How they operate: For Compliance style people there is no guarantee that they will get from point A to point B. They might get to points C, D, E or F. They will always want to make the best decision, so they take every little detail into consideration. The way they dress is usually businesslike, elegant – or very scruffy, if they only focus on inner values. Their walk is slow and controlled. They will keep eye contact for a short time only. They are reserved and can be somewhat cold.

How they see themselves: structured, organized, maximalists, striving for quality, diplomatic

How they see themselves: structured, organized, maximalists, striving for quality, diplomatic

How we see them: cynical, cold, inflexible, distant, uncertain

Their main emotion: anxiety

Their fear: criticism, not making the best decision

Reaction to fear: Cynicism / spending lots of time on analysis

Their natural strengths: conforming to structure and rules, paying attention to processes, always have a Plan B, diplomatic

Their weaknesses: they can get lost in the details, they do not see the big picture, they are too critical, they are trying too hard to avoid failure, they can miss deadlines

Stress factors: everything that is unexpected and unpredictable

When stress appears, they become: pessimistic, hairsplitting, cantankerous

Under constant stress: they become disorganized and sloppy, make sudden decisions, give up their maximalism

What steals their time: collecting and analyzing all the data, and finding the most appropriate but not necessarily the most practical solution

People with the Compliance (C) style are task-oriented and introvert (that is, focusing inward, gaining energy from being on their own). There is no guarantee that they will get from point A to point B. They might get to points C, D, E or F. Compliance style people will always want to make the best decision, so they take every little detail into consideration.

Their task orientation compels them to carry out the tasks they are entrusted with at the highest possible standards. In any case, before moving to the implementation, they will always perform a thorough and meticulous analysis to avoid any possible mistakes or surprises.

Precision and maximalism are of paramount importance for them. In every situation, they strive to find a way to the 100% perfect result and to maintain it as well. To ensure this, they follow the rules, regulations and the protocol laid down by the power they respect. They love to do things right, just the way they are shown in the instruction manual. For them, the ideal condition would be if everything had a method, rule or recipe that leads to predictable results. Their motto could be “rules are there to be followed”. Therefore, they try to make others follow the rules too.

They are very critical and they notice every mistake – both their own and those in their environment. They will not rest until all defects have been corrected, all missing items made up for. They are extra self-critical, they often feel that they could improve the quality of their work even further. On the other hand, they take offence if this is pointed out by someone else as they are extremely sensitive to criticism.

They know that quality (especially perfect) work requires time, so they don’t like to be urged. They are absolutely horrified by the idea that quality will be sacrificed at the altar of time. For them, the biggest fear is that they are not doing the right thing or they are not right about a particular issue. To avoid this, they place great emphasis on detail. They try to gather as much information as possible and try to interpret everything.

They examine context and connections very thoroughly, and try to understand the workings of the systems, the causal relationships between events and incidents. They like to rerun this before each decision, so they can miss deadlines, even though they otherwise go to great lengths to maintain accuracy. They do not take well to unpredictability and accidental events, if they cannot plan ahead, or if they are forced to make a quick decision.

Their task orientation also appears in their way of thinking: they trust the rules and not the people. It is disturbing for them if someone tries to make a decision based on their feelings and subjective perspectives, not on the basis of facts and data. Dealing with other people’s feelings, which they consider irrational anyway, can also cause them difficulties. They pay little attention to personal, emotional, or team-building aspects, they prefer to leave these to others. Of course, they can also get lost sometimes in the maze of arguments and considerations, or in the sea of less important details.

Compliance style managers are distant and even somewhat cool. They prefer to work alone, moving away from the others with their own work. As a leader, their greatest strength is combining the results of the delegated subtasks into a puzzle, and replacing or correcting the missing or defective parts by delegation. They love if things proceed in a structured order, and if everyone knows their place in the system and put their best efforts into their work. They expect perfection from themselves and others – and realize it through detailed process descriptions, developing systems, control and continuous improvement.

Development areas

• They can become paralyzed when data is missing
• They can be indecisive
• They require too much detail
• They tend to get lost in small details
• You can lose sight of the big picture
• They feel easily threatened
• They may become too dogmatic or rigid
• They may need too much explanation

How to communicate with them

• Prepare with enough data and facts
• Support all statements with facts and data
• Organize your meetings (agenda, topics etc.)
• List the advantages and disadvantages of any decision to be taken
• Give them solid, tangible and practical evidence

DISCLAIMER / Addendum
We would also like to draw your attention to the fact that people are always multi-dimensional, they can rarely be described with one behavioral style. Usually there is a secondary or tertiary style that affect their behaviour. In addition, the adaptive behavior of most people differs from their natural behavioral profile, which should always be taken into account as well. The values that motivate behaviour – and serve as an explanation to others – are always there, under the surface.
The above summary fits people with high C (Compliance) value and gives a partial description without recognizing the impact of the motivations, the other styles, and their natural vs. adaptive behavioral profile.