It’s near the end of the holiday event.  Uncle Freddie and Aunt Miranda (our “D”s) are getting ready to leave.  Cousins Jim and Oprah (our “I”s) are continuing to talk away, like always.  Brother Martin and sister Barbara (our “S”s) are still sitting at the dinner table finishing their dessert and listening to stories from a few other relatives who are also still sitting at the table.  Mother Diane and father Sheldon (our “C”s) are surveying the buffet, again, to take inventory of which of the desserts are still left.  They glance over to see what Uncle Freddie is doing.  He is finishing eating his third dessert.  I am just sitting there wondering if we will all escape this holiday event with the biggest ruckus being Dad’s and Uncle Freddie’s almost altercation over dessert at the buffet table.

Just as everyone is getting ready to leave, two of the younger boys are obviously bored and tired.  They are teasing each other and being a little rough by playfully pushing and shoving each other.  Things really escalate and one of the boys gives the other a very hard push.   He loses his balance, crashes into the side of one of the dinner tables, hits his head, and the clashing of falling dishes, glasses, and silverware briefly overtake the room.   One of the boys is laying on the floor bleeding, while the other is looking over him in shock, just like everyone else in the room.  Other relatives quickly enter the main room to see what’s all the fuss about.

Uncle Freddie stops eating his third dessert.  He and Aunt Miranda Immediately confer for a few moments.  They obviously used their “D” style to create a plan.  Aunt Miranda immediately started asking different relatives to do different things.   Uncle Freddie surveyed the situation and immediately started taking action related to Abel, the boy who was laying on the floor bleeding, and Cain, the other boy in the incident.   Freddie asked one of the relatives, John, to use the napkin he handed John to put pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding.  Brother Martin and sister Barbara were immediately asked to use their calming and empathic “S” style to help Abel deal with the scariness of the situation, and Cain the guilt of hurting his cousin and scariness of being punished for the same act.   Cousin’s Jim and Oprah were asked to talk with Abel’s and Cain’s parents to use their optimism and upbeat “I” style to calm each of the two boys’ parents.   Father Sheldon and mother Diane, were asked to use their “C” style to effectively clean up the broken dishes, glasses, and scattered silverware, to make sure no one was cut or hurt by anything that was broken from Abel hit the table with his head.  They did this quickly and efficiently, while giving Abel the appropriate personal space. Within minutes, the emergency EMS squad Freddie had called, arrived and started to treat Abel.

The family had acted as a team with each relative using their DISC behavior style characteristics to deal with the different needs of the situation.  Like many families, the family pulled together as a team when there was a true need. Different relatives using their personal strengths to help with the situation.   Personal differences and past clashes were put aside and together the family met the needs of the moment.  The strength of a team saved the day.  The disaster was dealt with.  Abel was taken care of.  And the family now has a new story of how everyone pulled together as a team in the time of need.  Everything ended happily ever after.

We hope you enjoyed, periodically had a few chuckles, and saw some real-life personal relationships in our five-part series on “Dealing with the Dreaded Relatives at the Holidays.”  If you missed any of the Parts, they can all be seen at our blog with our 100s of other brief articles, videos, and webinars.  We also hope it helped you better understand the DISC behavior style traits and gained some insight on how to better deal with your relatives and everyone else in your life.

If you want more on how to better master, communicate with, and/or live with/work with the different DISC styles, here are three other opportunities for you.  First, enroll in our newly modified DISC & Motivators Certification program.  Second, use our individual, comparison, and/or team reports. Third, learn how to use our reports via our A-LRN videos.