Wingspan: The Personality Styles Newsletter August Edition

It’s hard to believe we’re already heading into the last month of summer. With family vacation season soon turning into back-to-school season, fall calendars will be filled with learning and development opportunities for adults and kids alike. It means a lot to me to know that the training programs and profiles we provide at Take Flight Learning will be part of that growth for thousands of people around the world.

Why Not to Argue for Your Limitations

Have you ever caught yourself defending your weaknesses? The more you try to explain and justify a weakness, the more it becomes part of you. You stop seeing it as something you can manage. Arguing for your limitations causes you to keep them in place. But when you can stop doing that, you can begin working on them, lessening their hold.

How to Build an Environment Where Every Style Thrives

Instead of forcing people to adapt to the organizational culture, what if companies created a culture that adapts to people? Culture should be about thriving, not just surviving while trying to fit in. The most successful organizations understand that people don’t resist work; they resist environments that limit their potential.

The Sigma Personality

Sigma personality isn't a scientific term. It’s evolved in social media to describe someone who’s self-reliant, ambitious, is comfortable being alone, and displays emotional restraint. They redefine independence as a form of strength that doesn’t rely on attention, charm, or overt control, which I see as a high-level of Personality Intelligence.

What If You're Teaching the DISC Styles All Wrong?

Most style-based training programs—DISC, Myers-Briggs, or systems based on colors or letters—are designed to create intrigue, not impact. People learn the styles' traits, get a detailed personal report, then nothing changes. The problem isn’t the model. It’s how it’s taught. The key is to link the styles to behaviors people show every day—that's how a new skill kicks in whenever you display that behavior.

If you’ve followed me for a while, you know that every style has a part of their work that energizes them more than anything else. For me, it’s delivering keynotes. My keynotes have taken me around the world, speaking to hundreds of thousands of people. As a Parrot, of course I love those experiences. But what’s even more gratifying is the response from audiences both during and after a speech.

When I’m on stage, I can see the proverbial light bulbs going on as people intuitively start to understand themselves and their colleagues better. Once a talk is over, I often have just as many people tell me how they’ll use the styles to transform relationships with their family members, as I do those who say they’ll apply my message to improve collaboration with their teammates.

View Keynote Onesheet

Some people see the styles as a pathway for personal development; some see them as a tool for professional success. That's the magic—and the fun—of getting to tell people about the birds.

If your organization or association is looking for a keynote speaker, explore my keynote topics here or complete this form to request more information about booking my keynote.

Those options include my most popular and versatile keynote, The Personality of Success.

Where do you see opportunities for companies to take advantage of style insights to optimize hiring, onboarding, and developing talent?

Companies gather a mountain of information about job candidates to help make hiring decisions—including, in many cases, a personality style assessment. But once hired, most of those insights, including style, are rarely integrated into how the person is onboarded, coached, and led.

Factoring someone’s style into not just the hiring process but also their ongoing development helps organizations maximize talent in ways that provide both a competitive and financial advantage.

Imagine what’s possible when a manager has clarity for each new hire around:

What motivates and inspires them
How to most effectively communicate with them
How they prefer to receive feedback

When hiring insights are used beyond the hiring process, companies not only accelerate the development of people, they improve the odds of business success.

Upcoming Events: Start your certification journey or upgrade your credentials.

The Kindness Workshop

The most meaningful team experiences go beyond just fun—they leave a lasting impact. The Kindness Workshop is a powerful team building program that combines collaboration with giving back to the community.

In this 90-minute event, your team will take part in fun challenges to earn, stuff, and create stuffed animals. It’s a powerful—and purposeful—experience grounded in teamwork, collaboration and community, as those customized teddy bears are ultimately donated to first responders to be given to children experiencing trauma. The Kindness Workshop is hands-on, inspiring, and rewarding, leaving participants with a sense of meaning that few other team building programs provide.

Whether you have a small group or large organization, need a standalone event or something to add some meaning to your offsite, this experience will leave your team feeling more connected—and proud of the positive difference they’ve made in the lives of others.

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