Type A personality: what it really means, and how it maps to DISC

Where the term 'type A' came from

The phrase comes from cardiology, not psychology. In the 1950s two American cardiologists, Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman, described a 'type A behaviour pattern' while studying heart disease: a cluster of habits that included time urgency, competitiveness and hostility. People who were more relaxed and less hurried were described as type B.

Later research found the link between type A behaviour and heart disease less clear-cut than first thought, and attention moved to specific parts of the pattern, such as hostility. Meanwhile the phrase escaped into everyday language, where it now simply means 'driven and impatient'. It is a handy shorthand, but it describes behaviour, not a diagnosis or a fixed type.

Common type A traits

When people describe themselves or someone else as type A, they usually mean some mix of the following.

Several of these are real strengths in most settings. They become costly when they are turned up too far, or when someone never gets a break from them.

• Time urgency: a constant sense that there is not enough time, and frustration with waiting.
• Competitiveness: turning tasks into contests, including contests with themselves.
• Drive and ambition: clear goals and a strong need to achieve them.
• Impatience: finishing other people's sentences, or walking faster than the group.
• Busyness: finding it hard to switch off, and feeling guilty when resting.
• High standards: wanting things done properly, and often doing them yourself to be sure.

How type A overlaps with the Direct and Careful styles

DISC does not have a 'type A', but the overlap is easy to see. The fast pace, competitiveness, urgency and focus on results line up closely with the Direct style. Someone with a strong Direct style tends to decide quickly, take charge and measure their week by what actually got done.

The perfectionist side of type A, wanting everything done properly, lines up with the Careful style. Careful people are measured rather than hurried, but they hold high standards and can find it hard to stop working on something until it is right.

That is why two very different people can both call themselves type A. A Trailblazer (pure Direct) is type A in a hurry. A Results Builder (Direct with Careful) or a Rigorous Driver (Careful with Direct) is type A with a checklist. Someone with a strong Inspiring style may be busy and driven too, but mostly by people and possibilities.

Treat these links as a helpful frame, not an equation. Type A describes one pattern of behaviour; DISC describes your preferences across four styles, all of which you use.

If you are type A: making it work for you

The aim is not to become less driven. It is to keep the drive and lose some of the cost.

• Notice who is still catching up. Your speed is an asset until it leaves behind the person who saw the problem coming.
• Ask for objections before you decide, then genuinely consider them.
• Decide what 'good enough' looks like before you start, so high standards do not become endless ones.
• Schedule recovery the way you would schedule a meeting. Rest is part of performance, not a reward for finishing everything.
• Point your competitiveness outwards. Compete with the problem, not with your colleagues or your partner.
• Watch your tone under pressure, when requests can start to sound like instructions.

Working with a type A colleague, manager or partner

Type A people are often easy to work with once you know what they need.

And if you are the slower, steadier one in the relationship, you are not the problem. A team or household running only on type A energy tends to move fast in one direction and miss what a more measured person would have caught. Neither the type A label nor a DISC profile should ever be used to decide who gets hired or promoted.

• Lead with the headline: what is happening, what you need and by when.
• Disagree openly and early. Most respect a clear objection far more than quiet resistance later.
• Agree the outcome, and leave them room on the method where you can.
• If you need more time, give a specific date. 'I'll have it by Thursday' lands far better than 'I need more time'.
• Tell them when their pace is too fast for you. They often do not notice unless someone says so.

Type A at work, type B at home?

Plenty of people are type A in one part of their life and not in another. The colleague who runs every project at full speed may be the most relaxed person at the braai on Sunday. The reverse happens too: someone easy-going at work may be the one who plans every detail of the family holiday.

That is why the DISC Test asks you to answer every statement twice, once for work and once for your personal life. If your Direct or Careful score moves by 15 points or more between the two, your results flag it. A shift like that is worth a moment's thought: is the setting asking for that pace, or have you simply got used to running at it?

Find out what kind of type A you are

If you have always called yourself type A, the free DISC Test can show you which kind: Direct, Careful, a blend of the two or something else entirely. It takes about ten minutes and shows your strengths, their shadows and how you come across at work compared with at home.