto a dance floor and try not to draw attention to them. Just check in with them from time to time and ask them once if they want anything or if you can introduce them to anyone. They will work out the rest for themselves.
The DISC model shows us that people are different! They typically have priorities in pace and are either primarily fast or more measured. The fast-paced styles are our Doers and Influencers. The measured people are our Supporters and Considerers. Next, we can look at where they are most likely to focus The Doers and Considerers focus on the task and the Influencers and Supporters focus on people. This model is SIMPLE and you can start to see at least someone’s primary style by considering pace and focus.
We can’t always make our best guess of someone’s style based on DISC as other things can impact how we behave at a party. Family traditions, our education, our experiences and our environment can all impact our behaviour, even at a party! We all manage stress in different ways too and not all styles like to go to big gatherings or meet lots of new people.
Get someone talking at a party this year and see if you can spot which behavioural style they are. As we wish you a Happy New Year from DISCsimple, don’t forget to Rejoice in the Differences and to make sure you only use this knowledge for good and never for evil!
We hope you have a great 2023 and enjoy building relationships with people in the workplace AND at parties!
Keeping things simple in a complicated world.
To learn more about the DISC tool and how you can learn to identify different DISC styles. Come along to our free lunchtime session. Full of powerful insight into the world of Everything DiSC® (part of the Wiley group) in just 30 minutes you will learn something! We run a learning session every Monday.
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