Rainbow Thinking is a term that encompasses the ability to champion neural diversity within a team as a means of delivering high performance. In this series of 6 blogs, I'll discuss this in more detail using DiSC® as a tool to highlight our different styles, ways of thinking, approaches to different situations, how we interact with each other. The subject requires more than I can deliver in a series of blogs and so there workshops that can be delivered to bring this to life within your own team. In the meantime, I hope that some of this reasonates with you and your sales management life.
Setting the Scene
We understand the importance of Diversity & Inclusion from our corporate lives, and how much effort organisations are putting into improving corporate culture around these issues. Huge improvements have been made in the tech world, though we still have a way to go. D&I usually centres around gender, race, colour, sexual orientation, but seldom centres around diversity of thinking, in fact I would go so far as to say that in tech sales, the corporate drive has often been for everyone in the field to look different but think the same, operate in the same way, deliver a 'cookie-cut' approach, speak the same tech jargon. The way managers are expected to structure their sales teams can often be very directive and prescriptive. Product and solution sales are often packaged in Play Books, designed for field sales to sell in an identical way, developed centrally, and sales leaders are expected to drive conformity across their teams in using such collateral for customer engagement, pipeline creation and pipeline management.
To operate in modern business environment which values diversity of gender, race, colour, and sexual orientation, a whole spectrum of different thinking styles needs to be equally valued. This means that modern sales teams need to approach things differently, have different preferences in how they operate and work with customers and partners, have different creative ideas to add value. We need to encourage this diversity of thought or what I call Rainbow Thinking, to ensure that all this creativity is included in how we plan, how we execute, how we deal with customers, partners and internal colleagues. Our teams need to be a spectrum of diverse thinking and as leaders we need to know how to harness rainbow thinking to develop high performance teams.
Introducing DiSC®
DiSC® is one tool to help identify the different colours of thinking in a team, to express it in a way that helps individuals understand their own spectrum of thinking represented as a Style, to recognise the colours of people around them and learn how their style plays a part in the spectrum behaviour of the team. It helps a sales leader understand the diverse makeup of their team, and to consider how to manage each person according to their style. This means that leaders have to be able to adapt their style in managing different members of the team, in an authentic way. This awareness extends beyond the team and can really help engage with customers, partners and other non-sales part of the organisation.
DiSC® has helped me to understand myself, my natural way of doing things, my preferences, how I react in different circumstances. This has helped me be comfortable with who I am, to accept what I'm good at and recognise what I struggle with. This improved self awareness has helped me either reinforce some behaviour with more confidence or has helped me modify or adapt some of my default behaviour to deal better with different situations or working with people with different styles. Some of the DiSC® feedback has made me laugh in embarrassed recognition and, when shared with my wife has raised some knowing eyebrows. With enhanced self awareness, DiSC® has helped me understand the people around me much more clearly, that they can approach the same tasks with a different mindset, and how I can adjust my style to be a better leader. DiSC helps show how the diversity of thinking in a team can be celebrated, encouraged and harnessed to build trust, cohesion and high performance.
DiSC® and Me
My DiSC® profile is an iD or a Di Style, which I'll explain more in this series. I've completed 2 DiSC assessments which were slightly different, but essentially I span 2 of the 4 quartiles in DiSC® which are Influence (i) and Dominance (D). This means that I tend to prioritise Enthusiasm, Action and Results, and am naturally Active and Accepting. There are many good descriptors here, but for each there is an opposite, which may better reflect the styles of the people around me which I need to understand and include. I've sometimes struggle to get on well with or accept the opinions of people in the other quartiles (my wife accepted - who is a C), and the positive descriptors above can also be construed by other styles as pushy and authoritarian, not checking the detail sufficiently, taking risks without thinking, lacking empathy with others. I've been guilty of excluding the views of people who did not align with my own, a common issue with people with high D traits. DiSC® has helped me enormously in making me think much more about my style, how I deal with people and to be more inclusive of people with different styles..
Everyone's style has elements of all of the spectrum thinking in DiSC®, so just because I have an iD or Di Style does not mean that I don't possess the ability to handle detail like someone with a C Style, or to be more empathetic like someone with a S Style. I've been able to consciously adapt my style in different situations to make the positive parts of my iD Style stand out more but to also bring in more of my S and C characteristics to make me more rounded, effective and to connect to other people more easily - it just takes effort. Like all these things, its a work in progress for me both professionally and personally, but DiSC® has been a tangible help to me in my professional life in helping me be a more inclusive and adaptable leader, a better colleague, and to understand customers and partners better. In my personal life, I've been able to relate more to the different styles of my kids, my wife, and my friends, so things that I used to find frustrating, difficult to understand or tolerate are much easier to accept, relate and adapt. In recognising the diversity of thinking around me, I've been able to be more inclusive of people, their views, ideas, talent and hence a become a better Rainbow Thinker.
In todays world with so much intolerance, hostility and polarisation, becoming more self-aware and also being more aware and respectful of others with different approaches, opinions and values is becoming even more important, whether that is in the workplace or in our social lives.
Over the next few articles, I'll explore each of the DiSC® profiles to help you identify your own and your colleagues, and how you can use this to be a more effective leader, team member, and more of a Rainbow Thinker.
If you want to get more specific, I can provide a full individual Workplace Profile for you and one for each of your team, with a team DiSC® map and an individual feedback session for each person. This can be followed by a half day team workshop which is fun, light hearted but informative and impactful.
To find out more, please contact me directly at timhearn@skylark-development.co.uk
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