Dominant Personality Quicklook

DOMINANT PERSONALITY PROFILE

If your primary trait is Dominant… You are confident, courageous, commanding, pioneering, resolute, definitive, determined, damn the torpedoes full steam ahead! You have things to do, places to go, and people to see. You are outgoing and task oriented and you love to accomplish. You’re motivated by power, authority, competition, winning, control, and success. Your claim to fame is you get things done!

You know where you’re going and you can get people involved (delegate) and storm the gates of hell to accomplish your goal. But—you can’t keep your staff or team because you burn them out emotionally (sometimes physically) and discard them. Your mantra is, there are wars to fight, battles to win, dragons to slay, buildings to build, money to be raised before your competition does. If you’re a one person business, that’s fine—you only have yourself to work into an early heart attack.

When in control of yourself, you are courageous, quick to respond, goal oriented, results oriented, deliberate, self-confident, direct, self-reliant, straightforward, competitive. The world needs you!

D’s (Dominants) make great entrepreneurial leaders—they start things—like businesses, organizations, and churches. Why entrepreneurial? Because once the business grows passed a few people, you start running into significant problems because you are typically not (necessarily) People oriented. You look for what works and head that direction. And if it fails, you chalk it up to experience, change directions and keep pushing (fail forward). You take huge risks. If the data changes, you change direction instantly with it—which can cause havoc for your team—especially the ones whose personalities are opposite, who hate risk, and like the status quo. You are an entrepreneur. 10% of the population are D’s—which means 90% of the population is not a D. Thank God. The wars would be endless…

Out of control, you can tend toward being domineering, insensitive, cruel, demanding, impulsive, rash with decisions, manipulative, non-apologetic, controversial, arrogant, hot-tempered, sarcastic, self-confident, unemotional, cold, harsh, prideful, know-it-all, impatient, self-sufficient, contentious, a gambler, and coercive. Those things are where your strengths can take you when you push your strengths to their extreme and you are not aware—which is also one of your greatest weaknesses—low or no self-awareness.

You need to check the negative side of your Dominant attitude when working with others. Be aware of the condition of your speech as well as the content. You still get to determine what happens—you’re in control (usually)—so lighten up. You can bowl people over with your drive and demonstrative demeanor. Another motto of yours is, “Lead, follow, or get out of the way.” So be nice about it. We typically understand the what in life, but the how has a tendency to elude us. Us? Yes, I have a very high D Dominant trait—so don’t push me!!

If you are kind, you can go really far. Think about it. You have the best opportunity naturally to make it in any business, organization, and life because of your drive. Look at your history. Everything you’ve been around in your life you want to own it, control it, run it, be in charge of it, or direct it.

You will do better if you do the necessary homework to learn how to do something well and not just simply plow ahead with energy instead of wisdom. Learn what to do first—and then do it better than anyone!

Dominants can see some other personalities as lazy when it’s really that the other person’s pace is normally slower. You can demand that people keep up with your break-neck speed and awe-inspiring energy without even realizing it! Be careful. As a task oriented and Outgoing person you can be demonstrative and dictatorial. Raise your kindness and lower your negative, out-of-control Dominant traits when working with a reserved personality (Cautious and Supportive are both reserved). Remember that they are naturally slower in their pace (not their intelligence or ability, just their pace) and you can frighten them (seriously) with your non-stop, fast and loud attitude. Other D personalities will be right there with you and ready to move at the same speed you take them and I’s (Inspiring types) can keep up with you if you make the work interesting.

C (Cautious) personalities share task orientation with you and can work well with you when you are precise, have good answers for their questions, and are judicious with their time. S (Supportive) personalities will sometimes improperly see your D personality as mean spirited because you can be too loud, too fast, and too demanding for them—or for anyone. S’s are sweet and are very people oriented—they are your opposite. D’s are outgoing and task oriented. S’s are reserved and people oriented. They are not wrong in who they are—just different from you. You are faster paced; they are slower paced.

Don’t mistake being fast paced for being correct or better—those are different things. Many things require a slower pace. If you move your business or church too fast, you’ll lose a lot of people. Remember—only about one third of the population is fast paced (D’s & I’s)—two thirds are slower paced. Take your time. One’s pace does not make them right or wrong. A slower pace may in fact make them more consistent and do a better job. Do not equate speed (pace) with ability. The eye can’t say to the hand, I have no need of you!

How to relate to a Dominant: They like control and authority so give them choices—don’t just give them orders. They like to make decisions. The also love a challenge! Give them an opportunity to succeed. They like to lead. Give them goals and tasks to do and praise them when they do them. They are fueled by accomplishment and results and are a great asset to the team. Get to your point quickly with them. Don’t pander to them. They are tireless! They have low self-awareness so they don’t understand people quickly. When you argue with them, give them some time and space to think about it. They can go to blame instantly. They can sometimes be a bully but they typically just want their way to make things happen. Help them understand their attitude by using strength and kindness. They struggle with casual touch—getting close—so be patient with them. Want to know more?

This is just a small taste of your personality. If you want to gain much deeper insight and learn specifically how to understand relationships—especially marriage relationships, take our Online Marriage Personality Workshop. If you want to learn even more and learn how to read others quickly so you you can understand them so you can speak their personality language, sign up for one of our Live Events. If you want to get a copy of this as a poster, go here.