554 | Clarity in Conflict: The Power of Analytical Problem-Solving

Chris LoCurto 0:00
On today's episode, we have an exciting topic, as we continue to discuss what's crucial for leaders and business owners in understanding personality styles. And today's personality style is understanding the C personality style and its influence on the conflict that is coming up next.

Welcome to the Chris LoCurto show where we discuss leadership and life and discover that business is what you do, not who you are. Welcome to the show, folks, I hope you're having a fabulous day, wherever you are. Today we are diving into the world of personality styles. Again, within our team. Specifically, we're going to explore the high C personality, and its impact on our team dynamics, what it looks like through conflict, all of that kind of fun stuff. So first, as we get into this, I kind of want to set the tone of what a high C personality style looks like. Now, again, if you've not done this for yourself, for your teams, what in the world are you waiting for, it's super important, it's super important for you to understand how to communicate well, in each one of these areas, and each one of these personality styles, how to lean in their direction and set them up for success. It's just crazy important.

So High S personality styles are what we call the detail people. They're all about details. They're all about accuracy. They're all about making sure that things are logical, and that they understand them, and that they can get to it through a series of processes. And that they can get to things through facts, the right logic and facts are super, super important. With the high C personality style. They do not like it, it's funny, we're going to talk about the emotions of the high C and it's interesting. They don't like emotions, in processes, they don't like emotions in decision-making, they try to avoid that kind of stuff, right? They love things to be more objective. They really want to make sure that things are logical factual and simple in their minds. I always say that high C's love to places, Excel spreadsheets, and Google because you can find anything on Google. And nowadays for the younger folks, it would be YouTube, and you can build anything in an Excel spreadsheet is just they love those aspects. They're the kind of folks that make great administrative people. They love doing the same thing over and over and over and over again, they don't want a lot of change, they can't stand change change conflict. So while they also don't like emotion in decision making, the things that stress out a high C, the high C's biggest fears are sounding stupid, or being wrong. They want to be right, but they hate being wrong. And they cannot stand sounding stupid.

So while they don't like emotions, in decision-making, or in processes, if they are stressed out, if they are worried about sounding stupid or being wrong, you are going to see strong displays of those emotions. It will be surprising to you how much you see a motion coming from somebody who you feel like you've been working with for a while, you feel like you don't really see a lot of emotion and things right. So that tends to be the high C personality style. They are detailed people very factual, and can't stand change. They're not focused on people. This is funny in, you know, only the highest people get offended by this, the high I get offended by this, but the high C, absolutely agrees with us. High C, there are times they don't like people, they prefer to be alone. They prefer to be by themselves. They never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever want to be in a big group of people, they just don't like it. That's never going to be the place that they want to be and they will never want to be the center of attention. That is just something that you're just not going to see with the high C they don't want to be the center of attention. They do want to be recognized, but they want to be recognized, you know, in a one-on-one situation. So understand that they love data. They are incredibly analytical and they are incredibly factual and they think through things to a great degree. So a high C is the kind of person who might go spend an hour researching something before they spend five minutes on it. And they're gonna have every detail and details that don't even apply some details that don't even matter. But they will have gotten through all of the information that they need to be able to make decisions or be able to work on the thing that they're working on. Other aspects of the high C, high C need to know the 30,000-foot view, before they work on the five-foot project. What am I saying? If you were to say to a high D, I need you to go and build a table. The high D will be like great, there'll be gone no details whatsoever, they will go build a table, it's not going to be the prettiest table, but it's going to be sturdy. And you can use that sucker. And they have no clue what in the world you're using it for. But you now have a table. Right? The high seat cannot do that. Why? Because the table doesn't even match the environment it's going in. They don't even know whether it's made out of the same material that's required. Right? The High S needs to know, where's it going. What do you want it to look like? What do you want it made out of? What style? Everything? Is this wood? Is this, you know, made out of metal? What is this thing made out of? Is it not a concrete table? Hopefully not. But what do you want this thing made out of? Where's it going? What's the size? What's the colors? What is the room going to look like? What's the floor, it's going to be on what chairs you're going to use. If they don't have all that information, it makes it incredibly difficult for them to build what they believe you want.

So if you don't give them the correct details, then they believe they are going to fail on the expectation. Because they don't know what to do. They don't have all the right information. So instead of working on SID table, what they will tend to do is do what we call putting it on the backburner. And they won't go get information, they won't ask questions. And again, keep in mind, as we're talking through this, we're talking about, you know, in the negative sides, we're talking about somebody who hasn't matured in their personality style and, and understands themselves really well. The immature High S is going to put on the back burner, not ask questions and wait for somebody to come along and tell them what to do. So after a week, you don't have a table, you go to the high senior like, Hey, where's my table? And like, why I don't know how to I don't know what you want me to do? What I mean, you don't know? Well, you didn't tell me what the environment is going to be what you want to get out of all these aspects. Well, why didn't you come talk to me, because I figured you'd come give me all the information. This is something that you will see what the high scene. So it is incredibly important to make sure that you are communicating incredibly well, with the high C with all the information that they need. Now I emphasized Fe because many people are going to communicate the way that they receive information. And if you're not a high C, you're not going to give enough information. So instead of communicating to yourself, remember, you're communicating to somebody who needs more details. So I will over-communicate and then ask questions. Does that make sense? Is there anything confusing? Is there anything you don't understand? What other questions do you have? And I will go through everything as much as I can to get to a place of believing that this High S knows exactly what's expected. And then I'll have them repeat it back to me. What do you think the expected result is? Right?

So this is super important for you when you're communicating with a high C. So whether it's a leader to co-workers, whether it is in a relationship, whether it's in your family,  you know some of your parents have that high See, that drives you nuts, because they need so much they have so many questions about the thing and you're like just do the thing. Right, they're super meticulous in particular in their room. You know, they know if the air has been moved, if somebody has come in and breathe in the air in the room, they know it, their books are in the correct order and very possibly by color and their sock drawer is super organized. And you know, their clothes may even be in their closet, you know left to right by colors and it's just this is how their brain operates. So when you don't lean in their direction with high levels of quality communication, you're not setting them up for success. Now caveat high C.

Here's what I tell all of my high C. It is your job to come get the information not to wait for it. Your high C must understand. If you don't have the information Don't you dare put it on the backburner and wait for somebody to tell you. Get off your butt. Come get the Information come ask questions. It's your job, it's your responsibility. Don't wait for me to come tell you what to do if you don't understand. Now, hopefully, I've done a good job of explaining it. But what if I haven't? Right? The last thing I can do is wait a week to discover that the table is not being built. Alright, so great, come ask questions that will help me to understand, I did not do a good enough job communicating with you. But leaders, family members, parents, spouses, if you do the other aspects of what I'm talking about, you ask those questions, you lay it all out there, then you are doing a great job of getting that information to that high C, just know, the high C is also not going to be the fastest processor. So while the high C could be standing there saying, Yep, I get it. In the moment. 20 minutes later there, they may, they will process through stuff that didn't come up in that discussion. So definitely, it would be smart for you to follow up with like a, you know, follow-up email or conversation saying, hey, just checking to see if you have any new questions or anything. Once again, caveat high C, go get the information. If 20 minutes later, you've come up with something else, go get the information, I don't care if you email it, text it, go see him in person, get the information that answers the question that you have.

Now, How do we adapt our communication? To those High S notes, it's super important to understand and explain to your team whoever's working with a high C, how high C handle conflict. High C do not handle conflict? Well, sorry, they just don't. They struggle with conflict, they struggle with stress, they struggle with the potential of being wrong, they really struggle with the potential of sounding stupid, right? They are not going to do well, in areas of change, areas of conflict areas of uncertainty, they're never going to be the person who takes the big risks, right? They're never going to be the person who goes, Oh, man, I cannot wait to go try something that absolutely may fail, that's not going to be your high see, right. They don't want to be recognized in front of other people. And they sure as heck don't want to make mistakes in front of other people, that you will see responses from that high sea that just blow you away. If they feel like they are looking stupid, and that their mistakes are being shown, then what you will tend to see them doing is responding with emotion. High C will go to battle with logic, they will go to battle with throwing people under the bus, they will go to battle by pushing back on stuff and blaming somebody else blaming leadership, they will change the topic with different facts that have nothing to do with the discussion. Emotionally, they will fight like crazy to get the blame off of them. This is a tough thing. And unfortunately, because they can tend to battle with facts and logic, even if it has nothing to do with the thing that they're talking about. People listen, and people go all in, they've got to be right. I mean, the thing that they just said is accurate. Yeah. But if you're not asking the questions, does that have anything to do with what we're talking about, then you're gonna get stuck right in that little logic, you know, spin wheel, right?

So understand that that's how they tend to respond when they're stressed out. High C don't want to take responsibility or ownership, a lot of times High C don't want ownership of something. So instead, they'll somewhat self-sabotage the process, and then put it back on the leader who gave it to him and blame the leader in the hopes that the leader takes it back. So it's very important to recognize if you want them to take ownership, you have to get them to say that they are taking ownership of the thing. Right, and then you still have to watch down the road to see if they try to get rid of it. Okay, so when stress comes about, it's harsh, it can be very difficult with a high C, because failure just doesn't appear to be an option in their minds. And that's where you have to train them and teach them that failures. Not only an option, it's, it's inevitable. It's a must if you're going to move things around, then you're going to fail at something. So if you can understand how they handle conflict, and if your team members can understand it, then you can start to catch the signs. And instead of battling back don't battle back start pushing in with perspective.

Hey, helped me to understand you just said this, but what does that have to do with this? Hey, help me to understand it sounds like you're blaming me for not taking ownership of this project. Hey, help me to understand and just press in. It's like I say watch it like a movie. You already know how they're gonna respond because you've, you've dealt with them before you've led them before you've experienced them before. So kind of watch, like a movie, don't get caught up, don't get emotionally handcuffed to the things that they're saying. Listen to what they're saying. And then push back if you need to write. And again, all of this is adapting communication for the conflict aspects that we might experience with a high C. What about the positive aspects of the high C? Oh, my gosh, these are some of your best administrative people. These are folks, when you think nobody wants to sit in a cubicle and do the same job all day long. Every day, five days a week, all your five years later, the High S personality style does. Why? Because they hate change. Changes conflict. So when you're looking for somebody to get in the details, if you're looking for somebody in your accounting department, you probably don't want a high I. Because there's going to be zeros missing. They're not going to be the greatest detail people sorry, I . I'm not sorry, you know, it's true. You know, it's true, and you'll want to talk all day long, high C wants to get to work, how do we knock this stuff out? How do we solve these numbers? How do we analyze this and tackle it with logic and facts, right. So when you're looking at the high C personality style, they are so phenomenal at helping a team accomplish things through the detail process, through the analytical process, don't try to put a high senior job that constantly changes, put them in the role, that they want to experience doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over again, every day, for years to come. Right. That's where you're gonna find a lot of their strengths. That's why we're gonna find them excelling.

Folks, if you've been listening to me for any length of time, then you know, the number one issue when it comes to business, when it comes to family, when it comes to friendships, is having a lack of high-quality communication, to make sure that you are winning in every aspect of your life, it all starts with having great communication, the best way to get that communication is to understand your personality style and to understand the personality style of the folks that you're spending the most time with, whether it be at work, whether it be at home, the best way to do that is to go to Chris LoCurto.com/store and get your personality profile and personality profiles for your team today, get it for your family members. Today, as you go through that profile, you will begin to see the greatest ways to communicate go to Chris LoCurto.com/store today. So back I had to take that sidetracked into the positive aspects because you need to understand every personality style has incredible benefits to your team. Right. So back to the conflict resolution, what do we do about it? Again, high levels of quality communication, not only with the high C, but with all team members, help team members to learn how to lean in each other's direction. Making sure that you're watching who the high C working with, I will tell you that the High C struggles with the high I because the high sea sees the high I ye as someone who talks a lot but doesn't get to good quality facts. The high C admire the Heidi's because they're strong. And they do operate off of some detail not much, but they're task-focused. Both the high D and the high C are task-focused. And the high C just really kind of admires that of the high D, the high C like the high SS but you know they kind of see them as the golden retriever. Right. They see them as that you know support person who they have a lot in common with when it comes to the conflict and change and all that but they see them as being suckers to other people, you know, high SS tend to want to support and take care of other people high C don't that's not their real focus. The emotional side doesn't come in until they feel like they're being called out on something or they look wrong. So make sure that you're helping them to understand what good conflict resolution looks like. You know that they don't need to lose all their worth that it's okay to be wrong.

That there is no sounding stupid that you can ask stupid questions and that's okay. Nobody's going to treat you like crap. Make sure nobody treats anybody like crap. You know, help them to understand that. It's okay to take responsibility. Help them to understand that it's their job, to get to answers work through the things that help them to know. These are the things I expect from you. So when we get into conflict, here's how I want you to resolve it. Did you have the facts, don't throw somebody under the bus, don't change and deflect details and information. Don't worry about looking wrong. Let's get to how we solve the problem. What happened? How did it happen? Why did it happen? How do we fix it? How do we make sure never happens again, help them to get to those aspects to see that they have not lost worth. They have not lost value. They're not stupid. They're not dumb. But we had a situation that needed to be fixed. So put those strategies in place, make sure there's lots of communication. And again, make sure that you're not getting caught up in the emotional aspect. If they become very emotional with battling through failure, you're going to have to have a level head, you're going to have to pay attention and watch what happens. It's interesting for me as a person who, you know, watch this communication like this happened between leaders and their team members, that I can see something that somebody just totally misses in a heartbeat. Because, well, it sounded right. And so they keep on moving on. And they don't realize it has nothing to do with what's been discussed. So let's also talk about self-reflection, as well as personal growth.

So high C, it is okay, to take ownership of your communication style. You need to, you've got to understand that your fears of being wrong or sounding stupid, are ridiculous. Right? If somebody's judging you on that, then you don't need that person in your circle of friends. You don't need to listen to that, that person, right? If you're wrong, you're wrong, take responsibility and move on. Solve the problem, right? If you don't ask questions, because you're afraid of sounding stupid, guess what? It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Listen to me, whether you're a high C or not, quality perspective, gathering is key to having the right information. But what do we do? I don't have a problem asking questions. I ask all kinds of questions. It's hilarious on our monthly mastermind q&a session that I do. I give like a few minutes for people to all get on. But then I'm looking at the you know, the folks that I'm coaching these business owners and these business leaders, and I'm looking at the experts in their fields that I would love an answer to. Richard Gizelle was one of the Yes, his last name is Gazelle, and he's a vet, he runs an animal hospital, you gotta love that. He's made for that. You know, he's somebody that I've like, man, if Richard comes on early, I'm gonna ask him a question. You know, I need to know this about animals, I need to you know, because it's something that I'm not afraid of. I'm not afraid to gain perspective from people. I used to be, I didn't want to sound stupid. I'm not a high seeing my See, I think is 40 ish, something like that. But I've come to a place of understanding that the more information I gain, the better decisions I make. So I can make better decisions with a quality perspective.

So high C , get over the fear of sounding stupid and get over the fear of being wrong. They don't make you worthy, they don't make you less valuable. All right, and if anybody thinks so then there's something wrong with that person. It's okay to be wrong. Just fix it. It's okay to ask a bunch of questions to get to quality perspective. Just don't waste people's time with a bunch of questions that have nothing to do with the thing that you should be working on. But gain quality perspective, ask questions, it's okay. Take ownership of your roles. I know there's a fear that you have from time to time of man if I take ownership and this thing fails it's all about me. Listen. The sooner you learn to break that fear and start taking control by grabbing ownership of the thing that you're responsible for and seeing it through to the end the sooner you can make mistakes and learn from the mistakes well Chris that kind of is you know goes against the the concept I don't want to make mistakes. I know the sooner you find out that it's okay to make mistakes, the sooner you will be okay with making mistakes. You got to do it. You just got to grab the bull by the horns take ownership take responsibility, see things through to the end. Don't throw people under the bus right grow you if you will do this you will be blown away with your abilities. You know talking about on the personality styles video. You know people always think that the Heidi's make the greatest coaches you know, you guys Got the coaches that are checking? I can't remember what his name Bobby Knight, I think, who used to check the chairs and yell and scream and everybody's like, Man, that's a great leader right there. No, it's not. It's a person who's yelling his leadership's not in check in chairs. His leadership is and how did he lead somebody to a place that would normally get to? Two the winningest NFL coaches in history are Tom Landry and Bill Walsh, who would walk a sideline and barely speak anything at all, very calm. I believe both guys are high C. As for the amount that I've studied, those guys, I believe that they were high see personality styles and look at where they made it to. But some people took responsibility. Some people didn't throw people under the bus. They recognize their shortcomings, and they recognize their strengths. And they focused on their strengths, right? So high C , I want you to permit yourself that it is okay. To be wrong. It's okay. Chances are you're probably not but it's okay. If you are ICS tend to be right, because they are the ones that do the most research, right. But guess what, sometimes you're wrong. It's okay. Permit yourself to ask questions. The self-fulfilling prophecy of not asking questions is eventually you look stupid because you didn't ask the questions. I didn't ask any questions because I didn't want to look stupid. Well, yeah. But now you look stupid because you had a responsibility of something, and you don't have the answers. And you don't know what you're doing.

So now it looks stupid that you didn't ask questions. Don't allow the self-fulfilling prophecy right? Learn how you can communicate better. Learn how you can lean in the direction no high c believe that everybody should lean in their direction. Listen, you have got to become an expert at leaning in the other personality styles directions. It's okay, it's going to get you better results. If you do. It will help you accomplish what you want to accomplish by leaning in their direction. Other personality styles. Do yourself a favor and talk about how a high C can lean in your direction. Hey, here's how I do well with communication. Here are some things that you can do. You know, here are some things that you know, I I know that when we get into a meeting, you know, high I am like, I know we get into meaning you're straight to the details. Man. I would love to know how your weekend was. Yeah, but I don't care about that. That's not what we're here for. I know. But can you give me two minutes worth? Right, you can you can kind of share what it looks like. The high C doesn't want to talk about their weekend, they probably don't care about your weekend, they care about the details of the thing that they came to the meeting for. But if you can help them see that it opens you up get you to trust them more, and get you to be more vulnerable with them. Then hopefully, they will learn okay, you know, a couple of minutes to chit chat is okay, let's do that. Get that out of the way and get on to the details. Alright, so personality styles, all personality styles, work with each other to one, find out how you need to lean in their direction, and then help them to see how they need to lean in yours. And this is all for the success of communicating so that we can win with projects with roles with jobs with whatever we're trying to accomplish.

These I, S if you will understand the high C is an incredible benefit. Because of their ability to stay focused on task, their ability to get to the details, their ability to stay doing the same job over and over and over again and knocking it out and getting it done with excellence. If you will understand that then you will understand how important it is to lean in their direction. Just also help them to lean in yours. So to you leaders, what are you going to do to make sure that all personality styles understand each other that the DS and the I and the S understand the C personality style? What to look for how to communicate well, how to push back if they have to, you know how to resolve conflict. What are you going to do? You've got to take these tools that you're learning today and begin to implement them. Now. Many leaders are frustrated because they don't have the time and tools to lead well. Your days get filled up with fires, people drama meetings, that are simply a waste of time and never seem to get to what's important, and what moves the business forward. Reading books and listening to podcasts isn't helping except for this one, and not much about your work life is changing for the better. And there's a simple reason most leaders do not know how to implement what they've learned. And that's assuming that it was good information to start with. And this is why we created the next-level leadership live event. So if you're feeling frustrated or stuck About work these days, go to Chris LoCurto.com/events. That's Chris LoCurto .com/events. and register for the Next Level leadership live event. registration opens December 1 with $500 off every ticket you buy, but that's for a short period of time. Now you're going to learn lessons we practice daily in our business, that are only taught at this event or inside one of our coaching programs. And you'll have hours of workshop time, as well as access to our coaches during that time. So go to Chris LoCurto.com/events. And make sure that you take advantage of this limited-time offer before it slips away. Well, folks, in conclusion, I want you to remember, in a nutshell, that the High S personality style brings invaluable precision and depth to our team. It is amazing. By recognizing and adapting to this style. You're empowering your team to handle conflicts more effectively and nurture a collaborative work environment. It's that important. Now, we would love to hear from you. We'd love to hear your stories, and your insights, so feel free to share them with us at podcast at Chris LoCurto.com. Well, folks, that's all the time we have for today. I hope that this has helped you. As always, take this information, change your leadership, change your business, change your life, and join us on the next episode.