Taking Flight Master the DISC Styles to Transform Your Career Your Relationships Your Life

“Taking Flight! is packed with life-changing insights about you and everyone you know. You’ll never look at people quite the same way again.”

--Marshall Goldsmith, Author of What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

Taking Flight! reveals profound hidden patterns of human behavioral style, offers a blueprint for deeper self-awareness, helps you maximize your own personal strengths, and shows how to connect with and influence others more powerfully than ever before.

Team performance and personality style experts Merrick Rosenberg and Daniel Silvert introduce the proven DISC model of human behavior and show how it can make you more effective as a leader, team member, teacher, salesperson, and in all your personal relationships.

Other books on DISC are dry and academic… not this one! Rosenberg and Silvert present DISC through a fable that’s quick, fun, and incredibly easy to understand. Once you get it, you’ll learn how to apply it…building on what you already do well to supercharge your own personal performance!

When you understand what makes individuals tick, you can interact with them far more effectively.

• Use the 4 DISC styles to “read” people like a book

• Master the 7 transformative DISC Principles

• Understand your own style and find roles where you’ll shine

• Become a better team leader, coach, mentor, teacher, and parent

• Reveal hidden potential in relationships where you’ve struggled

• Build and implement your DISC Action Plan for success

• Embrace your personal style and your natural gifts, maximize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses!

Use DISC to discover profound hidden patterns of human behavioral style, gain deeper self-awareness, maximize your personal strengths, and influence others more powerfully than ever before! Taking Flight  illuminates the proven DISC four-style model of human behavior, and shows how to use it to become a far more effective leader, salesperson, or teacher; revitalize your career; build deeper personal relationships; fully leverage your natural gifts, and empower everyone around you. Drawing on their immense experience coaching executives and training world-class organizations, Merrick Rosenberg and Daniel Silvert introduce DISC through a fable that's quick, fun, and easy-to-understand. You'll discover why you "click" with some people and "clank" with others, and what really drives your decisions and actions. You'll learn exactly how to identify others' behavioral styles and choose the best ways to interact with them. You'll walk through creating a personal action plan for improvement -- and then systematically making the most of your strengths, working around your weaknesses, and supercharging your personal performance! If you're already familiar with DISC, this book will help you use it more effectively than ever before. If you're new to DISC, it will change your life -- just as it has for thousands before you!

Merrick Rosenberg, M.B.A., is an accomplished entrepreneur and keynote speaker. In 1991, he co-founded Team Builders Plus, the most recognized team-building company in the United States. Merrick has led team and leadership development training programs around the world for more than two decades. Drexel University honored Merrick as the Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year, and NJ Biz selected him as one of the New Jersey Executives of the Year. Under Merrick’s leadership, Team Builders Plus was recognized as the New Jersey Business of the Year by NJ Biz; one of the Fastest Growing Companies in the U.S. by Inc. magazine; and on numerous occasions, as one of the Fastest Growing Companies and Best Places to Work in the Philadelphia region by the Philadelphia Business Journal.

Daniel Silvert, B.A., is a sought-after keynote speaker and executive coach. Daniel has led training programs at every level on the DISC styles, leadership, teamwork, accountability, and transformational change. Daniel’s early background focused upon career development, coaching hundreds of executives through career transitions from both within and outside their organizations. Daniel has brought his unique perspective to hundreds of companies and government agencies, including Adidas, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Dell, Dow Jones, Home Depot, L’Oreal, L-3 Communications, Merck, SAP, Situs, W.L. Gore, and the Department of Homeland Security.

About the Authors     x

Introduction     1

Part I: Taking Flight! The Fable     5

Chapter 1  Home 7

Chapter 2  The Forest Grid     11

Chapter 3  The Council     15

Chapter 4  An Old Friend     25

Chapter 5  The Aftermath     35

Chapter 6  If a Tree Falls in the Forest…     39

Chapter 7  Reconnaissance     47

Chapter 8  The Four Styles     55

Chapter 9  Reflection     63

Chapter 10  The Awakening     71

Chapter 11  The Home Rule     77

Chapter 12  The Stakeout     93

Chapter 13  The Gathering     107

Epilogue  The Power of DISC     113

Part II: The DISC Model     117

Go Online to Discover Your Style    120

The History and Mystery of the Four Styles     122

The Four Styles     123    

People Reading     127    

Seven Transformative DISC Principles     133

Part III: Applying the DISC Styles in Your Life     155

Steps for Reaching Your Highest Potential     157

DISC for Selecting an Educational and Career Path     165

DISC in the Work Environment     170

Tapping the Power of Style in Teams     174

DISC for Teaching and Coaching    185

Educating with DISC    187

Better Parenting with DISC     190

DISC Action Planning    198

DISC Mapping     203

Postscript     207

Appendix: Style Combinations     211