#74 Communicating With Different Personality Types with Merrick Rosenberg, CEO of Take Flight Learning

It’s no secret that communication is hard. We’ve all been in a situation where we just can’t seem to get our point across. And it’s even harder when the person on the other end of the conversation has a different personality type than us. When you’re trying to communicate with someone who has a different personality type than you, it can be easy to get wrapped up in your own perspective. It’s important to remember that everyone experiences the world differently, and what makes sense to you might not make sense to them. You must try to see things from their point of view and adjust your communication accordingly. But adapting your style isn’t easy. In this podcast, we take a look at the common problems with communicating with different personality types. DISC is a personality assessment tool that can help you understand yourself and others better, and Merrick Rosenberg, CEO of Take Flight Learning, has adapted the DISC model into 4 birds: eagles, parrots, doves, and owls. The behaviour of each bird is easy to grasp and remember. Merrick has found the majority of finance people are owls. The owl needs to adapt to work with the other three birds. He shares some great strategies that will really help you understand how to do this, so make sure to check this episode out! Links GrowCFO for Finance Teams The communications module within GrowCFO for Finance Teams “What got you here wont get you there” by Marshall Goldsmith on Amazon UK and Amazon US Merrick Rosenberg on LinkedIn Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn Timestamps 00:46 Why use birds instead of the DISC letters? 01:20 The eagle 02:05 The parrot 02:20 The dove 02:35 The owl 02:45 Which style are you? 04:15 Finance are predominantly owls 05:23 Finance working with sales; owls and parrots 06:47 How does an owl get the parrots and eagles to provide the detail that’s needed? 08:50 Owls dealing with doves 10:15 The history of DISC 11:25 75% of your organisation has a different style to you, you need to communicate in all 4 styles 13:12 How each style manages change 15:20 Owls need detail so can be perceived as barriers to change until they have the information 15:40 Owls can actually be incredible champions of change 16:50 How do you communicate change? 20:09 Adapting your style as your career progresses 21:17 “What got you here wont get you there” by Marshall Goldsmith 22:43 How easy is it to develop the other 3 styles? 24:15 Bill Gates the owl 26:17 Working with organisations 30:19 Alternatives to DISC 35:31 Relationship building 38:09 What about children? When do the 4 birds start to emerge? 40:23 The danger of imposing your own style on someone else