On Wednesday I attended the next seminar of our Business Plan Challenge. The topic of that evening: The founders.
Mr. Schmid-Eggers from Schmid-Egger & Partner referred about how a founder of a business should think, act and plan. Most of the things he told the audience Barbara and me already know. A Business founder and then owner of course should always be sure and truly obsessed about his product, he should think positively and see chances and not problems. He should have willingness to take on calculateable risks, be sane in body and head, and have a well balanced self-confidence and self-awareness. What was new for us where his explanations about the reasons why a human acts like she or he does. Mr. Schmid-Eggers introduction about various personality attributes and systems to categorize these characteristics was opening horizons.
He and his partners are working with different personality theories. These methods help to analyse and describe different types of group members and how they ideally work together. He piked out one especially: William Moulton Marston/John Geier and the DISC-methology. John Geiers developed psycopsychological inventories based on the work of psychologist Marston. The 4 Letters are standing for the attempt of describing the different traits of human beings:
Dominance – relating to control, power and assertiveness
Influence – relating to social situations and communication
Steadiness (submission in Marston’s time)- relating to patience, persistence, and thoughtfulness
Conscientiousness (or caution, compliance in Marston’s time) – relating to structure and organization
Very interesting to find out, which part in yourself is more D or more S… 
Conclusion for a team, which starts a business together: All of the 4 types should occur in a group to make it effective and successful. Discussing this point with Barbara we are sure to have them all. Me the more D and and I (little C maybe)and Barbara the girl for S, I and C. Perfect
Tags: BPW, business, business plan wettbewerb, DISC, DISC-methology, founder, group, John Geier, method, personality, psychology, Seminar, start up, team, William Moulton Marston
