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!

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