Personality Types

22^nd August 2024 Personality Types – Deborah Wylie     

Deb started by asking if any of us had used any personality profiling techniques in our work, such as Myers-Briggs or DiSC.  She went on to explain that William Moulton Marston, an American psychologist had, with the help of his wife, invented DiSC in the early 1900’s, a simple polygraph tool that has been used widely ever since. The four elements of which are: 1. Dominance 2. Influence 3. Stability and 4. Conformity.  She outlined that everyone is different, but predictably different; some people need to control, others need nurturing; some are outgoing others reserved, some ‘people’ focused others ‘task’ focused.  She then began to elaborate by using different hats to indicate which category people fall into.

1. She donned a golf/baseball type hat which she said was a Formula 1 hat belonging to her partner Kim. So, “get it done” attitude; on a good day: in control and making things happen.  On a bad day: aggressive and saying it as it is, without taking peoples feelings into account.  Typically, their fear is of failure or being taken advantage of.  Generally, they are extrovert and act fast. (eg’s Donald Trump, Margaret Thatcher, Sylvester Stallone)
2. Next came a wide brimmed red hat with a black rose adorning it, suggesting the ‘storytellers of the world’ with a desire to be popular, ‘people’ rather than ‘task’ oriented, but good at starting projects. On a good day: positive enthusiasts, on a bad day: superficial, overly optimistic, promises rather than delivers, not a ‘finisher’, with a fear of being ‘unpopular’ or ‘rejected’. They have a short attention span, but are good talkers and presenters. (eg’s Boris Johnson, Barak Obama)
3. Next a pink ‘hard hat’ indicating requiring security, the good collaborator, ensuring everyone is ‘on side’, but very bad at saying ‘no’.  On a good day: the glue that holds the team together, on a bad day: resistant to ‘change’ with a fear of ‘loss of security’ and wariness of change. (eg’s Princess Diana, Paul McCartney, Michael Parkinson, Terry Wogan)
4. Finally, a black bowler hat, for those that insist ‘it’s got to be right!’, although they tend to work at a slower pace, creating rules that stop things going wrong.  On a good day: task based and ensure no mistakes, on a bad day: paralysis of analysis, they need to remember that it doesn’t need to be ‘perfect’, just good enough. (eg’s Steve Jobs, Mr Spock, Tiger Woods and the Queen)

She commented that couples are generally ‘polar opposites’, but most people are a mix of 2 or 3 of the ‘types’ In her work she produces 3 graphs: 1. Natural personality 2. Work personality and 3. ‘stress’ personality. She used the phrase ‘treat people as you would like to be treated yourself’, but added that sometimes it’s best to tailor it to the person you’re dealing with.  The overall message is that ‘there is no good or bad personality type’!

A few questions followed, which Debs easily dealt with and Alan F proposed the vote of thanks, thanking Debs for a captivating presentation that had our members wrapped into the subject, suggesting that she had covered what could be a dry subject in a thorough, but simple entertaining manner, then asking members to join him with a warm round of applause.                                      AR