There is a style instrument called the DISC which I use frequently when I start work with teams. A high D — Dominance — is biased towards action, willing to take risks, focused on results. A high I — Influence — is visionery and inspirational. A high S — Steadiness — plays well on teams because they perform the “knitting behaviors” (communication, process, coordination) necessary to bond a team. A high C — Conscientiousness — pays attention to detail, data and quality.

Not surprisingly, the majority of my high-tech leaders are high D (people who think it is fun to take on really hard problems). High D leaders focus on driving short term actions and delivering results. Sounds like any venture capitalist’s dream leader, right?

But what happens when “drive them hard” isn’t getting the desired results? Unfortunately, many of these high D leaders see that as a challenge, and their response to a challenge is…push harder. It is also easy for two high D’s to get into power struggles, to refuse to back down, to focus on being right and winning. One of my high D CEO’s put it well when she said “I told you once…”

I use the “3 strikes” model in coaching. If a client agrees to do something and doesn’t, I assume the first time that I wasn’t clear in my direction. I make sure that we clear up any confusion and share a concrete and specific understanding of the action the client will take. If the client again fails to complete the task, I then explore what the barrier is — fear, a systemic or process issue, or a lack of agreement that the approach is correct. Only on the third try do I move to a more aggressive approach.

The same method may be helpful in management…but it isn’t likely to be the most comfortable approach for a high D. The high D is more likely to escalate immediately, assuming that greater force (speaking loudly, citing potential consequences, etc.) will have a higher probability of success. This may result in either unenthusiastic compliance or passive resistance — and almost certainly will reduce the possibility of the employee being willing to share their true concerns or different ideas.

These high D management issues compound when the majority of the management team shares the high D profile (which is common in a start up). The team meetings can easily escalate to shouting matches, stand offs and threats of dire consequences…frequently over relatively small disagreements. The team can share a blind spot or lack of comfort with communicating, compromising, getting buy in from other key leaders in the organization — all of which can lead to a gap in understanding and participation from others in the organization.

All of us admire the confident, aggressive, action-oriented leader that a high D can be. But those of us who are high D need to develop (and learn to recognize the need to use) other management styles other than “brute force”.