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Changing in spite of difficult people.

Article Excerpt
Any change initiative can be thwarted by disruptive individuals who are resistant to change, the process, or intervention by individuals outside their organization. One way to understand how to deal with difficult people is to learn their preferences, fears, and natural tendencies under pressure. Using any of a variety of style preference instruments, you can work more effectively with many difficult individuals.

The following system of personality characterization is based on the DISC technique, a profiling tool developed by Carlson Learning Co. It categorizes people broadly into four types:

Type 1: Dominators

Dominant function: Take control

Focus: Tasks and dominance

These individualistic, daring, and competitive people like to get immediate results, solve problems, exercise power, judge others according to their internal standards, and take control. They use phrases like "I like challenges," "I enjoy taking charge of situations," and "I want to advance my career." When Dominators are under pressure, they try to take excessive control, use others to meet their personal goals, and can even be belligerent and manipulative. They fear being viewed as too soft and losing social status. At their best, they contribute many solutions to problems. At their worst, they compete for power with their supervisor, manager, or team leader.

Type 2: Influencers

Dominant function: Persuade people, create appeal

Focus: Relationships and influence

Type 3: Steadiness-Lovers

These socially-oriented, confident-looking people crave attention, attraction, and an atmosphere that is party-like. They worry about people's feelings and are persuasive, enthusiastic, open, trusting, and expressive. They like a casual atmosphere. They say things such as "I'm enjoying myself," and "I have loads of friends." They are often found laughing and joking. When Influencers are under pressure, they can oversell their ideas and be too easily persuaded, disorganized, and worried about what others think of them. They fear lack of change and dislike systems and completing tasks.

Dominant functions: Avoid conflict, execute tasks

Focus: Relationships and steadiness

These easy-going, low-keyed team players prefer to know what is expected of them, to do repetitive work, and concentrate on getting tasks done. They prefer to listen rather than talk or direct activities. They like to know clearly what the requirements and procedures are. They crave specific information. They are generally quiet, but when they speak they can make profound but unpretentious...

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