I’m often asked about the distribution of the personality types in the population and what the most common personality type is? Are there more of some than others? There are various stats published on this topic, but here are some rough indicators of how the personality types are distributed and what we’ve gathered from over 65,000 people taking the FREE DISC assessment on our site:
Dominants: Represent 5-10% of the population.
Inspirings: 10-15%
Conscientious: 15-25%
Supportives…
Before I tell you this number, I want you to take a breath and let it sink in.
Supportives represent something in the range of 60-70% of the population.
Does this ring true to you? Think of the people you interact with. Are the majority:
- not wild about change
- people who want harmony and dislike conflict
- steady, stable, and reliable
- practical in focus, preferring hands-on, practical, jobs
- quieter unless called on. Not stoked about stepping up and issuing orders
- content to work in the background and not be the center of attention
The fact that there are so many of these people out there has huge implications for you and how you communicate. Do you know how to be successful with a Supportive person? If you don’t, you’re going to be ineffective dealing with the majority of people you meet.
10 Ways to Interact with the Most Common Personality Type: Supportives!
Supportives aren’t primarily motivated by money. For them, trust is everything. They love to help and are genuine and sincere.
Here are 10 ways to interact with the most common personality type:
- Show them appreciation
- Give them time to process decisions
- Build trust
- Be friendly
- Be people focused
- Don’t involve them in messy confrontations
- Give them clear directions
- Build trust by continuing to show credibility (trust is given but not easily won back after breaking it)
- Support them in planning for the future
- Give them positive feedback that is specific
Personality Types Cheat Sheet
How to Spot the Most Common Personality Type
Based on the sheer volume of Supportive personality types, it’s important to know how to spot them! Here’s a list of questions to assess any person that you’re interacting with.
- Are they quiet or loud? – LOUD = Dominant or Inspiring QUIET = Conscientious or Supportive
- Are they people focused or task focused? – TASK = Dominant or Conscientious PEOPLE = Inspiring or Supportive
- Are they verbal or non-verbal? – Verbal = Conscientious or Inspiring NON VERBAL= Supportive or Dominant
- Take charge or passive? – TAKE CHARGE = Dominant PASSIVE = Supportive
Most Common Personality Type Examples
You may be wondering who presents as the most common personality type in the ‘real world’, here are some examples that we all know:
What Happens when you Break Trust with a Supportive?
I’ve recently seen two relationships break down in front of me (not my own, thankfully) and both times it involved a supportive that had trust broken. Often, a Supportive is gracious and will put up with a lot. This means that people with other personality types can operate in their areas of weakness more often, without any repercussions. This ‘works’ for a while, but what the other personality types are unaware of, is that under the surface there is a record of trust breaking that is being kept.
This means that the Supportive is not forgiving and forgetting, but very much forgiving and remembering internally. This works, until it doesn’t anymore and the amount of frustration builds and overflows and then, often times it appears out of nowhere, the supportive has had enough.
This looks like instant ending of communication and an icy cold demeanor.
They will be flexible and accommodating until they feel they have been taken advantage of and trust has been broken and it takes a very, very long time to get back.
To best communicate with a supportive, have frequent check-ins with them and make it a safe space for them to speak up. If they give feedback, receive it without a big emotional outburst. Value their opinion and concerns.
Communication is always the biggest issue in any organization, and any tool that will help you get better at it is worth your time.
