The Biggest Mistake People Make After Reading Surrounded by Idiots - Thomas Erikson

0:00You know, I write about the disc profile, the four colors, red, yellow, green, blue, and so on. It's not a personality test. Sometimes people confuse themselves a little bit about thinking this measures the personality style, but it doesn't. It measures your communication style and your behavioral style. And what's the difference? Well, the difference is behaviors is what you can see and observe with your eyes, with your ears. Personality is beneath the surface. You can't see the personality. You try to figure it out based on people's behaviors, but it's actually not the same thing. Let's not get too technical.

0:32But the thing is this. You have sort of a natural behavioral style. The person that Jack really is when he doesn't have to try to pretend anything. You can be just you, together with your wife, let's say. I don't know if you have one, but let's assume you have one. Together with her, you can sit down around a coffee table. It could be just you. And it's fantastic with your siblings, you know, with your relatives. And you don't have to pretend anything. You could be Jack. That's the natural you. Then you enter your office. Then you have to sort of tweak yourself a little bit. We all tweak ourselves slightly.

1:11Usually we sort of push one of the regulators a little bit up and another one goes down and so on. Let's just renew it. Some people, it's about how we interpret this specific situation. Let's say I am having a really important meeting with a huge possible future client, let's say. And I want to convince them and I want to land this deal. I want to take home this super good business. I want to sort of conquer this and I want to go to my sales director and say, I did it, you know. So you tweak yourself, you slightly turn into something a bit, I don't know, depends. Different people interpret the same situation in different ways, which makes different people act in different ways, but in the same situation, because we read the room differently.

2:03It's hard to say what's right and what's wrong, but that's one role. Let's call it a mask that you put on, on your face, on your actions, in order to fit into this specific situation. That's your working style, your adapted style, let's say. But then you meet your mother-in-law. Now you have to tweak yourself in sort of another way, in a smarter way. Maybe you have to sort of tone down a little bit. I don't know. So we have different masks in different situations. And that's just the way it is. The best way to do the best job, and this is something that a lot of people don't like to hear, the best way to do an excellent job in any position, regardless occupation, regardless what kind of business you're in.

2:47That is, if there's as little difference between your natural style and your adopted style. If you can be mostly you, but still fit into this situation, that is absolutely the best way.