Discipline

People strong in the Discipline theme enjoy routine and structure. Their world is best described by the order they create.

 

You can tell a person strong in Discipline by these attributes (source: Dr. Hulme, APU)

  • Highly organized
  • Get things done on time
  • Create order and structure where needed
  • Efficient, effective, & task-oriented
  • Need predictability
  • Most productive when there is a routine and can feel in control of the situation

More about Discipline:

  • Needs on a team: To organize
  • As a Leader: Create order
  • In Conflict: Add structure
  • Partner with: someone with strong Ideation–this will stretch your thinking. Adaptability–They will help you manage with flexibility especially in times of change. Self-assurance–will give you confidence especially trying new things. 
  • In academics: – loves organization – this student will also be well-prepared for the advising session and usually knows what they want – enjoys structured courses, well- organized profs with clear expectations, grading rubrics – will probably want to take all the required courses first to “get them out of the way” – will want to carefully plan their course schedule and will care about the times classes are taught and how they will get their assignments done – will want study time in between classes, so won’t want to schedule any back-to-back classes – will enjoy seeing the syllabus in advance of choosing the class 

Where does Discipline Theme rank in the population?

24

31

28

34

Out of your Top 5 CliftonStrengths, it’s statistically:

  • most likely to appear with   Responsibility and Achiever
  • least likely to be found with   Command or Self-assurance

The genius of your Discipline talent involves your level of personal productivity and the accuracy with which you produce things. Your level of productivity and your level of accuracy stem from the way you can structure tasks and your environment. This ability to structure is key to you being productive and to your accuracy. You can take complex tasks with multiple stages and identify the steps needed to complete the tasks. Next, you structure the environment and organize the actions needed to complete the tasks. Finally, you begin organizing, re-organizing and structuring each action step that must be complete in order to produce things accurately. Finally, the genius of your discipline talent identifies the fastest and mot efficient methods while maintaining the highest quality.

At your best (Balcony):

  • high productivity and accuracy because of ability to structure, breaks down complex into steps, great planners, promotes efficiency

At your worst (Basement):

  • overbearing, rigid, mechanized, can’t handle change

Discipline may be one of your signature themes if…

  • You need a world that is ordered, planned, structured, and ultimately predictable.
  • You set up routines for everything you do and need timelines and deadlines to achieve.
  • You have no trouble breaking larger projects into series of manageable short-term steps.
  • You demand precision and the feeling that you are in control, no matter how messy life gets.
  • You dislike surprises and find yourself impatient with errors. Despite this, you understand not everyone operates the way you do.
  • You are reliable and able to maintain your progress and productivity amid distractions.

A more detailed explanation from Gallup:

Your world needs to be predictable. It needs to be ordered and planned. So you instinctively impose structure on your world. You set up routines. You focus on timelines and deadlines. You break long-term projects into a series of specific short-term plans, and you work through each plan diligently. You are not necessarily neat and clean, but you do need precision. Faced with the inherent messiness of life, you want to feel in control. The routines, the timelines, the structure, all of these help create this feeling of control. Lacking this theme of Discipline, others may sometimes resent your need for order, but there need not be conflict. You must understand that not everyone feels your urge for predictability; they have other ways of getting things done. Likewise, you can help them understand and even appreciate your need for structure. Your dislike of surprises, your impatience with errors, your routines, and your detail orientation don’t need to be misinterpreted as controlling behaviors that box people in. Rather, these behaviors can be understood as your instinctive method for maintaining your progress and your productivity in the face of life’s many distractions.

Action Items for This Theme

  • Seek out roles and responsibilities where structure exists.
  • Don’t hesitate to check as often as necessary to ensure that things are right. You feel an urge to do it anyway, and soon enough others will come to expect it of you.
  • Learn how to use a time management system. It will make you even more efficient and give you more confidence.
  • Create routines that make you follow through systematically. Over time, people will come to appreciate this kind of rigorous predictability.
  • Recognize that mistakes might depress you. Precision is a core part of who you are; however, you must find ways to move through these moments of annoyance to prevent becoming dragged down.
  • Help other people add a little order to their lives. Do it in the right way and they will appreciate it.

Be ready to:

  • Explain your Discipline theme to your close associates. Initially they might resent your perfectionism, but once you have explained how it works for you, do not be afraid to let your perfectionism show. Others will want to see it in action.
  • Recognize that many others are not as disciplined as you are. More than likely, their clumsy process will frustrate you, so try to look beyond it, and instead assess them on their results, not on their process.
    • The Clifton StrengthsFinder and the 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder theme names are protected by copyright of Gallup Inc., 2000. All rights reserved.

For the more visually inclined:

 

A fantastic website with insightful discussion of Discipline including

  • Building your brand through this strength
  • Strengthening your performance at work
  • Tips for managing someone with this strengths
  • Partnering with someone with this strength

Discipline Power and Edge takes an interesting approach highlight not just what the strength is and how it shows up if you have it in your top five, but also how to navigate the world when this strengths is one of your lesser ones.

More ideas on going deeper:

THEME INSIGHTS:

  • I am (Belong) ———-> An efficient manager of limited resources
  • I will (Doing) ———-> Plan in advance then follow the plan
  • I Bring (Contribution) ———-> Precision and detail orientation
  • I Need (Requirement) ———-> A structured and organized environment
  • I Love (Value) ———-> Things that are organized and orderly
  • I Hate (Value) ———-> Chaos and confusion, flying by the seat of one’s pants
  • Metaphor/Image ———-> Having their ducks in a row
  • Barrier Label ———-> May be resistant to change

THEME CONTRAST:

  • DISCIPLINE: I meet deadlines because it makes me feel good.
  • RESPONSBILITY: I meet deadlines because it makes others respect me.

  • DISCIPLINE: Can’t see the forest for the trees.
  • CONNECTEDNESS: Can’t see the trees for the forest.
More from Gallup:
Gallup’s Called to Coach is an excellent podcast series exploring the Discipline strengthsfinder theme in detail over several seasons:

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REFh5TMOoS0

 

 

Podcast episodes to help you understand and leverage your Discipline Strength

  • Episode 1: Cultivating Self-Discipline for Success – “The Tony Robbins Podcast”
  • Episode 2: Strategies for Building Discipline – “The Tim Ferriss Show”
  • Episode 3: The Psychology of Willpower and Discipline – “The Science of Success”
  • Episode 4: Creating Habits for Consistency – “The Productivityist Podcast”
  • Episode 5: Discipline in Action – Real-Life Examples – “The Joe Rogan Experience”
  • Episode 6: Women Who Demonstrate Exceptional Discipline in Leadership – “The Confident Woman Podcast” (Host: Sherry Parks)
  • Episode 7: The Disciplined Woman: Navigating Leadership Challenges – “Women Who Lead” (Host: Andrena Sawyer)

Listen to great Strengths Podcasts

  • Theme addicts is a series created by UnleashStrengths to highlight the massive impact the StrengthsFinder assessment through interviews and disucssions.
  • Lead through your strengths features many interesting guests and Career Q and A about leverage your strengths at work.
  • Maximize Your Strengths features interviews and disucssion on developing your strengths. She really drills into each of the themes by interviewing real people on how a specific theme shows up in their lives.
  • Called to Coach is a webcast resource for those who want to help others discover and use their strengths. We have Gallup experts and independent strengths coaches share tactics, insights and strategies to help coaches maximize the talent of individuals, teams and organizations around the world.
  • ISOGO TV promises a lot: So dramatically increase your energy and decrease your frustration at work, that you cannot help but take the Strengths paradigm home to your family. Fueling life-changing stories.
  • The True Strength Podcast by Ian Pettigrew (Kingfisher Coaching) features inspiring true stories of how people succeed through applying their strengths and being resilient. It often includes a Gallup StrengthsFinder profile.
  • If you are looking to identify and develop your strengths and talents, take calculated risks and make decisions, The Strengths Revolution with Steve Morgan will help your personal development, as well as helping you support your clients, employees, teams and wider organisations. Knowing your strengths will also support positive risk-taking and decision making as part of good risk management.

 

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