There is not just an upside to Compliant Rainbow leadership. Unconscious assumptions that C-style managers sometimes make can get them in trouble. Some of the inappropriate uses of the Compliance Style are based on a set of assumptions identified on the DISC website (DISC, 2024).
“If I make a mistake, I’ll lose my credibility.
If people haven’t gotten negative feedback, they will assume they’re doing a good job.
We need all the information before we make a big decision.
It’s undignified to show intense or tender emotions at work.
Time spent relationship building is largely frivolous.
My judgment is completely objective and unbiased because I use logic.
Emotions have no place in decision-making.
There’s one best way of doing things.
If my feedback is objective and fair, I don’t need to cater to people’s feelings.
I need to consider all the variables before I decide.
You should keep emotions to yourself.
If I make a bad decision for the group, it will never be forgotten.
I’ve thought this through and there’s no better way to see it.”
Like the other three leadership styles, the Compliant Rainbow leadership style can be overused or misused. The Rainbow leader can get caught up in a primary concern for group/team process rather than outcomes. The group is “perfectly run”—but no productive work gets done. Participants might learn more about themselves and about how groups function, but they might leave having “wasted their time” when it comes to the achievement of a tangible outcome. There is also a tendency toward interpersonal neediness. The Rainbow leader is always looking to other people for self-confirmation and assurance that things are being done “in the right way.”
What are the major challenges for the Rainbow: being asked to be consistent (a request often brought up by a Golden Yellow) and being asked to be more principled and less expedient (often brought up by an Azure Blue)? The Ruby Red offers their own challenge: they ask the Rainbow leader to help get it done immediately and not overdo the “perfect” group facilitation. The existential threat for someone with a Rainbow orientation is to be left alone without support, information or guidance—and to be ineffective in their interpersonal or group relationships. The effective Rainbow leader is someone who will adapt to changing conditions by moving through all three domains (information, intentions and ideas). Effective Compliant leadership requires a balance between or even an integration of the three different domains.
The Pot of Gold: Collaboration
Effective Compliant Rainbow leadership is something more than just “doing a good job.” The Rainbow leader dreams of the mythic pot of gold to be found at the end of the rainbow. This pot of gold, however, is elusive–especially when it requires Integration and Collaboration. Perhaps that is why it exists in myth but not often in reality. The pot of gold is elusive because collaboration is often hard to achieve—easily becoming collusion—and because Integration often falls apart under conditions of anxiety and uncertainty (we tend to regress to a deeply-held preference for one of the three primary styles).
