English Dermatology DiSC® Workshop in Phoenix, Arizona

Recently we were asked to deliver our DiSC® Personality Discovery workshop for a team at English Dermatology in Phoenix, Arizona. The Director of Operations participated in the DiSC® program during graduate studies at Arizona State University and found great value in understanding where other people were coming from and why people’s actions and reactions are so different. English Dermatology is a small privately owned group of medical offices experiencing many changes and expanding locations and services. Their goals for this workshop were to boost morale and work on building a teamwork mentality with their staff. They knew understanding each other’s personalities would be key in this, plus with this information they will also have the benefit of understanding their patients better.

In our role as professional development coaches we often meet with leaders who are struggling with these questions:

• How do I get people to perform better?
• How do I motivate my team?
• How do I get people to get along better?

There isn’t one simple answer to these questions, however understanding personality types certainly provides a solid foundation.

All of our workshops have to be customized because each organization has different needs or different desired outcomes. Instruments like the DiSC® Personality Profile are very good at creating awareness and understanding that there are diverse roles we all play within a team based on what can be described as strengths and weaknesses. Up close they all are attributes of our type or style, but we must remember that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. For everything we are very good a there is always something we are not very good at. That’s why these complimentary skills and functions are so important to a team. To another type or style our strengths can be perceived as our weaknesses. Why? Because it’s not the way I would have done it. So these tools are excellent for helping team members better communicate, tap into intellectual diversity and have a clearer understanding that just because it’s different it’s not wrong.

What we found with this client is that two-thirds were the Compliant personality type, which made for an interesting workshop and conversations since they dominated the group. It gave us an opportunity to talk drill down further and about what the secondary type is – Compliant-Dominant versus Compliant- Steady. The Compliant-Dominant is very detail oriented, wants to make sure everything is done correctly and not as people oriented, they are more concerned about getting it done and done right. The Compliant-Steady is a perfectionist, but they like to bring other people into it, they like to work on teams.
The fun this group had was getting to understand that difference. Putting someone in one category doesn’t tell the whole story. As the workshop unfolded there was a lot of laughing about that because they could see there’s a huge difference in some of them who are a Compliant, but very different in their approach.

Doctor CS, loves working with people and loves the exact science of what he does. You could see a lot of the people close to him have that same make up people oriented perfectionists.

Compliant-Steady type works very well when you think about the science of dermatology. It’s an exact science that has to be followed, the surgeons have to be very exact with what they do. The Steady side helps them understand there’s a people side to it, it is where the bedside manner comes in and helps them understand clients are going to be nervous about the procedure that’s going to be done.

Administrative people understood when they are doing their job they have to do their function correctly, but they also have influence with patients too so having a soft touch is important. Master the scheduling, make sure the room is set up correctly, at the end of the day the billing is done correctly. The office is very efficient in the way that it is run, but they have to work together and remember the people side.

People management is not simple, nor is it easy for most. Getting it right is the key to establishing a great business and it is clear that no one single strategy will work. Achieving goals within a fine balance of the task, process and people involved, that’s when an organization reaches high performance.