Initiator (A Comprehensive Guide)

A well-known book related to human psychology “SWAY: the irresistible pull of irrational behavior” identifies the impact of human psychology while making decisions in life that have both good and bad consequences.

According to this book, four types of people exist in this world that is described below.

• Initiators: Initiators known as having an optimistic nature and always seem to be hopeful about the results. Initiates prefer to try new things, have brilliant ideas, and are seen as highly motivated while trying the new project and ideas. 
• Blockers: blockers known as the negative ones because they usually question everything and attempt to block new ideas and projects.  
• Supporters: supporters known as those individuals who support others in their decisions they may take the side of initiators or the blockers.
• Observers: observers are not either the optimistic nor the depressive ones  by nature they just silently observe others and choose to comments about the new projects when they find the need to do so  

In this article we discuss Initiators.

Some people believe in making a team based on a number of initiators and have less blockers.

Although it seems good in reality, it is too risky to apply in a real situation.

Because initiators may seem as highly energetic and optimistic about the new projects but they often forget to consider a second view about that idea and all of the efforts seem to be wasted if they have a bad idea that has zero implementation or success rate.

It is also proved by various researches especially related to the airline industry it is found that the initiator pilots often used different schemes due to their confident and optimistic nature and caused a higher number of plane crashes as compared to other personalities.

One reason for such crashes is that the crew members in the plane are actually subdued by the captain’s confidence and optimism that they select to stay quiet rather than arguing with the captain who has more knowledge and experience.

In that way, the tough initiator actually suppress a blocker

In order to tackle such problems, the crew Resources management is also provided to the cabin team in the airline.

They are trained in a way to serve as skillful blockers especially in difficult situations or for any decision that is made up the authority based on their personal confidence and optimistic nature.

The program to train some members to serve as a blocker was presented by NASA with the purpose to prevent all those decisions that risk other life and save people from bad decisions by the captain.

At the exit point of safety measures, pilots are trained in a way to ask questions from their captain about the cause of their abrupt decision-making ability in difficult situations if it does not feel right.

These kinds of training must be provided in various professional fields so that the blocker can challenge the initiator to reconsider their decision and also increase the ability of patience in case of any disagreement for those who have the authority.

Blockers should be motivated in a way that is beyond revenge and grudge also help them to raise up their voice without any anxiety and encourage their feedback in an optimistic way.

Initiators strengths

Every person has some strengths and weaknesses because nobody is perfect in the world.

Initiators strengths are greater than before in their occupational environment where they come across to a dissimilar people that belongs to enormously opposite or different upbringing and moral code.

Some of the initiator’s strengths are described below.

·         Choose to work as an authority or a person in charge, avoid playing the role of a submissive person, and also prefer to take responsibility for the work rather than considering the consequences.

·         Always use their motivation in the form of providing verbal speech that encourages others to work hard and guide them to take work as a joy rather than considering it as a pressure.

·         Eagerly offered the actual picture of their ideas in front of others.

·         Always consider and find new possibilities, solutions related to an idea rather than stick on the previous methods.

·         Initiators have a tendency to take risks in their life by making tough decisions rather than having fear related to the present conditions.

·         Initiators have the ability to generate innovative possibilities about the challenges in professional settings.

Initiators Weaknesses

 Initiators also have some blind spots in their personalities that often cause a bad decision in a difficult situation that is described below.

• Initiators focus their attention on the surface of the possibilities and often avoid the depth and harm while applying the solution.
• As they never thought about the second opinion instead of preferring to convey immediately what comes in their mind. It makes them dominate that attempt to seek the results according to their will.
• Initiators may serve as a restricted structure in a professional setting for those who raised the value of a clean environment for work.
• They are unable to focus their attention on one project because the initiator’s mind is often full of new ideas and possibilities that divert their focus.
• Sometimes, they behave anxiously in their professional setting while completing their task and working for it that has a direct effect on their surroundings and causes stress for others.
• The initiator seems to face difficulty in following the routine patterns and dependency.
• Often use sarcasm in their general communication that causes misinterpretation of their actual meaning in a conversation. 

Things that need to be considered

In order to grow and get rid of the annoying behaviors.

Initiates need to focus their attention on some of their behaviors that need to be changed in their daily routine are described below.

Initiates need to be thought before acting upon their ideas such as, stop making jokes in a situation where they need to be quiet.

• While working as a team, give special attention to follow their routine patterns and make reliable strategies.
• Give a chance to others so that they may present their views about an idea freely and consider the view of others too.
• The initiator must avoid the situation of presenting too many ideas at once. Rather than, first separate the ideas that you think are important and they prefer to focus the detail and implementation of that idea so that you can see the benefits and harm of applying those ideas.

How to deal with initiator or DI personality

·         The best way to communicate with the initiator is to stay neutral during the conversation with them and also try to not get impressed by the fascinating and encouraging abilities of the initiator.

·         When you have an opportunity to discuss the details about a project with an initiator try to make it natural and precise rather than focusing on the inflexible plans.

·         When you email an initiator related to a project or want to take some suggestions from the initiator. Write the email in a proper way, avoid unnecessary details, and must have clear information about the project.

·         While giving feedback to the initiator for the new ideas they share you must focus on the risky factors rather than asking unnecessary questions and criticize their ability to give precise feedback.

·         If you faced any conflict with the initiator it’s better to talk directly about that issue and think about the possibilities to solve that conflict rather than exaggerating the small issues.

Conflicts in any relationship serve the base to learn the solution about the problem and improve the relation.

Initiator motivation

Some emotional disturbance known as the cause of draining all the energy of the human being such as the negative emotion i.e. sadness, distress, pain, and disturbance have a negative effect on the physical and mental health of an individual and initiator must be aware of those activities or emotions that fill their mind with positive energy so that helps them to grow.

In the case of initiators, they seem to be encouraged and gain energy by doing the following activities.

·         Initiates enjoy conveying the comprehensive detail and systematic procedure for others.

·         Initiators encourage others and guide them in case of any difficulty and conflict so that they may improve as a person and enhance their professional settings

·         Initiators are known as social beings who enjoy making new relations or have a welcoming attitude for others in a social environment and impress others by using their qualities.

·         Initiators always have a quest to find new and possible solutions about a project without receiving any help from the outside.

·         Have the courage to place new ideas in front of others rather than being afraid of its implementation

·         Initiates never feel afraid of taking risks or applying new solutions related to a problem whenever they have the chance to do so.

·         Making a decision abruptly without taking the second opinion about it and sharing it with others also seems to feel the joy and excitement about their ability to have a number of unique solutions related to a problem.

·         Take all the responsibility whenever it comes to take the risks and guide the situation toward a better solution.

Initiators stress

·         Some of the activities that actually work as draining all of the energy of initiators are described below.

·         Initiator seems to be tired due to an organized and reliable daily program.

·         Initiator hates to guide others by providing them in-detail instructions or teaching some program by giving them step-by-step procedural instructions.  

·         Encourage them to work in a professional setting as a team but as a person like to work alone so that they focus on their new ideas.

·         Initiates hate to study the same thing over and over again when they already know the result by the finding of others.

Try to reduce the threat of being jobless and investigated in a solution also to share the analysis and make an in-depth report about a project.

Initiators prefer to work on their goals and ideas in order to achieve it so that they may receive an acknowledgement from their surroundings and at the same time hate the structural environment.

FAQ about Initiator Personality

References

Crystal. (2020). “The initiator in DISC”.