Managing your Talents [22] - Discipline

According to Gallup, the essence of the talent theme of Discipline is the following:

"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."

But a talent like this on itself is quite meaningless unless you develop and manage it. That is why we believe that "a well managed talent becomes a strength, but a mismanaged talent becomes a detriment".

How do you manage the talent of Discipline?

  
Your structured thoughts, emotions and actions are your strength. You prepare. You plan. You execute with precision.  This strength sets you apart from the pack.  You may wonder why other people can function at all without precise planning and structure. But apparently they can. And to your surprise they are even effective in their "chaotic, unplanned" manner.  But this is exactly the strength of your Discipline talent.  And it may well make it difficult for you to function productively in unplanned, unstructured environments.  Fact is, most of the world is simply not as structured, neat and organized as you.  So the answer is not to try to change the world to be like you.  First, realize that you are not crazy.  But others aren't crazy also.  People simply differ. Any talent theme can be over-used, or miss managed in a way that it hijacks your thoughts, feelings and behaviour. The answer lies within your own talent management.

How?

Discipline has a need for structure, order and plans.  You should feed this need.  Make sure you either get into a structured and predictable environment, or that you create it for yourself.  Although you mostly could function within uncertainty and even chaos, you will find it emmensly draining.  It is the order, structure and predictability that gives you energy.
Remember that many situations and environments in the world does not function in, or even support structure.  You need to accept that.  But this is also exactly the place where your talent can shine brightest, and contribute most!

Discipline has a need to contribute practically and consistently.  The talent of Discipline makes you a hard worker.  You have strong finishing power, and also the virtue of self discipline to see things through.  You may become increasingly frustrated should you be held back, or limited to contribute through hard work and diligence.

How?

Again, this is a situation that you must create. Not all types of work or environments have enough substance to fill the need of a hard working person with Discipline.  Be sure to offer your time and support to fill this need.  Obviously, manage your time and rhythms well. Have clear healthy boundaries.  But accept that you are more productive, and have more capacity.  Use it.  Offer it to others. Make a substantial difference.

NOTE:  You may be labelled by others - or even by yourself, as "OCD" (Obsesive Compulsive Disorder).  This may be true if professionally diagnosed, but very often it is not the case.  You may simply have "OCB" - Obsessive Compulsive Behaviour. That is not a disorder. It is simply a strong preference flowing from the need of the Discipline talent.  A disorder is disruptive and detrimental to the extent that it has a real negative and detrimental effect on your life in all arenas - if not treated. Yes, Discipline talent can also be disruptive and detrimental if miss managed, but be very careful to brand yourself as having a disorder if it is actually a wonderful strength you have.

- by Dries Lombaard, founder and owner of Africanmosaic and Director at Strengths Institute SA.

Important note when reading this: in this series, I simply focus on the specific talent in isolation. I do not take the crucial element of Talent Dynamics (two or more talent themes combining) into consideration. This is very important as any Coach should take that into consideration when coaching people in their talents. But you need to understand the challenges that the talent theme on its own might hold. Therefor the challenges in managing the talent as explained below might not be applicable to everyone, as the dynamics with some of their other talent themes might override the specific challenge and "make up for it". But, knowledge of the most common management challenges in every talent theme still is crucial in talent development and when turning the talent into a strength.  All information is my own, acquired by years of Strengths Coaching experience, and not verified or scientifically tested by Gallup. The definition at the beginning is the intellectual property of Gallup, and well researched.