Is it enough to be Steady Eddie?

Growing our strengths is important.  But your strengths can also undermine your success?

When our strengths are working for us, they can take us to places we’d never imagine.

But strengths that are overplayed or strengths that we rely on too much to get us through life can feed those feelings of Imposter Syndrome.  

Rather than supporting and moving us forward they take us into a world of self-sabotage.

In the last article we were looking at how people with a strong Influence personality type can use this to their advantage but also where the danger and problems might lie when this is overplayed.

In this article we’re taking another DISC type personality and looking at those with the personality type of Steadiness – these are people who value and create harmony and peace within teams.

There are four of these, we’ll all have a preference for one, but we’ll all come up against people with the different types and have to learn to work with each.  So read on, discover if you’re the one driven to steady the ship or what to do if you come across one.

Unleashing your potential

Every day, every hour you’re faced with a series of choices.   Your brain doesn’t have time to deliberate every one of them, to present you with options to sit, ponder and decide.

And it’s not that great at figuring out the relative importance of one question from another.

The brain uses pattern recognition to get more things done – have I seen this thing before, do I know what I usually do in these circumstances, am I sensing danger in doing the same thing again.

It why you always pick from the same range of sandwich options when you’re in a rush and your mind goes into a spin when someone tells you one of the ingredients you rely on is out of stock.

Or maybe they close the road on your regular route into work – it’s not the diversion that’s sending your head spinning, it’s driving through unrecognisable neighbourhoods and then when you’re finally off the detour and see familiar sights again, your brain relaxes.

This is an amazing feature of your brain but also has one big downside – it will happily repeat patterns that are unhelpful to your overall potential and progress, often without you realising it.   To keep you safe, it recognises what you’re strong at.  But all strengths can be overplayed and that’s where the problems begin for us.

This is self-sabotaging.   The fastest and most effective way to unlock productivity and your career potential is to learn to take your foot off the brake and overcome your tendency to self-sabotage.

What’s your default personality type

There are many different models out there that help us to understand our default and dominant style.  The default is where we’ll normally snap to when left unchallenged. 

Here we’re using DISC – it’s easy to understand and there are lots of assessments you can take online. 

Here’s a link to everything DISC https://www.discprofiles.com/disc-styles/

In the DISC model there are four personality types.

-       Dominance

-       Influence

-       Steadiness

-       Conscientiousness

We all have the four elements but we will sway towards one or two.  On our best days this is how we perform awesomely.   But the more we rely on one set style, the greater the problems this creates for us.

Strength overplayed, becomes a hindrance and a form of self-sabotage that undermines our productivity and performance.

Because covering all four types would make this article a little long, I’m going to break it up into the four types.   And this one is on Steadiness.

S is for steadiness

As an S type you are supportive, steady and dependable.  You are the rock steady person come to for advice and guidance because they know you’ll always listen, never pass judgement, the ultimate sounding board.

Although you may be outwardly quiet, you bring harmony, peace and stability wherever you go.  It’s not in your nature to impose your own views or values on those around you.   You work hard to bring others round to seeing alternate viewpoints and in tasks of your own, you find a way of accommodating and incorporating conflicting views. 

Everyone gets a little something of their own.

There are times when harmony, peace and stability just aren’t possible and you can exhaust yourself expending energy in shuttle diplomacy, being thrown off course when you cannot bring people round.   You see the failure to bring about agreement as a disappointment owned by you, that you’ve failed to live up to your supportive or dependable image.

You may also worry a lot about when things go wrong.  You spend a long time making decisions, fretting about the possibility of making the wrong decision and how to plot a path that will offend no-one.

Even when things go right, you’ll rarely accept the credit.  You know all success is built on the back of many and it’s not in your nature to accept the limelight.  In doing so you know sometimes others get credit and benefit from taking limelight that is probably rightfully yours but your desire for harmony will stop you from challenging this and creating conflict in the process.

You may become exhausted or find your energy sapped in plotting multiple pathways to ensure everyone is content.  In taking a long time to reach a decision because imperfection is hard to accept, you sometimes find others get on and do things anyway, seeing you as slow and indecisive.   And this sows seeds of self-doubt and feelings of incompetency.

S types love harmony and can be thrown when there is conflict or instability or where other types pull them into picking a side.  When things get done through conflict, S types can feel they’ve failed to live up their supportive or dependable image.

S types are strong at getting to know different people’s needs and wants and plotting pathways to ensure everyone gets something.  But they can worry a lot about finding the perfect sweet spot and distracted in energy searching for one that might never exist.

S types are also likely to give the credit for anything to someone else.  They are typically humble and have great difficulty accepting credit for any achievements and more likely to pass the compliment to others – shucks I couldn’t have done any of it without my good colleague here.

Pitted against a D type, you’ll likely retreat into the shadow, scanning the horizon for ways you can pour oil on troubled water without the D-type noticing or getting upset.   You may struggle also with I-types for whilst they are sociable in nature, you see their craft as disingenuous, saying what it takes to get people on board rather than truly meeting needs.

If you are an S type then practicing self-compassion and forgiveness is crucial.  Finding some trusted friends of colleagues who can help you understand your true strengths and also put the things you need to work on in a neutral context can also be valuable.

Your key take-away

Imposter Syndrome thrives in a space of self-doubt and guilt.   Behind most of what we fear lies an innate strength that is overplayed.

Compassion for yourself and towards others is key to diffusing imposter syndrome before it gets hold.   Disrupting the unhelpful thinking patterns that often take hold.

Guilt is the worst emotion for driving forward performance, productivity & ultimately shaping your career.  It is the ultimate saboteur.

In my coaching I’ll often be asked what productivity tips can you offer, how can I improve my performance, how when I’m working flat out as it is can I possibly step up and take on more responsibility – after all there’s only 24 hours in a single day right?

And you are right?  That step up means letting go of some of the patterns that got you to where you are today.   The things that sabotage your capability to be happy and productive.

As you know if you look me up, I use the Positive Intelligence methodology to take clients through this deep thinking at a very individual level – to learn to eradicate the unhelpful thought patterns in themselves and develop positive intelligence within themselves and those around them.

Remember the fastest and most effective way to improve your productivity, performance and ultimately the career success you want, is to take your foot off the brake pedal.

If you want my help figuring out how to do this, just reach out to me

Take action

You can’t fix what you don’t know.  Click below to take your free saboteur assessment.

There’s no obligation to take this further.  If you want to go it alone, that’s OK.

Overcoming self-sabotage is the fastest and most effective way to improve your productivity, performance and ultimately your career success.

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