Coping with Stress based on DiSC Personality Types

Every workplace team is like a melting pot of various backgrounds, experiences, strengths, weaknesses, and personalities. It’s these differences that help you become a well-rounded and successful cohort. But, these same dissimilarities can also cause friction among the group.

If you’re having trouble understanding why Ryan from marketing never speaks up in meetings or why Sarah in accounting is easily overwhelmed, the DISC Model can help. Created by Psychologist William Moulton Marston, DISC is a personality assessment that gives valuable and actionable insights into a person’s unique behaviors and priorities. Based on answers to about 80 personality-focused questions, people are grouped into a distinct style bucket through an assessment.

These classifications can help us better understand ourselves and those around us, giving us further insight into the pace we prefer to work, how we engage with coworkers, and how we respond to challenges or rules. The analysis can even facilitate improved stress management, as we can identify the specific triggers and coping mechanisms that best align with each personality.

DISC Personality Types

Based on the DISC assessment, there are four core personality types: (D)ominance, (I)nfluence, (S)teadiness, and (C)onscientiousness. Each has its own set of characteristics, working styles, preferences, and stressors. The assessment also breaks down each style’s preferred pace and agreeableness.

People under the Dominance umbrella thrive on confidence and directness. They are action-oriented, motivated by fast results, and capable of solving problems to reach their desired outcomes. Dominance personalities also tend to be more questioning and skeptical.

Meanwhile, Influence personality types are open, optimistic, lively, and warm. They place a higher value on relationships and their ability to impact others.

Those in the Steadiness class are defined by their dependable and cooperative nature. Their even temper, reflectiveness, and sincerity toward those around them help them assume the role of peacemakers.

Lastly, Conscientiousness types have analytical minds, always approaching situations with caution and skepticism. They highly value competency, expertise, and a stable environment.

It’s also essential to note that while these are the four major personalities, three quadrants exist within each type, showing that people may also exhibit behaviors that lean toward other personalities.

How Does Personality Affect A Person’s Response To Stress?

Personality type plays a monumental role in how people function, including how we feel and manage our stress. This is shown through a 2022 analysis conducted by Bo Zhang and a team of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign experts. The research looks into what is known as the Big Five personality traits, including neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, openness, and agreeableness. It found that while all five traits are linked to perceived stress, neuroticism had the strongest link.

In addition, agreeableness or conscientiousness traits were also related to stressor exposure. However, Zhang explained that “agreeable people are less likely to encounter stressful situations such as interpersonal conflict because of the tendency to be caring, understanding, and forgiving. Similarly, conscientious people are less likely to experience stress because their good self-regulation abilities can protect them from the encounters of stressful experiences, as well as the negative psychological impacts of stressors.”

Research published by the Journal of Research in Personality dives deeper into stress and personality types by examining how people with different personality traits cope with stress. It found that people higher in neuroticism were generally more avoidant and used emotion-focused strategies. Those higher in conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness looked to problem-solving, and people higher in agreeableness instead resorted to social support.

The Big Five and DISC are two different models. However, this research helps to prove that different personality traits do, in fact, see and react to stress differently. As such, each one needs personalized coping techniques rather than cookie-cutter advice.

Dominance (D) Personalities And Stress

With their strong will and drive, Dominant personalities can become stressed by a lack of control, vagueness, strict rules, interruptions, or the fear of being perceived as weak. When these scenarios rear their ugly head, this group may resort to impulsivity and aggression, exhibiting a lack of patience. Due to this type’s correlation to extraversion, they may also be focused heavily on solving the problem at hand by any means necessary.

Stress Management Tips For A Type D Personality

1. Learn to let go of what you can’t control and spend your time on the projects and work you can.
2. Take breaks and allow more time to think through and complete the tasks at hand. A slightly elongated timeline can help alleviate some pressure.
3. Ask for feedback or even help. You don’t like to give up your power, but an outside voice and some helping hands may be just what you need.
4. Set up activities to relax the mind and practice self-care and self-acceptance. Give yourself some grace and remind yourself of how far you’ve come.
5. Develop boundaries by saying no, delegating, and setting realistic goals and expectations.
6. Create tangible and easy wins by breaking down projects into smaller steps or finding new, exciting assignments to tackle quickly and easily.

Influence (I) Personalities And Stress

For Influence personalities, stress may manifest as a fit of anger, anxiety, or sadness, resulting in a lack of follow-through or productivity. This may happen if people belonging to this group have been devoid of collaboration and social activities, feel stuck in a rut without the chance to be creative, or have been influenced by negative energy around them.

Stress Management Tips For A Type I Personality

1. Prioritize positive social interactions. Whether at home or at work with your team, carve out time each week or even day for talks and meetings of the minds, whether they’re purposeful or just a way to recharge your batteries.
2. But be careful not to overpack your calendar with commitments leading to burnout.
3. Stay stimulated by baking variety into your day. Sitting isolated at a desk for hours isn’t ideal for Influence personalities. Remain motivated and excited by fun lunch plans or mid-afternoon brainstorming sessions.
4. Protect your energy. You can’t change the attitude of those around you, but you can continue to show up optimistically and with understanding.
5. Engage in frequent relaxation activities related to creativity, such as journaling or painting.
6. Create a plan to stay focused on tasks when you need to. DISC database recommends the Pomodoro Technique, which involves working at 25-minute intervals with scheduled rewarding breaks.

Steadiness (S) Personalities And Stress

With their poised and level-headed demeanor, it’s difficult to imagine Steadiness personalities under pressure. But they, too, can become distressed by things like working too independently, multitasking, or changes in routine–understandable, as research shows repetitive routines can help reduce anxiety.

This group’s heightened empathy makes it difficult for them to deliver poor or controversial news and see other people upset. In circumstances like these, S types often withdraw to avoid conflict and become passive or even passive-aggressive, leading to later resentment.

Stress Management Tips For A Type S Personality

1. Make a point to schedule out your weekly tasks and activities. Having an organized calendar and a structure can give you peace of mind and reduce procrastination.
2. At the same time, be open to change. Things won’t always go according to plan, so allow yourself to go with the flow from time to time.
3. Practice open communication with your team. Let your voice, needs, and opinions be heard with the expectation that not everyone will always agree.
4. Form a more comfortable relationship with mistakes and conflict. Both are inevitable but also healthy ways to learn and grow.
5. Don’t be afraid to ask for help or turn down requests. Your nature is to please people, possibly biting off more than you can chew. But your time is valuable, too, and you can alleviate stress by sharing responsibilities.
6. Attack new projects or changes gradually. You don’t have to know everything from the jump. Ask questions when you need to, and be patient with yourself.

Conscientiousness (C) Personalities And Stress

In stressful moments, Conscientiousness types will lean even further into data and facts. But, simultaneously, they pull away from others, becoming avoidant, disagreeable, or even hostile. These actions might be spurred on by unpreparedness or a lack of pertinent information, working under time pressure, being thrown into disorganized social events, or not knowing how to respond to the emotions or needs of others.

Stress Management Tips For A Type C Personality

1. At the start of projects, ask questions to understand the main objective and goals. This will help you know how you and the results will be assessed, eliminating any unknowns.
2. Work to dial back your perfectionist mindset. Understand that making mistakes or not always having the right answer doesn’t make you incompetent. View these moments instead as learning opportunities.
3. Challenge yourself to have more empathy. Consider how your words and actions may affect those around you, and try to understand where others are coming from.
4. Place a greater emphasis on working with your team to find solutions rather than just pointing out problems.
5. Schedule time for yourself to think and work independently, but also make room for collaboration. Isolation can hinder your progress and close off your mind to outside ideas.
6. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, evaluate everything on your plate, set clear priorities, break down projects into smaller tasks, and know when to entrust work to others when necessary.

Manage Stress More Easily By Understanding Those Around You

Stress is inevitable in work environments, but understanding DISC personality types can help you and your team manage it more effectively. Each personality type—Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness—responds to stress differently, with unique triggers and coping strategies. By recognizing these differences, teams can address challenges with tailored approaches that foster resilience and mutual support.

Knowing that a lack of control for Dominance personalities or a lack of socialization for Influence personalities increases their stress levels can be critical in finding balance within your coworkers. Similarly, it’s important to know that people in the Steadiness bucket need a reliable routine, and Conscientiousness types sometimes struggle with perfectionism. Leveraging these insights helps individuals to identify the things they work on while also improving communication, reducing friction, and building stronger connections across the team.

Explore the DISC model further to uncover its full potential for stress management and workplace growth. Investing in this understanding not only improves individual well-being but also enhances team productivity and cohesion.

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