The Hammer         There is an old saying that ‘if you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail’. A hammer is a useful tool if you need to connect pieces of material together quickly with fasteners. It may appear to be a useful tool for everything, if it is the only tool you own. I am six foot four and considered to be a large person by most folks. In business, I had become a very large hammer.         I am better at understanding and empathizing with people today than I used to be. My previous misunderstanding of people cost me about a half a million dollars a year. Ten years ago, I was working with a group of individuals in south Georgia, and I was given an assignment by my mentor. She said the following, "...go sit down, have a conversation with Doug, and help him to understand that by using a different method, he will get better results." Being a high-D type personality, (outgoing and task oriented), I heard none of those words. What I heard was, "GO FIX IT!"         I did not understand that Doug, the person I was working with, was a high-S type personality (reserved and people-oriented). When we met, I took over his meeting in an attempt to model the more productive method. In less than thirty seconds, I destroyed our relationship. The group that he represented simply disappeared from my business.         Six months later, while attending a large meeting, I heard Dr. Robert Rohm for the first time. Dr. Rohm spoke about personalities and communications between personalities. I began to grasp what had happened at Doug’s meeting. My trying to lead by example was equivalent to screaming at Doug in a foreign language. Neither he nor I comprehended why the other person did not ‘get it’. Dr. Rohm explained that high-S types avoid conflict like the plague. So it was simply easier for Doug to avoid me than to work on our differences.         My perceptions of co-workers and family members increasingly changed as my knowledge of the DISC system grew. Folks I had perceived as lazy were actually more reserved. People I had assumed to be lacking a plan, were in many cases just very reserved, or they were genuinely concerned about the feelings of others, something a high-D did not understand, as it did not deal with the accomplishment of the task at hand. (Or so I thought).         The more I studied Dr. Rohm's material the better I understood myself and others. The application of these Personality Insights has led to my success in business, and at home. My hunger for more information caused me to take Dr. Rohm's training and to become certified to teach the DISC system to others.         Today I am still six foot four and I am still a large person, but through the application of the DISC system, I have learned to use a more effective set of tools in my new and improved toolbox. When working on a light bulb, Swiss watch, or plasma screen, a hammer is seldom necessary or productive.        DISC has provided me with the proper tools to be more productive with people, the most expensive and precious resource of any business!