In certain situations, we must learn how to dial up our Dominance.
These situations may come in group settings or individual scenarios. You may need to dial up your Dominance to get something done or to get your point across. Remember that Dominance does not just mean controlling situations; this factor can help you expand your opportunities and develop your creativity. The Dominance factor can give you the tools to get results and find success because of the driving characteristics that it represents. Upping your Dominance means tapping into your drive and motivation; this can really help you persevere and give you the energy to sustain long-term inspiration.
Being able to dial up your Dominance levels can help you insurmountably, while not changing your overall personality. Remember that people governed by any of the other primary factors have some level of Dominance. In fact, you must have some level of Dominance in order to function and get goals accomplished. To ramp up your Dominance is a critical component in assertiveness, risk-taking, and decision-making abilities. Otherwise, you might get caught up in helping other people reach their goals and never actually achieve yours.
We’ve found a few steps for you to take to become more dominant and learn how to increase your Dominance in the situations you need to. In the following section, we have two parts: the immediate steps and the secondary steps. Both of these are important in learning how to dial up your Dominance.
Immediate Steps:
The immediate steps in dialing up your Dominance will help you practice how to become more effective at displaying dominant type behaviors. These behaviors involve decision making, assertiveness, self-motivation, independence, efficiency, and other similar behaviors. Let’s take a look at some of these steps:
- The first step is to Do, not say.
We usually say we want to do something or we wish things were a different way. Stop just talking about it and make a plan; then do something about it. Dominance demands actions. As soon as you start to take action, things start moving. This impetus will give you the drive to finish them through to a successful conclusion. Many of us think or wish things were different but do little to change the situation. The difference in elevated Dominant people is that they consistently propel themselves into action states to make it happen. In order to dial up your Dominance, act on your thoughts and actually do what you think should happen. If you need to dial up your Dominance for any situation, it is imperative that you overcome hesitation and essentially do something; especially if you are in a leadership position.
Hesitation will almost always be seen as a weakness in a leader. People look to leaders to lead – not to just sit there and wait. That does not mean that you act quickly without thinking. Making decisions in a prudent manner before acting is vital. You need to practice by going through the Rational Decision-Making Process in your spare time. This will prepare you to be ready to make decisions whenever the situation calls for action. The same is true in family and social situations. If you mull over decisions thoroughly, you will have less hesitation when you actually have to take action on that decision.
The bottom line: It is difficult to make a decision if you don’t have a solid process for making decisions.
If you need help with this, visit Indaba Global’s Decision-Making course as well as the Life Skills course. In the Life Skills course, the information is contained in the sessions entitled “Overcome Hesitation and Do Something” and “Creative Visualization”.
Winter in the Midwest United States provides ample opportunity for any youngster to benefit from the lack of motivation displayed by others. After a heavy snowfall, we would grab our shovels and go in search of adults discouraged by nature’s actions. Youthful ingenuity led us to people whose driveways were half finished. In fact, hearing someone say, “Can’t you see I’m already half finished?” tickled our hearts. These people lost interest in their actions and would usually turn over their driveway (and their money) to our ambitions and willingness to finish what they had started.
There is a lot of truth in Abraham Lincoln’s statement that “All things come to those who wait, but only what’s left over by those who hustle.” Stick-to-itiveness and a commitment to finish what we start will determine our satisfaction and success with projects we embark on.
You need to find a method that works for you. You may want to speed through the quick tasks and take your time with the longer ones, or you may choose to get the long, cumbersome tasks done first and then breeze through the quicker ones. No matter how you choose, the most important tasks must be completed.
- Second, Set your goals in a SMART format to increase your chances that you will achieve them.
SMART is an acronym that encompasses five critical points of goal setting. S stands for Specific; M – Measurable; A – Attainable; R – Realistic; T is Time. This methodical way of working on your goals and setting down SMART components will certainly elevate your Dominance factor because you are propelling yourself into goal setting and achievement mode with specifics. When you write a goal list or task list for the day, make them detailed and write down precisely how you will achieve them.
If you write down that eventually, you desire a promotion, it may never actually happen. You have no deadline, no specifications, and no guidelines, nothing precise when you think about how to accomplish the goal. You should write down something like this: “I want to be promoted to executive sales manager by April by contributing more in meetings, recruiting three salespeople by August, and increasing my personal sales revenue by 25% by year-end by asking my top 20 clients for five referrals each.” This says exactly what you want to achieve when you will do it, and how. The most important part of setting goals is to make them as specific as you can.
- Use your Subconscious mind as a driver in ramping up your Dominance.
Most people fail to realize the simplicity and effectiveness of writing down your goals in a SMART format as it relates to employing your subconscious mind. When you start thinking about your goals and how to achieve them, your subconscious kicks into gear. It starts thinking about how to achieve your goals in the way that you stipulate, so the more precise and specific you are with what you want, the better it will be at delivering ideas and suggestions – as well as motivation – to achieve them. This creates a form of visualization in your mind and sends signals to your subconscious mind to start working on achieving that goal or goals that you write down. The subconscious mind is your best ally in helping you to figure out ways to achieve your goals.
A highly effective technique in making sure your subconscious is working at its optimum is to ask the right sorts of questions of yourself. You would be surprised at how asking the right questions can propel your subconscious to answer those questions effectively. It will provide suggestions, ideas, alternatives, and will continue working to achieve a perfect answer until you are satisfied with the results. Your subconscious mind is an amazing tool. Knowing how to make use of it effectively is an amazing skill. If you want to learn more about the subconscious, review the Subconscious session of Indaba’s Life Skills Course as well as the associated recommended reading.
- Next, Try something new.
As you learn to become more dominant, you’ll inevitably be trying new things. The Dominance factor needs change and new environments to continue to motivate it. If this is uncomfortable for you, start very small and try something new that won’t dramatically affect your life. This may be a minor thing such as taking a new route to work or going to a new place for breakfast or lunch. Being adventurous is a great way to enhance your Dominance factor as you get yourself out of your comfort zone. The Dominance factor is known for bringing people to try things that would typically make them uncomfortable, many times involving risk-taking. The more you try new things, the more comfortable you’ll become trying new approaches or taking on new opportunities.
- Finally, Watch the leaders.
When you’re in a group setting, watch to see who emerges as the leader. Watch how they establish themselves and lead a group. If you need to, take notes. Practice these actions at home and whenever you can. One of the biggest things to watch when you are studying leaders is their body language. Leaders usually carry themselves a different way. They appear more confident, more comfortable and in control. If you can copy that non-verbal communication, you can greatly enhance your career. Also, you’ll learn how to use appropriate body language to take control of conversations in your family and with your social groups.
This may be necessary at times so that you don’t get dominated by other people. This can help you make sure that your ideas are considered, that others don’t ignore your suggestions, or that teammates refuse to debate the alternatives or negotiate with you. Having the ability to situationally amplify your Dominance factor will go a long way in making sure incidents like this do not happen to you.
Secondary Steps:
There are some secondary steps that you can take to further dial up your Dominance factor. These may take longer to put into action and to practice but they are equally as important as the immediate steps. Note, these are also critical to your overall success in business and life because they can give you tools necessary to boost the drive you need to achieve your goals.
- The first secondary step is to Act quickly.
In order to act quickly to new situations, you must prepare to see them and have an idea of what you will do if that event presents itself. You don’t need to have a thorough plan; you just need to know what you would do in the event that happens. While preparing for something or while making choices, always consider the opposite outcome than the one you want. You need to prepare yourself to tackle the undesirable option if it comes up.
Try to start with small tasks to get prepared to act without spending too much time in the analysis stage. Eventually, you have to learn to implement decisions. The Dominance factor will help you increase your implementation skills and give you more proficiency in your life.
- Next, Take risks.
In acting quickly, you may be taking a huge risk. You may feel uncomfortable doing this, but the more you do it, and the more results you see from it, the more comfortable you’ll become. Risks are an important part of life, and we actually make them every day. Even if you decide NOT to act, you are taking a risk. If you decide not to go for a promotion when the opportunity is there, you risk never moving ahead in your career.
Understand that risks are important for our lives and that knowing how to take calculated risks will give you much success. Learning how to effectively use the SWOT Analysis and the Assumption Matrix will help you to uncover the ability to make great decisions relating to risk. You will find more information in the “SWOT Analysis Sessions” of the Life Skills Course and the “Analyze Options Session” of the Decision-Making Course, respectively.
- Third, Change your pace.
Look for new opportunities and take them. Take on as many new things as you can. The more you tackle, the more everyone else will see and take notice. This will make you feel confident and capable in your workplace. Become the person â”too valuable and too versatile” to replace. For example, think of a baseball player who can play many positions compared to the player who is limited to just one position.
It is very noticeable to your managers or your employees how much effort you put into your work. The Dominance factor is a characterization of action. If you are able to show your employees or your managers that you are willing to take on new opportunities, they will consequently view you as more dominant and go-getting. Becoming a person that says, “Yes!” to new opportunities will give you a better perception of your job and what you can do to accomplish more.
- Finally, Take on opportunities to be the leader.
If you’re in a group, be the leader. You may feel unqualified and uncomfortable initially, however, you will grow into the role. It is normal to feel uncomfortable initially. Deliberate practice makes perfect. The more you practice, the more you’ll feel confident taking the leadership position and dialing up your Dominance.
In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell explains the 10,000-hour rule to become a world-class expert. He claims that those who become the best in the world at what they do have had an enormous amount of practice leading up to their accomplishments. Some examples include Bill Gates founder of Microsoft, NBA superstar Karl Malone, Baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, master cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and Bill Joy — the founder of Sun Microsystems (now part of Oracle). If you can take this philosophy to something that you want to achieve, you will understand the importance of continually taking on opportunities to practice your developing skills and techniques. And to be practical, even if you don’t have 10,000 hours to devote to increasing your Dominance factor, any amount of sustained practice will make your abilities better in this arena.
If your goal is to dial up your dominance factor to the optimum level, make sure you complete the activities in the activity section.
I hope you have enjoyed the steps on how to dial up your dominance factor. Be sure to incorporate each of the four primary factors into your life as the situation warrants. Behavioral flexibility is the key to your success.
Contact details:
HELLEN DAVIS
CEO, Indaba Global Coaching, LLC
Founder DISCflex
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