Imagine giving DiSC assessments to a 40-person leadership team… and 90% of them cluster in the same quadrant.
That’s exactly what happened years ago when I was in a large org. A sea of “D” styles (Dominant) stood together, proud and ready to conquer the world.
(Quick aside for the DiSC haters: Yes, it has limitations. Every Jungian-based model does. But when used well? It’s a powerful mirror—and a great conversation starter.)
Back to our sea of D’s. When most of your leaders share the same dominant style, especially in fast-moving tech orgs, a few things tend to happen:
- Everyone wants to move fast.
- Everyone believes they have the right answer.
- No one slows down to look at the big picture.
- And—unsurprisingly—they’re rarely aligned.
I was recently working with a tech leadership team and (no shocker) their collective DiSC profile leaned heavily toward D. Their CEO asked why alignment was so hard when everyone shared the same style.
The answer? When everyone wants to drive fast—but in slightly different directions—you don’t make progress. You just burn rubber and spin in place.
I’m poking fun at D’s here, but the same holds true for any team dominated by one style.
It’s human nature to hire people who think like us. But when everyone leads from the same instinctual playbook, you risk monoculture, where strengths are amplified, but so are blind spots.
For example: I’m a dyed-in-the-wool “i” and I love other “i” people. (We make everything more fun.) But if I built a team full of “i”s? We’d be swimming in ideas and connection… and nothing would get executed.
That’s where folks like my Ops Lead Lisa Lemenille come in. She’s the epitome of an “S”—steady, thoughtful, detail-oriented. We’ve worked together for over a decade, and she always asks the questions I don’t slow down long enough to consider. Our styles are different, and that’s the point. She makes me better.
Culture forms whether you’re intentional about it or not. And when your leadership team is stacked with the same style, that culture starts to default to the most common voice.
So what can you do?
- Fight the gravitational pull of “people like me.”
- Hire for complementary strengths, not just shared ones.
- Value the person who challenges your thinking, even if they make you crazy. They’re likely seeing what you’re missing.
- And remember: diversity of thought isn’t just a feel-good idea. It’s a strategic advantage.
True leadership isn’t surrounding yourself with people who think like you—it’s having the courage to welcome those who don’t.
👉 What’s one small way you can better value the thinking styles on your team this week?
Take your team from struggling to move forward together, to operating with the cohesion, relationships, and elevated leadership required for sustainable growth with the Compass Team Experience.
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