Understanding personal attributes in business is not a mere luxury; it is an essential element in fostering healthy, productive, and harmonious work environments. It is the golden key that unlocks the potential within individuals and teams, and it drives innovation, collaboration, and organizational success.
The importance of comprehending human behavior transcends professional development; it is the bedrock upon which meaningful relationships are built, conflicts are resolved, and inclusive environments are cultivated.
Understanding your own personal attributes and those of your friends, family, and colleagues has long-term and far-reaching positive results. It completely changed my teaching style in the early years of my career and steered my career trajectory later in life.
I loved teaching. Over my 40-year teaching career, I have taught 8th grade, high school, and junior college, as well as 29 years in a university setting. During this time, I received a number of honors, including serving as editor of an international journal and several national teaching awards. The most interesting part, though, is that I started out as a truly terrible teacher.
In my first year of teaching, I entered the classroom with a plan, dreaming of how my students would walk out of my class nine months later with knowledge and excitement about sharing the secondary science curriculum. But for all my preparation, I was missing a crucial piece of the teaching puzzle: a deep understanding of my own personal attributes and those of my students.
Unaware of the differences in learning, behavior, motivation, and communication among adults and students alike, I taught, communicated, and tested according to what made sense to me—my own style.
I didn’t understand that my own style might not be the best way to teach every student.
This lack of self-awareness often led to miscommunications and misunderstandings with my students and colleagues. Without recognizing the diverse styles of my students, I struggled to work with their varied learning styles and motivational triggers. My lessons, though meticulously planned, failed to engage my students, and the once-excited faces quickly turned bored, frustrated, or indifferent.
My inability to understand where my students were coming from, both in terms of their personal backgrounds and their personal motivators, created a divide in the classroom. The disconnect was palpable.
It wasn’t until a family get-together that first Thanksgiving fall break that I got my first tool to teach more effectively. After dinner, I was talking to my brother, Bill, about how my year was going. Being 12 years older than me, he had a little more experience in life and career, so I pretended to listen to him—even though he didn’t have a Ph.D.
I patiently listened to his discoveries and successes in personal attributes assessments over the years, ready to roll my eyes internally.
But right in the middle of my skepticism, he caught my attention. “Ron, you have a classroom full of students who communicate, learn, understand, and react in unique ways. Furthermore, you need to understand that your preferred style may differ wildly from that of your students. What are you doing to reach each and every one of them?”
Well, that stopped me in my Ph.D., know-it-all tracks. My students all learn and communicate differently from me? Little bells and lights started going off in my head as I thought about some of the issues I had been having with them.
Some of my students would stop by my office after class, seeking clarity on a particular topic. Valuing efficiency, I would give them a rapid-fire explanation. With looks of confusion, they would respond with questions to get a more thorough understanding but eventually give up on my abrupt responses. The students would leave the meeting looking more confused, commenting to each other that I didn’t have the time or patience for their questions while I was perplexed, believing I had given a clear and concise explanation.
I also thought about some students who had meticulously presented their research during their presentations, ensuring every detail was backed by thorough data, while I liked to focus on big-picture outcomes and quick decision-making. After their presentations, I would point out broader aspects they could improve upon, emphasizing the need to be more concise and get to the main points faster for the sake of audience engagement.
These students valued accuracy and precision and felt deflated. They had spent countless hours checking every fact and including every detail to avoid potential errors. They hoped I would recognize their dedication to thoroughness. Instead, I overlooked their efforts in favor of brevity, and they felt that I didn’t appreciate the depth and rigor of their work, while I was left wondering why they focused so much on minute details at the expense of a more engaging delivery.
Humbling myself, I asked Bill for advice. He graciously offered the DISC assessment, a model for assessing behavioral styles, to me and my students for free. Not having any other idea or insight, I decided to give it a go. I integrated it into my coursework to help my students understand themselves better.
In the process of assessing myself, I realized that I didn’t know myself any better than my students knew themselves. I finally understood that I was the problem, not my students. I even created a chart, which allowed me to see that the majority of my students were spread across five to ten o’clock on the Style Insights DISC wheel, and I was over at two o’clock. The entire behavioral styles of the class and my natural style were a total mismatch.
The more I learned, the more I adjusted and changed my teaching, responses, and testing style. By understanding myself and my students better, I was able to bridge the gap and create a more harmonious, effective learning environment.
My second year as a professor was a complete turnaround from the first year. I even wrote a story about my student assessment integration and the change that occurred, which won a national award for outstanding teacher preparation.
As I got ready to receive the award, Carl Sagan, the presenter, told me, “I have no idea why I’m giving you this award. Give me your elevator pitch.”
I quickly replied, “I teach the science of self.”
This is an exclusive excerpt from The Five Sciences of Self: How Personal Insights Create Transformative Impact, the latest literary offering from TTI Success Insights.
Written by Dr. Ron Bonnstetter and Carissa Collazo, MS, The Five Sciences of Self explores the intricate dynamics of human behavior through five disciplines: DISC, motivation, workplace competencies, emotional intelligence, and the Hartman Value Profile. These disciplines form the basis for transformative assessments that shed light on the underlying motivations and decision-making processes that guide personal and professional growth.
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