Before Dolly Parton’s death, most people would think of her as a fantastic entertainer via her song writing, singing, and acting. But she was much more!
What contributed to her greatness was that she was also an amazing business person and philanthropist. And as she entertained, owned businesses, and gave to others, we all felt her deep true concern for others. As the outpouring of positive emotions and accolades show, she was one of a kind; beloved, respected, admired, etc., etc., etc. She was a Steve Jobs, a Warren Buffet, and a Jack Welch of the entertainment industry, but also with a huge heart.
The possibility of replicating her is impossible, but a better understanding of what made her who she was may help us be better people ourselves. Towards those ends we did an exhaustive analysis of her actions over the years. I never met her personally or know anyone who did, but this is what I predict was her DISC and Motivators style that contributed to such a unique person.
DISC Behaviors: Very High “I,” High “S,” High “D,” and Low “C”
Very High I - Influencer
No shock here. She remade herself and made sure you knew who she was. The enhanced figure. The rhinestones. The big hair. The makeup. The bounding voice. She loved the attention and realized that the attention contributed to her influence and her one-of-kind persona. It was hard not to recognize Dolly, no matter how large the crowd. Pure “I.”
She also seemed to always be enjoying life and working on helping you enjoy life too. Her song lyrics were frequently heart-warming, even her famous song “Jolene” was about how she loved her husband and begged Jolene to leave him alone. You may not know this, but she also did an entire series with the digital greeting card company “BlueMountain.com,” wishing people, by their name, a happy birthday. It is very upbeat, emotional, and entertaining. You may want to check it out.
Her ability to connect with people in any segment of our culture was also a keynote achievement. The country western singing lyrics, the down-to-earth “9 to 5” movie and song, the hit songs like “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You,” are just a few examples.
We could go on and on regarding her high “I.” It is that high. But there is more to her than just a high DISC “I”.
High “S” – Steadiness
Many may think that her DISC “D” was her next most influential behavioral style. Not me. I believe her next most dominant style is “S.” She was married to the same person for almost 60 years until his death (VERY unusual for an entertainer with her persona). She regularly visited with family (especially one sibling). She intentionally purchased a theme park close to where she was born and redeveloped it into Dollywood. All are high “S” type behaviors.
She was maternalistic through and through. You always felt the warmth, concern, and compassion. She demonstrated this in her entertaining (just listen to her most popular songs), her philanthropy (creating children books and so far giving 330 million of them away), and even her business ventures dealt with doing something for others (theme parks).
She was also very loyal to others. Nashville was her adapted home, and she was very loyal to it. Having Dollywood, and the jobs she created through it close to her birth home, showed her loyalty to those roots as well. She was loyal to her family, employees (many doing well financially) and to her community. Loyalty is a trademark of “S” behavior styles.
Yet another, but little known “S” type behavior of hers, was her Buddy Program. She promised $500 to any 7th or 8th grader in her home county who graduated high school during a certain period of time. The drop-out rate of students graduating high school in those classes reportedly dropped from 35% to 6%. You can’t get much more maternalistic, working to the betterment of people, than that.
High “D” – Dominance
Dolly was also high DISC “D.” Her “S” and “D” were both rather high, yet not as high as “I.” There are many examples of her intense “D” behavior.
For example, as a teenager of 12 siblings, she had the confidence to make a decisive decision that would help propel her career; she moved to Nashville. “I am moving to Nashville and I will deal with whatever that brings when I get there.” A classical “D” comment.
She also had the ability to say “no” to an industry giant, Elvis Presley. He wanted to sing Dolly’s song “I Will Always Love You.” But he wanted 50% of the profits from the song. Dolly, who was just starting to build her reputation, said “no thank you” to the surprise of everyone around her. Was it the right decision? Absolutely! Years later, Whitney Houston sang the song and it jumped to the top of the charts and sold millions of copies. Whitney included it in the “Bodyguard” movie album and made money from it there. But Dolly made significantly more than just 50%, by having Houston singing the song.
One more area that demonstrates her “D” style. She was a calculated risk taker. At the beginning of her career, country music wasn’t nearly as popular as it is now. Her #1 country music hit, “Jolene,” only sold about 60,000 records. A hit of the same magnitude on the pop charts would sell millions of copies. So, what did Dolly do? She changed her style of music to make sure it was on the country charts and cross overed to the pop charts. She started selling 10’s of millions of records instead of significantly fewer if they were only on the country music charts. Dolly took a risk as one of the first country music artists to cross over and won big! Her Elvis Presley decision, her leaving home at a young age decision, and her purchasing a theme park when she knew nothing about theme parks, all show her propensity to take calculated risk. And her futuristic visionary “D”, helped make them all very successful.
Low DISC “C” – Conscientious
Dolly was definitely low on “C.” There are very few examples of her getting into the details of things. Her “I” was definitely too high to allow her to be distracted by details. In most cases, that’s why she had people managing her businesses. She had the vision of the “D,” the excitement of the “I,” and the compassion and maternalism of the “S.” That is what contributed to her fantastic appeal. Others focused on the details of implementing her vision.
The real key to understanding and describing Dolly, is her motivators and how she integrated them with her DISC behaviors.
“Social” Motivator: High Maternalistic, Societal Concern, & Compassion for Others
Dolly was definitely driven by the “Social” motivator. She had a true concern for human kind, especially children. She was kind, an incredible philanthropist, had a loving nature, and frequently made decisions where others benefited along with her. The examples are endless, so I will just include a few.
Her Imagination Library Foundation and Buddy Program, mentioned above, were just part of her philanthropy. She contributed $1,000,000 to Vanderbilt University for research on the Covid-19 vaccine. Her Imagination Library Foundation was created to motivate others to also contribute to the children “reading better” cause. For example, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce contributed $2,000,000 to the Foundation.
Her caring was seen and felt throughout because of her persona. Through her song lyrics. Her giving respect and caring for others. Her establishing Dollywood and other businesses near her birth home. Her caring was so built into everything that she did, people felt the warmth and the compassion. So many sincerely cared for her even though they never met her.
She integrated her DISC behavioral “D” with her “Social” motivator by being very assertive and intentional when helping others. She established the Imagination Library because her father could not read or write. She didn’t want children, especially in the county she was born in, to have the same issues. Locating Dollywood and other resorts near her home, were driven by the same “D” and “Social.”
High Individualistic Motivator
Individualistics like attention and to be the center of attention. Dolly most definitely did that with her entire redo of who she was as mentioned above. When she walked into a room, you quickly knew it was Dolly. Her theme park was named Dollywood, after her! Individualistics also like taking responsibility for their actions and rarely blame others. Her decision to move to Nashville as a teenager. Her decision to not let Elvis Presley sing her song. Her decision to move on and no longer work for Porter Wagoner. Her decision to crossover from country music to also pop. All her decisions and her responsibility.
She also integrated her “D” and her “I” with “Individualistic” by realizing she was more than a country singer and entertainer. She showed vision (D) and always optimism (I) that she could do it, no matter what “it” was. It was that confidence that helped her build her multi $100,000,000 entertainment empire.
High Utilitarian Motivator
High utilitarians focus on efficient use of resources, whether those resources are time, technology, people, money or any other resource. They are also very effective in using leverage in all those areas.
Dolly could have remained a country icon and sell 60,000 records of a top-rated song or crossed over to pop and have the same top-rated song sell 1,000,000s of records. She could have remained with Porter Wagoner and made $60,000 or maybe $100,000 a year or gone on her own and make $15,000 to $30,000 a night on the stage in Las Vegas, as she shared in an interview with Playboy magazine. She could have not done a personal make over and not be the obvious recognizable Dolly wherever she went.
She could have not done any of these things, but she did. And these are just some of the many examples of how she leveraged one thing or another to enhance her success, while showing a heart and caring for others.
She also combined this Utilitarian motivator with her “D” decisiveness and risk taking. Most of what appears above in this utilitarian section demonstrates her willingness to take a risk and make it happen.
Who Was Dolly Parton?
Dolly Parton was an amazing one-of-a-kind individual. We can all learn a few, or many things, by observing her high “I”, “D” and “S” behaviors as well as how they were integrated with her high “Social,” “Individualistic,” and “Utilitarian” motivators.
Let me end the same way a Wall Street Journal article ended in their description of Dolly. And it definitely sums up several very important aspect of who she was. She is reported to have written “Every day I count my blessings. Then I count my money.”
