Rinnku G: Awareness of Our Strengths Matters
Playing to our strengths at work is easier said than done. When we tell someone to do what they are naturally good at, we assume that everyone is operating from a level of self-awareness where they are certain about their core competencies. But that’s hardly the case. We are missing an important step – our journey to tapping into our highest potential has to begin with an understanding of who we fundamentally are.
Rinnku G, a veteran HR professional and the founder of Rightwaay Talent Consulting has spent over 16 years helping both men and women discover and use their natural behavioural style to their advantage. She shares the quick crucials about behavioural styles and how they affect our work and leadership approach.
What is a Behavioural Style?
Quite simply, our behavioural style is the way we respond to external stimuli. It is often in our childhood – based on our experiences, observations and sensorial encounters up until then – that a particular way of responding gets imprinted in our subconscious mind. We get conditioned and learn to respond to different situations in a given manner that we have been responding with always – it shows in our interactions and choices.
When we react in a specific way over and over again, repeating the patterns, the neural pathways get hard-wired – which is to say that they become our natural behavioural style. We spontaneously react in that style, regardless of the situation.
DISC: The 4 Behavioural Styles
Carl Jung, the renowned Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, discovered that people can be categorised into different psychological types. He worked with something called the behavioural axis which reflects a range of human behaviours – people can be introverts or extroverts, they can be the ‘sensing’ kind or the ‘feeling’ kind or the ‘thinking’ kind. William Moulton Marston, an American psychologist, picked up Jung’s work to research further. He went on to create the DISC theory and model which explains that people are different, but they are predictably different. DISC stands for the four behavioural styles that Marston established:
D – Dominance
People with this behavioural style are drivers. They take charge of a situation. They are idea generators but not great at execution. They are strategizers, and find it easy to give instructions. They have excellent communication skills, are extremely decisive and display high energy and enthusiasm. They also have more open body language and are often very vocal.
I – Influence
These people are wonderful at inspiring and influencing others. They are charismatic and often possess a polite and pleasing demeanor. They make great people managers. They too, like people with Dominance style, are high on energy and enthusiasm but unlike the former they derive that much more from being important to people than from being self-centered.
S – Steadiness
These are calm, quiet people. They love to work on instructions. They are passive – they will wait for someone else to do something instead of taking initiative themselves. They are friendly, pleasant and total team players; they would rarely do anything to raise a conflict or confrontation.
C – Conscientiousness
They too, like S, are passive people. They can be restless because they are focused on achieving perfection and accuracy in every task. They like data and planning. They are responsible and careful with everything that they do because quality is a priority for them.
Why is it Important to know your Natural Behavioural Style?
Being aware of your natural behavioural style is invaluable for a number of reasons:
> To lead with authenticity, which further means to lead with confidence, clarity and charisma
> To use your strengths intelligently by gauging which contexts they best suit, and where they add most value.
> To appreciate and include a mix of complementary behavioural styles in your team and peers.
> To adopt and practice a few strengths of each of the behavioural styles.
All Behavioural Styles Matter
Each of these styles have their own strengths, fears and motivators. Each of them can be used to their advantage. Neither of them is more right or more wrong, better or worse than the other. Nor does any one style make you more likely to succeed. The styles are all different and that is where the beauty lies.
Your work is to be aware of your style and accept it wholly. Only then will you be able to integrate it in your work and leadership approach in a way that benefits not only you, but also your team and organisation. Actively employing our most natural behavioural styles at work – especially talents and strengths that come most naturally to us – is likely to make us feel more engaged, energised and satisfied. All of this makes our work a much more joyful experience.
About the Expert
Rinnku G is an HR professional with nearly two decades of experience. Founder of the Rightwaay Talent Consulting, her mission is to help individuals, teams and organisations become self-aware and thus unravel their potential to succeed like never before. Rinnku has also been a speaker at various forums like the Women Economic Forum, among others, and has used her simple and effective coaching style to help people understand what beliefs and patterns are holding them back. She is adept at helping organisations set up people processes that result in dramatic improvements, cost optimization and transcendental results.
