631 | Your Team Isn’t Underperforming—You Might Just Be Miscommunicating, with Aaron West

Leaders. If you've got team members who seem to be underperforming or missing the mark, this episode is for you.

Today we're talking with Aaron West, one of our top leadership coaches, about how miscommunication and unspoken expectations, not laziness, are often the real issue in how DISC (D I S C) personality styles can help you fix it fast. 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 something that frustrates just about every single leader and that is underperformance.

Intro: Exodus (00:01:02)

But before we get into it, let me take you back to Exodus, chapter four, where God tells Moses, now I'm going to give you a very simplistic version of this. This is so much deeper, but I'm going to give you a simple simplistic version of this.

For today's discussion, God tells Moses to speak to Pharaoh, but Moses says, I'm not a good speaker. So God sends Aaron, which he had already sent Aaron, someone who was wired differently, to help him communicate the message effectively.

It's a good example of how Moses wasn't ineffective. He needed help with communicating. That's what we are talking about today with a different Aaron. So he's come on the show to help me communicate to you how to use this to be effective.

So. So some of the underperformance that you see in your team isn't about motivation. I know many times it feels like it is. It's more about your communication style.

It's whether you've, you've truly set clear expectations. So today, one of our top leadership coaches, Aaron West, one of our trainers, he's joining us to break down how to fix what's really going on by using the power of DISC personality styles.

Aaron, welcome to the show. Hey, Chris, thanks for having me again. I love being on the show. This is so much fun. I love getting to talk about this stuff.

I wish we could do this, like, all the. All the time. Yes. Great stuff. Great segment today discussing underperformance.

Every single leader, everybody that you've ever coached, everybody that you know that works with us tends to struggle with this concept of underperformance.

But today we're going to hit this from. I don't know if it's terribly surprising, but I think it's going to make a lot of sense to folks that it's not just because.

I mean, I'll be honest, when I was in my younger years, there were certain personality styles I struggled with. I'm like, are you just lazy? Are you just. Why aren't you moving? Why aren't you getting things done?

And then as I started down this path, geez, 29 years ago, I think is what it is, I think it was like about 29 years ago.

I started down this path of DISC and started understanding how people receive information and what they do with it, all that kind of fun stuff. So we're gonna, we're gonna dive into that today.

It’s Not Always What You Think (00:03:18)

So, folks, you. You all have been there. We've all been there.

You think you've given clear direction, but the results come back totally off from what you've communicated.

And now you're wondering, why can't this person, why can't these people just follow through? But what if the problem isn't effort? What if it's just understanding?

So, Aaron, in your coaching experience, how often is underperformance actually just a failure to communicate clearly or set expectations?

Well, well, it's so funny you bring this up and this is the topic because I just wrapped up a coaching call right before this that guess what was going on.

Underperformance. And it was, man, I can't seem to get this team member to do what we need to do. And I'm struggling. And it's like, well, what's their personality style?

And as we started digging in, we realized it really wasn't a underperformance. It was a communication issue. It was a setting clear expectations issue.

And that seems to be a very common thread that runs through a lot of businesses, a lot of leaders that I see, gosh, probably multiple times during coaching a week that I do.

And it's like, okay, let's dig into what's the personality style? How are you communicating? What expectations are you communicating to them if you are, and how are they receiving that?

And so that's what is one of the main things that we see over and over and over again when I've got a team member who's just struggling and I can't figure out what's going on. So breaking it down for a leader.

So what Give folks an idea of what that discussion was like. I know you just pointed out some questions that you asked, but what's the revelation to the leader on the direction you went with them? Yeah.

So as we're talking about it, as we're opening up the conversation and digging into what's going on, the thing that we have to realize as leaders is where are we? Because that's the first thing we have to look at.

If I've got a team member failing, where are we as leaders contributing to that failure? Always check you as a leader first. Check first.

And so one of the things that we realize so often early on in a conversation is, well, what if you actually communicated to them? What have you actually said to them? Because one of the things that we talk a lot about. Everything. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

They got everything. All the information. What. How are they missing this? I mean, seriously. But one of the things that we talk about so often is communication doesn't happen when I say something.

It happens when the other person receives what I'm saying correctly. And so. So many times. Setting them up for success. Exactly. And so many times, us as leaders, we communicate stuff. We say we communicate stuff.

We say a bunch of stuff. And then we walk away thinking, they got that, and come to find out we've left them hanging because they don't have the information. They don't have the stuff that they need to be successful.

And then we come back a day later, a week later, hey, how's that thing going? And we get frustrated because they haven't accomplished what we expected them, which, by the way, we never communicated that expectation to them either.

And so now we're in this place of frustration with our team going, man, they can't get this. They can't do this. And we're not asking ourselves the question. Timeout.

What did I not communicate? What did I not do to set them up for success? It is so funny because so many companies that come through StratPlan, it is such a great time for us to help a leadership team who believes they communicate incredibly well.

Right. And so everybody who's listening to this that's been through StratPlan, you're thinking, oh, he's talking about us. I'm talking about all y' all.

Because it's. It is almost every single company that comes through. Yeah. Talks. Well, that's one of the things we discussed during StratPlan is, guys, you know, we'll say, hey, rank your communication.

And they'll always say, seven, eight. You know, something like that. And you can see they talk well. They like each other. They discuss things and personal things.

And there's, you know, there's joy and there's. There's all these things. And then when we get into the. The heavy duty levels of communication, what we discover is they don't communicate well, they talk well, and there's a difference.

You and I are talking right now. I'm not trying to set you up for success on an expectation. I'm not trying to set you up for success on an outcome. Right, right, right. So we're talking well.

And since we do well at that, it appears as though we communicate really well. But really, you know, as. As we will say a thousand times to people, it's setting the other person up for success with the thing you're trying to communicate.

If, like you said, once they get that and they receive it and they understand it and they under. They can tell you what the expectation is. They can tell you what, what, what the outcome should look like.

Now we're rocking. Now we're doing really well. So one of the tools we use, obviously we talk about this all the time, is DISC because it helps, you know, us to understand how people actually process communication.

You know, we always say, just the short of it is how you give and receive information, how you act and react.

And if you want to set your expectations well for your team member, your spouse, your kid, whatever it is, it's not just about the message, it's about how it's delivered.

How DISC Helps Clarify the Real Problem (00:08:33)

So do me a favor so that everybody who's listening, if they've been under a rock or they've, you know, they're brand new to us, break down how DISC (D I S C).

How it helps leaders recognize when communication, not effort, is the actual real issue.

Yeah, I mean, DISC really helps us to understand the wiring behind each of the personality styles. And so all of us. This is an interesting thing. DISC does not define us to a box.

It doesn't put us into this. You are this thing. But it gives us good reference of understanding where are our tendencies? Where do we seem to find ourselves more often? Responding in certain ways.

And so the four areas of the DISC, the D is that dominant personality, they like that directness.

They like that just hit them hard with the bullets and not a lot of fluff. The I -- they're very relational. A lot of stuff's about them. And so they're very much involved in people and they like to have exciting, fun things.

We always talk about the fact that there's no party unless a High I is actually there at it. Because they're the ones that bring the life of the party.

That's right. That's right. The high Ss, they're very loyal, they're very stable. They need that. That predictability. They don't like a lot of conflict at all. They don't like any conflict.

And so just being aware of those kind of things around them. And then the Cs are high details people. They love the details, the logic, the structure, all those pieces around that. And so we've got to make sure that we're giving a ton of information to them.

And so understanding the different personalities and all of, all of us show different times, each of those four personality cells.

There's times where I'm a high IS and C very low D, but there's times where my D comes out and I have to respond with quick decision making. And I have. And it appears to others go, oh, Aaron, must be a High D. No, no, no. I'm just responding from that.

It just doesn't happen as often as the other personality style segments that you see in me. And so understanding that, it doesn't define me to a certain box with this.

But I got to look at my team and go, where are they in their moment? Like, what are they at this personality style? How are they responding?

And then how do I lean into the that? Because if I just communicate in a High IS and C and I'm talking to a High D, they're going to turn me off in about three seconds.

They're not going to pay any attention to what I'm saying because I'm all too bubbly and excited and too detailed and all these things for them. Too much information to process. Way too much information.

They're going to be, they're going to be looking at me like, huh, not happening, not happening anytime soon. But if I can slow down and think about who am I talking to? What do they need from me?

Go back to what I talked about a second ago. How do I set them up for success? And I start to lean into them and I start communicating in a way that they can receive it.

Now I'm actually getting to a place where they can start to hear what I'm trying to say. They can actually connect with what I'm trying to say. So we're hitting this episode from, you know, speaking to leaders.

And we cannot overstate how. This isn't just for leaders. This is for everybody. So I want to use an example from the leadership aspect. But then I think we should, you know, well, I, I think you'll hit it from both sides if I know you well enough.

Let's say I'm a high D and I give like vague instructions to a High S or a High C. If I give that level, it's like they'll figure it out, they've got it, they understand it, they can run with it.

And instead what we end up with is this confused, frustrated, most likely disengaged. You know, the High C for sure. If they don't understand it, they're going to put it on the back burner. Right.

The High S is going to procrastinate the living daylights out of it if they don't understand it. So it's not clear to them. And it appears to, you know, let's say on that high D, it appears to me like my team member or team members are just being lazy.

What, what is happening here? Why is this failing? Because I think a lot of it comes back to the expectation because we don't have the clear expectation of what we're trying to solve, what we're trying to get to.

Yeah, but as a High D, I told you what I needed. But your team didn't. And so that's the key to it. You didn't actually set that expectation for them.

This is one of the things that I think we miss so much in communication is having clear expectations across the board with everybody, that we're in unity, that we're in alignment with those expectations.

Because I think what happens is we assume we've communicated it. We have made the statements when our mind, we know what it is, they can fill in the gaps. This is what happens when they fill in the gaps.

They've got it figured out now because I've got it figured out. And so what happens is we walk away from that conversation going, my team's got this.

And then they come back and realize what's going on, what's happening. They never had it to start with. They never got it from you. And so what's happening is we're stepping into this.

We're not giving great clarity, we're not giving great expectations around what they need to be successful, not what we need, what they need to be successful.

And then what happens is they're left just kind of out there to figure it out on their own. And especially with talk about S and Cs, that's 65% of the population is Ss and Cs.

We're leaving them to try to figure it out on their own. And they're going to struggle without that direction, without that guidance, they're going to really go, okay, we might try to figure something out.

If they don't procrastinate, here's what happens. A lot of times they'll procrastinate. They'll kick the can down the road till they have more information. I can even tell you my own self.

How many times I've done that as a high SIC actually did it not too long ago and it got me in trouble because I went, oh, I don't have enough information.

I won't work on this until my leader gives me more information because I'm assuming it's not important to them because they didn't give me enough information.

Think about that. I just did that as a team member. What about my own team members doing that? If I don't give them enough information, they just assume that I don't think it's important.

Well, they're not going to make it important. Or the exact opposite happens. Then gets very little information and the Ss and Cs go, okay, we'll fill in the gaps and then go.

Do a lot of energy, a lot of effort towards something, spend a lot of time on something that they think is the right thing, bring it back.

And then what does the D go? That's not what I was looking for. That's not what I wanted.

Well, now you've demoralized and demotivated your Ss and Cs because they spent a ton of energy and time on this thing that they thought you wanted.

But because you weren't clear, you didn't set the right expectations with them. Now they're going, why would I spend more time and energy on this in the future, man?

Another thing that we cannot overstate, especially a High C. High Ss will do this as well. Ss and Cs. If I try to do something and it is wrong, and you were the one who was vague and you didn't give me enough information, then my brain goes to.

And I'm not, I'm not a high C, I'm in a high S. But the S and C brains go to, well, screw this.

I'm not even going to attempt this next time because apparently I'm just wrong. And the C's spirit especially can't stand to be wrong about something.

So if they poured out energy only to be told this isn't what I was looking for, so then they're not going to do it again in the future. So what should I have done? If I'm a high D, what should it have looked like?

So the very first thing is I need to make sure I know my team. I need to know what they are, what their personality styles are, what their tendencies are.

And I need to then go, okay, what do they need from me before I even go into the conversation? I'm already prepared, processing through what does this team member need from me to set them up for success?

What are the potential questions that they could ask or maybe even the questions they're afraid to ask that I can go ahead and address, but I'm preparing myself for that.

So then when I go into the conversation, I'm very intentional about, okay, let me follow through with the things that I am wanting to set up for them, wanting to give them to set that clear expectation for them, whatever that may be.

If it's a high D, I'm going to be very intentional about being really bullet pointed with stuff and then going, hey, do you need more information?

I've got more information I can give you, but I'm not going to overwhelm you with details unless you need it. Right. So I'm setting that expectation with an S or C, you better believe, especially C, I'm going to give them a ton of details.

We have a team member on our team who is a really high C personality. Love her to death. She's fantastic at what she does.

But I know that about her personality that I have to give a lot of details to her to set her up for success. I don't mind that at all, but I know it sets her up and avoids lots of questions. And so we're going through.

We'll spend time going through workbooks, we'll spend time going through presentations and reviewing tons of stuff that we have a lot of details go into that.

But as we go through this, as I'm giving her feedback, I'm being very clear in my feedback that it doesn't leave any questions for her to go. What does he mean by that?

Yeah. And the result of that is so phenomenal. When she has great information, the stuff that she cranks out is just insane, which is just fantastic and absolutely amazing. And we love that. And so that's our Noelia. We love her.

So just going to keep throwing curveball. Well, they're not curveballs, they're more softball pitches to you. I don't mind. You mentioned that I need to prepare. Yeah. For this. Yep.

If I'm going into a meeting with a D, I, S, or C, if I'm prepared ahead of time, does that necessarily mean that they are? Oh, I would never count on them being prepared. Always go into it with the plan of okay.

Again, I'm trying to set my team up for success. So I'm never going to assume they're coming in with the same amount of information, the same amount of ideas, even the same amount of preparation for a meeting, as I would in this.

Not saying they don't, but I'm never going to assume that so what I'm. What I do. So there are times especially so different personality styles. These are great things you can do.

If I know I need to get feedback in a meeting from my team members, I'm going to come into a meeting and I want to get feedback from them. Ds and Is.

I can get that meeting on the spot right there from them because they're quick to think, they're quick to respond to those kind of things. Ss and Cs will literally just stare at you for periods of time going, I got nothing.

I got nothing. I got. Because I will tell you, as a High S, I see our best ideas come three days later in the shower. We're getting ready for work. I mean, that's like, man, I should have said that in that meeting. That would have been perfect.

So one of the things that we talk about doing that's really helpful is making sure that if I've got a bunch of S&C's in this meeting, I'm leading into this meeting by preparing them ahead of time.

Hey, guys, we're going to have this meeting in three days. I'd love to get your feedback on this piece, be thinking about this, because I'm going to ask everybody what they think on this. So come prepared to talk about this.

And I'm giving them the time to process and think about it and be able to create a response that's not caught on, you know, on the fly as we go, but actually being able to give them a chance to respond with something that they've been able to think about and process on and feel good about.

Not just feeling like somebody's holding a gun to their head and saying, tell me what you think right now. Exactly. Yeah. Is and Ds. Love the brainstorming session. Ss and Cs Hate it.

Make sure you find me in a high I mode if you want to brainstorm. Otherwise this is not going to go real well. Exactly. All right, so if I'm going to try and spot, like, miscommunication.

Spotting the Signs of Miscommunication (00:20:24)

So let's say that I've got a team member who's missing deadlines, dropping balls, or just kind of seems disengaged.

How can I, as a leader know if the root issue is communication or if it's unclear expectations, like, what are some of the red flags or lack of clarity that's at play? Yeah.

The very first thing that I would tell leaders to do. And this actually comes off of what we've been working with our Mastermind and Key Leader Program clients this month is gaining perspective, asking questions.

The first thing I've got to do as a leader is I need to get a ton of perspective. I cannot make any assumptions on anything.

If I've got a team member who's struggling, I need to figure out why, what's going on, let me ask some questions, let me gain some perspective. What's happening?

What you find out often is that there's something that's not clear, something that's not been communicated, something that's not been set up well. And because of that, now we start to go, okay, how do we as a leader then solve that problem?

Because oftentimes it's actually not the person, it's the problem that we've never actually addressed or solved. And because of that piece, we've got a person who's struggling.

And so if we get to that and get that perspective, it allows us to then look at it and go, okay, what do we now do with this?

How do we now take that information that we've got and create a solution that solves the problem for the team member, solves the problem for us.

After we do that, if we gain that perspective, we may get to a place where it's like, okay, there's, there's a breakdown happening here. We've got a person who's really struggling with something.

We've done everything we can to help them. So now we get to a deeper level of, of taking care of them, working through things. And again, I'm going to look at personality styles on this.

If I've got somebody who is struggling with something, maybe there's something outside of work that's going on.

Maybe there's something that's happening in their personal life and that affects different personality styles differently. And so I'm going to look at what is the personality style of the person.

Could there be something happening there? Because we've solved all this stuff internally with work, something else could be going on there that now we can get into a deeper understanding of what is going on.

How's their personality style, responding to that and digging into that side of things to go, how do we help them solve that piece?

So if I'm hearing you correctly, what I'm hearing you say is we can't just expect them to fix things or know things or understand things. We have to take into account that these are emotional beings. Yeah.

And that even if we understand their personality style, it doesn't just stop there. Well, correct.

I did the thing that Chris and Aaron said I'm supposed to do, you know, but that there may be, like, the way that I handle a frustration of lack of clarity may be different than the way, you know, a high D or high C handles a lack of clarity.

Right. And it's many times it's difficult to say, but some ids, if they don't have enough clarity, sometimes they'll just, you know, bull in a china shop until they get it right.

Sometimes they won't. It just kind of depends on. But I can see folks listening to this and going, well, looking for red flags. Oh, I see that you're struggling with something.

Here's the fix it as opposed to, hey, how is this struggle affecting you personally or, like, you brought up, what if they're struggling with stuff outside, you know.

Yeah. So the red flag may not necessarily be on my lack of communication. It could be, but it could be that there it's leading to something bigger. Yeah.

And that I've got to focus on that, you know, as best I can within the boundaries of, you know, what you're able to do in your role. Try to find out what's going on with this individual. Yeah. And I don't want to skip over this piece.

I think it's important because sometimes I think leaders jump too quickly to, oh, there's something wrong with them. Right. And so I think we have to make sure.

Have we really verify that everything that we have done to set them up for success is being done? Have we communicated effectively? Have we given them the tools? Have we walked through everything? Have we given them great accountability and training?

Have we given them the piece that will help them succeed and they're still choosing not to succeed. Or is there something else? Because I think that's the thing that we do have to be careful of.

That idea of leaders getting too early to, oh, they're making the mistake. They're the problem. Right.

We're not-- We're not actually getting to the root of what's happening. We're putting a band aid on the problem, but we're actually solving the real problem, the group problem.

You know, it's funny as you bring that up, Is and Ss are going to have a better time trying to dig in the personal side. I want to help the person or I want to, you know, take care of the person.

But it's interesting when you get to Ds and Cs and a lot of the thing we should have said this at the top of the show. But, you know, a lot of the-- the negative stuff that we're talking about is just a lack of what we call it immaturity.

It's a lack of understanding. It doesn't mean it has nothing to do with your age. It has to do with how well you understand how you give information, receive information, you know, act, react, all that kind of fun stuff.

Some of the things I've noticed over the 30 years with Ds and Cs is Ds have a tendency to not care.

Right. And I told you. Right. I mean, I, you should know this, you should figure this out type of thing. And many times. Cs, it is hard for Cs to understand that, especially if they're communicating with another high circle.

They have this concept. I told them once. Yeah. I shouldn't ever have to tell them ever, ever, ever, ever, ever again. Yep. Even though many times with many High Cs, you have to go over multiple times with the C.

It's interesting how they view other people where it's like they want more information, but if somebody else is struggling. Nope, I told you once, you should know this.

I shouldn't have to deal with this ever again. Which I truly believe the, the root issue there is more of a. It's conflict to have to re-deal with something. Right.

Or maybe conflict of I didn't communicate it well. So I think it's important for us to recognize what is our tendency when somebody else is failing.

You know, if, if somebody is struggling or if somebody does seem like they don't have clarity or they, you know, they're putting something on the back burner or whatever.

You know, we keep saying go back to you as a leader. Go back to you as a leader. But one of the things we may not recognize is how do we respond when somebody's in that situation.

Do we go into, you know, you've been saying it 1400 times on this episode already. You've got to dig in. You've got to look at you. I think we have to get past that initial reaction of, yeah, but I already told them.

Or, well, they should figure this out and get to this place of. Or even an I or an S that's going to repeat the same thing that doesn't actually give greater clarity. We have to look at that. How do I normally react in these bad situations?

Or maybe bad's not the right word, but lack of clarity situations. Yeah. It's so interesting because you even brought up the high C.

And I think about a high C? Who in their mind, they go, well, I'm talking to another. This is what happens. I'm talking to another high C. Surely they get it, they should get it from just the one time I tell them.

Yeah. Even though they themselves know I need this information multiple times. I need, I needed, you know, details. I need all of these things. Yet when I go to communicate, especially to a high C, I go, they only need it one time.

Why do we think that way? I mean, it's just part of that. If we're not careful about how we look at it, I'm again, I'm a high ISC on this stuff and depending on where I'm at, I can find myself going in immaturity going, hey, why haven't you gotten this yet?

Exactly. Aaron, you told me one time, is it one time good enough? I mean seriously, how many times do I have to tell. And this is, we start to justify it instead of actually asking the question going, hey, timeout, they haven't gotten it.

What can I do to help them get it? Yeah, that's I, you just nailed what I think is the biggest piece is, you know, as I'm like, I'm saying we have to understand how we react.

It's that piece of justification. The moment you go to anything that has to do with you, you are absolutely not focused on setting the other person up for success, Right?

Yep. So if I'm being selfish, self centered, self focused, whatever, you know, justifying me, defending me, then I'm definitely not caring about whether or not you're going to be set up for success.

Rebuilding Clarity and Trust with DISC (00:29:23)

So, so let's say that a leader realizes that, that, that they might actually be the problem.

Like maybe they're the one who's not communicating well. Maybe they're the one that's, you know, unclear on expectations.

What are the first steps that a leader can take to kind of fix that gap between communication style and how they set expectations? Yeah, I mean the first thing is we come back to this already is that self awareness.

We just have to make sure that we understand ourselves first and foremost. And then once we do that, we can then move on to that next piece.

And that next piece simply is being intentional in our conversation, asking questions, gaining perspective, things like, hey, what's not clear to you about what we're talking about here? What's a gap?

Or what's something that maybe I'm not communicating well? Or what questions do you have? Here's the interesting thing. If I ask a high S, hey, what questions do you have what's their response going to be?

I don't have any questions. We're good. We're deep down inside. They probably have a ton of questions. They just don't know how to ask those questions.

And so we've got to make sure we're asking, we've got to make sure that we're thinking about how do they want to receive information? Do they like it verbal? Do they like it written? Do they like visuals?

I mean, that's one of the reasons why we do our presentations that we do when we're doing trainings and things the way we do because it's a combination of all, all three of those things to help reach all those different learning styles.

We need to know what does that person need that's going to help them be effective? And then we've got to come back to what is their personality style?

How do we need to lean in their direction and meet them where they are? Where are they at right now in this moment? What's their personality style? How do I need to give them the information that's going to help them?

If it's a high C, I'm going to give them a ton of detailed information and give them a lot of stuff.

If it's a high S I'm going to walk through and make sure they understand how it impacts and the why find it but how it impacts other people.

If it's a high I, I'm going to have fun with it. We're going to, we're going to make it fun and we're going to get to the result we're going for.

If it's a high D, I'm going to be very bullet point focused and give them, here's the end result we're looking for and we're going to walk through that together and go solve that problem together.

Here's the thing that I think a lot of leaders make a mistake on and it's the, I'm going to communicate it to you and then I'm going to leave. And although they walk out of the room, we don't need to leave the situation.

Our team is needing our help to solve the problem. They have to stay engaged to help them solve that. No matter what their personality style is, no matter what they're walking through.

As a leader, we should be able to stay engaged in it and never go, okay, here you go, go solve it and turn around and walk away entirely disengaging from what our team needs, especially if they've never had to solve that thing before.

Aaron, it sounds like this is a lot of hand holding and babysitting and stuff. I mean, I'm hearing this, I'm new to this show and sounds like you're wanting me to be a babysitter. Is that what you're saying?

So here's the interesting thing. If I'm willing to invest the time, energy, and effort on the front side to help them be successful in this, guess what I'm not having to do on the backside.

All these struggles that all these leaders are finding where, man, I've communicated this, and now they don't get this. I'm trying to do this, and I'm spending tons of time back and forth and fixing things and undoing things because I did not set my team up for success.

If I do this right on the front side, Chris, it makes all the difference in the world. It's. Again, we talk with so many leadership teams and discover that we call them professional firefighters because, you know.

Yep. I mean, they're just consistently putting out fires instead of leading a team to success. And when we back into it, what we discover is there. There wasn't the effort on the front side.

We got busy and we just kept going and we kept communicating the way we were communicating. And then, you know, we get overwhelmed.

And because we're trying to accomplish everything, and then because there's such a lack of high levels of quality communication, there's a lack of accountability, then we end up becoming professional firefighters.

What so many leaders do is just put out fires every single day.

Building a Culture of Communication Awareness (00:33:37)

So let's imagine that a team actually uses DISC across the board, like, the entire team is using it. So what I want to know is what starts to happen?

Like, what have you seen change when teams use DISC to improve how they communicate, like, with everybody. Yeah. So I'm actually going to start with a personal story on this that leads into.

And so I have three older brothers. So there's four of us boys in my family. Interestingly enough, all four of us have a different dominant personality style.

My oldest brother is a high D. My next oldest brother is a high I. The next one is a high C. And then I'm the high S, the youngest, the baby of the family. And so I can look back on times in our lives where we argued, we fought, you know, just like brothers do.

We -- when you get to the root of it, there's a lot of personality conflicts that were going on and we didn't understand it.

We didn't know it, and all these things that are happening around us and the way they respond to certain things and the way we're reacting to certain things and.

And, you know, all these kind of things. And then once you start to understand, wait, that's their personality style.

That's their personality style. I don't have to receive the personality style in the way that they're coming across. I can start to see them a little bit different, understand what they're trying to communicate.

And they're not being a jerk. They're actually just communicating in their personality style. That changes then how I see them. It changes how I receive information from them. So now when the four of us boys get together, it's a different conversation that we have.

Yeah, we understand each other at a different level. I always joke the first time I heard this 18 years ago, you were actually teaching it on stage.

First time I heard it, my jaw dropped on the floor because I finally figured out what was wrong with everyone else around me.

Reality of it was, is I was learning a ton about myself and how I received people and how I understood and the struggles that I was having, especially as a high S personality at the time, how I was struggling with people around me and certain personality styles and all of those things.

And so the family side of that was in a major impact for me. Let's take it to the team now. Let's take it to the business, not only within the people I've worked with, but a lot of the businesses I've coached.

There's a client of ours who they happen to come to a team training we were having with another client. They were guests, and it was a father and two sons, and they had their own business they were doing.

And I taught understanding personality styles pisc to this group of leaders at this company and these three other guys that happened to be there. And as I was teaching, I saw these light bulbs going off.

This is a father with two sons who they've been working together for. For years in this business. But you can start to see all these light bulbs go off for the three of them because they started to understand each other in a way they never had before.

And so what happened is we started talking about this within the business, and they realized the dad a super high C, super high S. And then a son who is a high D high S, another son a high D high I.

All the conflict that they had in running this business, all the conflict and challenges, they weren't on the same page with a bunch of stuff, and they didn't understand what each other was trying to do.

And they were frustrating each other by how they worked through issues and responded to things and how they communicated. And instead, this gave them opportunity to be able to go, wait a second.

Now I start to see where you're coming from. Now I start to see your perspective because your personality style is looking at it this way. Suddenly, they started communicating in a completely different way.

That changed the business, but also changed the family dynamic for them as well. And now it's been spread throughout their entire family. And we've got another, you know, two more of their sons are now involved with what we do.

And so it's just so interesting to see that once we have this happening, not only at the leadership level, but then we got to infuse it in the team.

You start to see team members communicate differently with each other. You start to see how they handle conflict, how they handle situations, how they solve problems, how they lean into each other and help each other become better at what they do.

You start to see more meetings that take a different effectiveness, because now meetings have a purpose, and we're. We're communicating in a way that meets our team where they're at.

How many of us go into ineffective meetings? I mean, let's just be real. Sometimes we walk into these meetings and we're like, I don't need to be here, because it's not communicating to us. We're not receiving the information that's being communicated to us.

And so understanding that, it changes that it changes accountability, how I hold somebody accountable if I understand their personality style, all of these things change.

Because now we're looking at this beyond just a, okay, you need to do it this way, because it's how I think you should do it to now. A way of you look at this differently, you have a different way, a different perspective of how you see this thing.

Let me make sure that I'm leaning into and meeting you where you are to help you be successful. Yeah, it. It is so fun. I've heard you tell that story about your brothers for years and years.

And. And it just. It's so interesting to me because it's easy. It's expected for us to see that in a business. Right. But you would think that inside of a family unit there would be a greater understanding, and yet it's the same.

Right. And so I don't know why we think it would be different. Right. If we don't understand our own siblings to the point of, you know, they operate differently, or parents, family members, that they operate differently with how they communicate. Right.

Yeah. Like you said, sometimes we could look at a family member and go, what a jerk. They always treat me, you know, and I'm not saying that they don't treat you badly, but so many times that is overcome with, ah, now I get why you respond that way.

I always thought you were a jerk. And really you just, you just do things differently than I do. You see things differently.

And it doesn't justify the bad actions or attitudes, but it helps give you perspective about, oh, that's where they're coming from. That's how they're looking at this. That's how that's happening. Yep.

Our personality styles video that, that we have, you know, you were there of the story years and years ago of this high D and high C on the team.

And the C is just like that. High D is just a jerk. And that's the D was just like, I don't know why this person can't get in. Working with them to get to a place where they actually became friends, would go outside and do things together outside of the business.

That was such a great turnaround and a great example of what people see every single day inside of their business. Yeah. The struggle to care. Yeah. Struggle to even care to lean in somebody else's direction. Yeah. One last question.

Go ahead. Were you going to say something on that? I was just gonna, I was gonna tell a quick story that I think is a great example of what you're talking about. So we had a client of ours who, he's a high C, was leading a team of three high D personalities.

You can already see where the challenges can arise. Right there, just that whole idea. And I remember having a coaching call with him and he's going, Aaron, I'm just struggling to get them to do things the way that I want them to do. Yeah.

Getting them to do the things I want. And so we kept going like, so let's talk about what are they doing? Well, you know, they were, they were in, they were in it and coding.

And so he goes, you know, I'm very much a methodical where I go through, I write the code, I double check it, I'll do all this and then I roll it out when I know it's perfect.

He goes, they would write code so much faster than me and then roll it out and it create all kinds of problems. And then they go and roll out more code and create more problems and roll out more code, create more problems.

I was like, did they ever eventually get to solution? He was like, yeah. I was like, about how long did it take them to get to solution. He's like, well, it took him about this long.

I was like, if you were doing it, how long would it take you to get the solution? He went light bulb the exact same time. He's like. I was like, so think about this.

You're approaching it from this way as a high C personality style. And you're, you're doing it this way. The high D is going to go, I'm just going to try it.

If it doesn't work, I'm going to figure out something and try something else. I'm going to try something else. They don't mind failing and learning from their failure and doing something different to try to figure it out a different way.

And he goes, that was such a eye opening moment because now I learned how to lead them to be able to go do the stuff they need to do instead of me expecting them to do it and not roll it out till it's perfect.

I learned that they needed that whole almost the test and repeat side of things just to see what worked and what didn't.

So we were able to set up a way that helped them be successful where they could roll it out, not cause a bunch of chaos, roll it out, test it, then fix it.

Which was completely different than the way that I did it. But it helped me to now know how I can lead them to success. So good. That's so good.

And such a funny example of how we view what's right. It's so funny. All right, one last question here. How important is it to use this tool as a cultural piece? Why? Why is it important to use this as a cultural piece?

So one of the things that we talk a lot with leaders is really building a culture around communication around clarity. Really making sure that we have a team that's built around that.

Not just the leader, but entire team built around that. And so when you implement something like DISC in that, it gives you a really, and I'm just going to say one of the most simple tools out there for understanding everyone else around you.

There's a lot of great personality style stuff out there, a lot of great tools that are out there. But truly I believe that DISC is one of the easiest to not only understand yourself, but also understand others around you. Right?

One of the great things that I love about as you do more of this, as you practice more of this, I can start to pick up on somebody's personality style in the first 30 seconds of a conversation.

Well, now as I'm talking to somebody, I can start to lean into their personality style. Even if I've never met them before, I can start to change my communication.

It changes the culture of how our team communicates. It changes the culture of how we communicate with customers, how we communicate with vendors.

I love the, the idea of salespeople being able to understand personality styles and think about a salesperson who doesn't just give the same sales pitch every single time to everybody, but they really hone their sales pitch to actually meet the person of the personality style they're talking to and be able to do the.

It builds all of these things around to help us all be successful because what we're doing is we're leaning into. To who is the person I'm talking to.

It's caring again, because back to. It's caring more about the other person than ourselves on this. That's the thing we talked about the very beginning. Yep. So good. So good. Well, thank you, brother, for joining me on this. This again.

We could do this all freaking day long. We. It's just so fun. So thanks, Aaron, for joining me.

Absolutely.

Action Items (00:44:53)

Folks, we've got some action steps for you. And so if you, if you want to be better with your team, if you want your team to perform better and you don't want to just push harder because that's what people usually think, I just got to keep pushing them harder.

If I just push them harder, then they're going to get there. Right.

Instead of pushing harder, how about you communicate smarter? So here's five things that we want you to do.

One, start by learning you. Start by focusing on you. Learn your personality style, learn your DISC, learn how it affects you, your communication.

Learn how you give and receive information. Learn how you act and react. Right. Second thing, use DISC to understand how each of your team members is wired.

One of the things we say all the time is if you have a specific team, go work with a team member, come back and read their profile. Go work with them, Come back and read their profile. Do that seven times.

You're going to get a master's in DISC. Right. Because it's specific to the individual and it will make so much more sense about that specific, specific person. Right.

Number three, revisit how you set expectations, folks. Aaron said this 400 times. You have to check how you are clearly communicating, what the outcome should look like.

If they don't know what you expect, if they don't know what you're trying to accomplish, if they don't get it, if there's even just the smallest amount of lack of clarity depending upon the personality style, you might not be getting anything done.

So make sure that you revisit your expectations. Make sure that they're clear. Make sure that they match to the person. Right.

Number four, stop assuming that people get you. Stop assuming this is. You know, I've been doing this for 30 years or 29 years, and I'm never surprised when I say something and I'll watch somebody's face and go, well, okay, I didn't communicate that correctly.

One of the things people hear me say all the time is, let me restate that, right? Let me say that again. Let me do it all. I'll find myself 30 years later. I'm resetting stuff because I don't want to assume.

I can just see that I didn't communicate clearly and then I make the adjustment on the fly. I don't expect that they get it. I make the adjustment on the fly.

Number five, train your entire team in discovery so that communication and clarity become part of your culture, not just a fix.

As Aaron was just explaining. This is common DNA. This is common vocabulary. If you will train your team, you will be amazed at all of our clients that have taken this and implemented into their entire team.

I have so many times heard the same exact word where they say, yeah, man. Before we did that, we thought we had great communication. But after we implemented it in the entire team, we realized it was chaos.

That same word over and over again, Chaos. That's profound that they have discovered that the communication was not what they thought and it adjusted the whole team.

Conclusion (00:48:05)

So your team might not be underperforming. I mean, they may be. They may be underperforming because they don't understand. Right.

They probably don't understand what you're really asking of them. So if you're seeing underperformance, let's immediately check you out. Check our communication out, see how we're doing.

Make sure that you're communicating early and often and you're doing it in the way that they received it, the way that they're wired to receive it.

Not just any way that you want to or the way you think that's right. Make sure you're leaning in the direction so that you get better results.

If you do this, you're going to build way better relationships. You're going to increase ownership, which is what we want from team members we want buy in from team members.

We want. But on top of this, you're going to create something that not a lot of companies have, and that's a culture where people thrive you create a culture where people can thrive.

So we have got something for you. It's a download of our free DISC Quick Guide. It is Understand, Lead, Communicate: The DISC Quick Guide. It is in the notes section.

So if you are listening on your iPhone, I think you smash my face or something like that and it gets you to the notes.

I don't know, maybe they've changed that nowadays. But somewhere in that note section you can see the link. If you're listening on your computer, whatever, just go to the blog post.

However you're listening to this that's in the notes. It's a simple resource to help you to understand yourself and others so that you can lead with clarity, not confusion.

So once again, big thanks to Mr. Aaron West. So glad to have you joining-- Thank you for coming and helping me communicate just as Aaron did Moses. There we go. Well done.

Well played there. All right, brother. Till next time, folks. That's all the time that we have. As always, we hope this has helped you out. Share this Help other people to hear this comment on our episode. Like it.

Whatever you can do that helps us to reach more people. As always, take this information. Change your leadership, change your business, change your life and join us on the next episode.