"I don't want to BE RIGHT...I just want to GET IT RIGHT!" Understanding the C-type (Cautious) Personality Style

Let's just get this right, okay? The most important thing we can do is make sure that what we're doing is right. I was on a phone call one day with two other gentlemen. Each of the three of us thought we had the answer to a particular problem. I shared with them, not in an arrogant way, but I shared with them my thoughts and why. My view I thought was correct. The second gentleman shared his view in why he thought he was correct. And the third gentleman said something that knocked off my socks off. He said, listen, guys, I'm not trying to be right, I'm just trying to get this right. When he said that, I wrote it down. That's what this personality style is all about. I don't want to be right. I just want to get it right.

Welcome to becoming wiser with Dr. Robert A. Rohm, author and world renowned public speaker, as he shares stories involving his experiences and lessons learned in a good, spirited, positive and fun way. Here's Dr. Robert A. Rome.

Today we're going to be talking about the fourth personality style in our series, the cautious type. They're the ones that are reserved and task oriented. If you will recall, in going through the model of human behavior, they're in the bottom half of the quadrant because the S and the C types are more reserved. And they're on the left side where the D and the C are both task oriented. Just as a quick review, because this is our last session, all you have to do is see a circle in your mind's eye and draw a line horizontally from left to right or right to left across the middle. The top half is outgoing, the bottom half's reserved. Then you draw a line vertically. The left side's task, the right side's people. Then you put in four letters in the upper left. The D dominant, upper right, I inspiring, lower right, S supportive. And today we're in the lower left C, Cautious. They're the ones that are asking themselves right now, how do you know this information's right? I mean, there's a lot of information. You just can't say everybody in the world is a D and I, an S or C. And we've not seen that. What we're saying is everybody has some of all four of these types to a greater or lesser degree there symbols, the question mark, thinking things through, getting things correct. This is the type that is cautious, competent, cognitive or brainy. They're very careful. I jokingly say this is the group that proofreads Xerox copies. They're very calculating, excellent at critical thinking. I did not know what critical thinking was till I was in graduate school. I didn't like critical thinking because I didn't think you should be critical. One of my professors said, you're getting critical thinking mixed up with cynical thinking. Critical thinking means you're being careful. It's a physician reading an X ray. It's a mechanic looking at a printout from a computer finding out what is wrong here. How can we get this fixed? How can we make this correct? Their compliance warning. Follow the rules, follow the directions, follow the procedures. They're very conscientious. Isn't that a great word? Conscientious. I was in elementary school learning how to spell and I'm an excellent speller. And isn't it funny, it had nothing to do with spelling. I can remember the sixth grade. I had to learn conscientious. I broke it down. Conscientious. C O N S C I E N T I O U S. Why am I telling you that? Because I didn't learn spelling because I wanted to be academically smart. I learned spelling because I wanted to win the spelling bee and have fun learning that methodologies are different for different people. Now the cautious type are conscientious for the sake of doing things correctly. And that is our word correct. They want you to be a conformist. Stick with the proven, the tried, the known and they are very consistent. If a C type says I'll be there in the morning at 8 o', clock, you can count on them being a little bit early to make sure they can start right on time. I love. This has been the hardest. I'm just going to confess to you. This has been the hardest of all the different personality styles for me to learn how to use. First I had to learn about it and find out that there really is a group of people who like to do things carefully and correctly. This is why they become pilots and lawyers and scientists and mathematicians and physicians and dentists. They're very, very smart. School was designed for this type. It just fits their environment. More than anything else. They, I admire them. I want my bookkeeper, my accountant, my employees, my co workers, my people in my family that have this style means so much to me because I now learn they're not out to get me, they're out to do things right. They want to do things correctly. If they were an animal, they would probably be a beaver. You know well as I do a beaver can build a dam that's so well constructed that it'll stop a river. I've talked to Engineers who said we had to blow it up with dynamite, it was so well built by beavers. Just animals making things in a correct, precise, excellent manner if they were a substance. And again, we do these to try to help you connect with people. They'd be a dictionary. All you have to do is know that a dictionary is about correctness. It's about, this is the way you spell it. This is what it means. I never understood, growing up I was not fond of a dictionary. I'm fond of one now. I keep dictionaries and I realize that we have all kinds of devices that we can do spell check and we can do thesaurus words online with our phone, with our computers. But words have such great meanings now. There is an area, I've got to be fair, that the cautious type, the C type, is blind to. They don't see this. I mentioned that the Ds are defiant, the eyes are illogical, the Ss can be suckers. C types, I'm not. This is not to put you down, is to give you awareness. If you're not careful, you will come across cold to other people. You tend to be more serious. You tend to be more focused. You don't realize that people walk away from you and they think, are they mad at me? Did I do something wrong? Are they upset? It's because you are serious. You tend to be more focused. You tend to be more intense. On I want to get things right. Research shows about 20 to 25% of the general population and these people are smart. They get into the area of news like Diane Sawyer or writing incredible Hollywood movies like Clint Eastwood, who's been doing this for six or seven decades. An excellent golfer, Tiger woods, incredibly smart businesswoman like Martha Stewart. All of these people enjoy and love quality answers, value and excellence because those are their basic needs. Now let's talk about their strengths. What are their strengths? They're very gifted because they're smart. They usually become a very good professional person because school was designed for them. They're analytical, they're sensitive because they pay attention to details. They're perfectionistic, they're very aesthetic, they like the arts and they have a deep appreciation for things that are beautiful and expensive. They're idealistic. They believe in doing things in a perfectionistic manner. They're loyal, self sacrificing and very thorough. And as I mentioned earlier, and I say it just, I try to add enough humor to make all of these not overly serious because, come on, all of us are on a journey called life. But what I say about them. This is the group that proofreads Xerox copies. That means they want to make sure things are done correctly. And I admire that. I don't make fun of it. I receive it. Under control. They're very orderly, but out of control. They can become compulsive. Under control. They're logical. Out of control. They can look critical. Under control. They're very intense and focused, but out of control. They can become unsociable. Under control. They're curious because they're just so smart. Out of control. They can become prying or overly nosy. Under control. They're teachable. Out of control. They can be easily offended. Under control. They're cautious. Out of control. They can become fearful of trying to of making a mistake or trying to do something they haven't done before and making a mistake. Under control. They're correct. Out of control. They're inflexible because they're afraid they might do something wrong. Under control. They're questioning. Inquiry is important. Questioning. Out of control. They can be doubtful and not have very much faith in a situation unless they can prove it. Under control. They're conscientious. Out of control. They worrisome. They can have an ulcer by worrying themselves to death. They worry before something happens, they worry while something happens, they worry after something happens. And they worry if they worried enough about something. Under control, they're very precise. Let's get this correct. But out of control. That can look picky to other people. That's why I was so impressed by the gentleman on the phone who said, guys, speaking to me. And to the other gentleman who had been on the call, guys, I don't want to be right. I want to get this right. In other words, I don't want to be picky. I want to be precise. Isn't that helpful? More. I'm just so grateful. Listen, hear me well. I am so grateful that I understand this style. It was the hardest one for me to learn. Now, on an earlier podcast, we mentioned how probably two of these traits, the D, the I, the S and the C. Two of them you'll be familiar with, and two of them may be a little more challenging. As a matter of fact, if you would like to do this, you could just write down number one, put a line beside it. Two, a line beside it. Three, a line beside it. Four, a line beside it. And I want to show you this is. I learned this from a C type of. If you have to start and you want to learn, it's a good place to start. Which of the four traits are you strongest? The D, the I, the S or the C? Write that by number one and then where do you go next? What would be your second trait? That would be number two. Then skip number three and go to number four and write down what is your lowest or most difficult trait and then back up and fill in number three. I'm so grateful for C types. They've taught me so much. You see, I know my first trait is I. My second traits, D. I skip the third trait, go to the fourth trait. My lowest trait is C. And then I backed up and that only left one answer and that was the S. So my blend of personalities, and we'll talk about that at a different time. I'm an ID SC blend. I understand my two strengths are I and D. And I kind of have to work on my S and my C type traits. Boy, it's so simple when you begin to understand that because you know where to start and what to do about it. C types, what are they good at? Basically anything, because they're so smart. They make good accountants, architects, artists, authors. They're great writers. Smart people. Bankers, bookkeepers, composers, computer programmers, consultants, dentists, engineers, finishing carpenters, inventors, lawyers, librarians, mechanics, military intelligence, musicians, philosophers, photographers, physicians, pilots, professors, scientists, surgeons and teachers. Did you notice almost all of those require specific education and expertise in a particular academic discipline. They're smart people. I used to wonder why in school, some of the people who are, let's face, not real popular, but they were real smart, were the ones people like me always wanted to be friends with so I could get help with my homework or find out what was going on. I so value this particular personality style. I wish I had understood it sooner. You see, I value them as individuals, but I also value what I can learn from them as it helps me to grow, to become a better person. All four of these traits work two ways. Number one, understand yourself.

And number two, learn how you can adapt and employ some of those traits into your own particular style. C types like consistency, detail and excellent work. They're very creative and they love perfection and getting things right. C types think in concepts, that is, they want to see all of the pieces and how they play a part in the overall picture. They might seem uncaring. That's simply because they're thinking. They want to exceed expectations. They want to do something that's never been done before. Invent something new. They have lots of questions. This was frustrating for me because they want to know the in depth meaning of the in Depth, meaning. And I just thought they were picking at me, what they're really doing. I was trying to understand their priority. They were trying to. To. To get things right. They. They were, they were trying to understand what was taking place. They were trying to see the pitfalls that might happen along the way. C types are sometimes difficult to please. They're focused on excellence. They're dedicated to the task at hand. They're self sacrificing, logical and attentive to details. Cs don't like being criticized. You can't say you did this wrong, you made a mistake. This is a no brainer. Sentences like that don't work. You have to say things like, could we go over this one more time and double check it together? Want to make sure it's correct, it's right. I need your help. I need your input. I need your best thinking on this. See how those words resonate? If you have this style, you're saying, I wish people could understand this and I wish they would treat me like they understood me. It can happen. It can be a reality. They don't like unnecessary interruptions. They, they really don't like ambition without a plan. Plan you work, work your plan. They don't like mistakes, they don't like mediocrity, and they don't like illogical changes. Cs want you to be. If you're going to work with them, you need to be open minded, accountable, structured, accurate, analytical and reasonable. I work at being those things. When I talk to C types, I say things like help me understand this. I really value your thinking. Wow, what good insights. I appreciate you taking the time to help me understand this better. Have we considered a couple of other alternatives just to be sure this is the best methodology. See how I'm learning to speak their language? You can learn this. We have training that we do all over the world. I mean, can you believe it? We've had tens of thousands of people sit through training in over 2000 to go through our certification program to learn how to be a human behavior specialist or a human behavior consultant. There sees in your organization, in your school, in your team, in your business, everywhere you go, you'll meet these people. And when you understand how to work with them better, it will profit them and profit you walk away with knowing one word. They are cautious. The C types are cautious because they seek the facts and, and follow procedures so they can uphold principles probably of all of the personalities, and these are broad strokes, these are most consistent. They think things through all of the four different personalities bring something. These have strong wills. Eyes are the most fun. S's are the nicest. C's probably the smartest. That doesn't mean that the others are not smart. It just means this is their specialty. I want to be a smart person. I want to be accurate. But I have to learn to maneuver. Or visit would be a better word. All of the four different personalities. Now we've covered all four of them and we're going to have some further training. As we continue, I hope you will think about. There's my key word again. Your four personalities and which ones you're good at and which ones need a little bit of help. I hope that you'll accept and receive other people who have these styles, recognizing they're not doing things against you, they're doing things for themselves because that's their personality. And best of all, you can learn how to have all four of these traits and these types and use them in your own personal, professional life to become the person you were meant to be. I'm Dr. Robert Rome. I hope this has been helpful. We'll continue on this journey together as we learn about personality information and how to become successful in life. Thank you so much.

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