Silver Creek Area CEO News

9/9/2026 News Article

09Sep
What if understanding yourself could help you understand the people around you a little better? That was the challenge Katie Von Holdener brought to the Silver Creek Area CEO Class ...What if understanding yourself could help you understand the people around you a little better? That was the challenge Katie Von Holdener brought to the Silver Creek Area CEO Class ...What if understanding yourself could help you understand the people around you a little better? That was the challenge Katie Von Holdener brought to the Silver Creek Area CEO Class ...What if understanding yourself could help you understand the people around you a little better? That was the challenge Katie Von Holdener brought to the Silver Creek Area CEO Class ...What if understanding yourself could help you understand the people around you a little better? That was the challenge Katie Von Holdener brought to the Silver Creek Area CEO Class ...What if understanding yourself could help you understand the people around you a little better? That was the challenge Katie Von Holdener brought to the Silver Creek Area CEO Class ...What if understanding yourself could help you understand the people around you a little better? That was the challenge Katie Von Holdener brought to the Silver Creek Area CEO Class ...What if understanding yourself could help you understand the people around you a little better? That was the challenge Katie Von Holdener brought to the Silver Creek Area CEO Class ...What if understanding yourself could help you understand the people around you a little better? That was the challenge Katie Von Holdener brought to the Silver Creek Area CEO Class ...

What if understanding yourself could help you understand the people around you a little better?

That was the challenge Katie Von Holdener brought to the Silver Creek Area CEO Class today.

Our students came into the morning with their individual DISC assessment results in hand. DISC is a tool that helps people better understand how they naturally behave, communicate and respond to the world around them. It identifies four primary behavioral styles: D for Dominance, I for Influence, S for Steadiness and C for Conscientiousness.

Katie took those results and turned them into a very interactive morning.

She divided the students into groups around the room based on their personality styles, and suddenly they weren’t just looking at letters and numbers on a report. They were looking at each other.

The D’s are decisive, competitive and goal-driven. They like to take charge and get things moving. The I’s are outgoing, persuasive, creative and people-focused. The S’s are patient, dependable and supportive, often working hard to keep the peace. And the C’s are analytical, organized and detail-oriented, wanting the facts and wanting things done correctly.

As Katie described each style, there was plenty of head nodding around the room. And more than once, a student heard a description and basically said, “Oh yeah…that’s me to a tee.”

There was laughter, too, especially when students recognized a particular trait in themselves or, perhaps even more often, recognized it in one of their classmates.

But that’s where the morning became more than a personality lesson.

The students were getting to know each other better.

They began talking about why certain people make decisions quickly while others need more time. Why some people want to talk through everything while others just want to get to the task. Why one person may thrive on details while another would rather skip right over them.

And, of course, there were questions.

Lots of them.

Students questioned their own results, challenged some of the descriptions and asked how different personality styles work together. They wanted to know what happens when two people with the same style clash, how the styles closest to each other compare, and how you adapt when someone else’s natural way of communicating is completely different from yours.

Katie also introduced them to the idea of blind spots: those characteristics other people may see in us that we don’t necessarily recognize in ourselves.

One of her biggest messages was that when you overuse a strength, it can become a weakness.

Being decisive is a strength until you stop listening. Being supportive is a strength until you never speak up for yourself. Being outgoing and people-focused is a strength until the task doesn’t get finished. Being detail-oriented is a strength until you can’t move forward because everything has to be perfect.

Learning those things about yourself now, while you’re working with a team of classmates, is pretty powerful.

Because the goal isn’t to decide which personality type is best. Katie reminded the students that there is no “right” or “wrong” DISC style. The goal is to understand yourself, recognize your own strengths and blind spots, and learn how to flex your style so you can work more effectively with the people around you.

That’s a lesson these students can take with them into college, careers, friendships, families and eventually the businesses and teams they will lead.

Katie brought a tremendous amount of experience to the conversation. She is a former owner of Holdener Christmas Tree Farm, has been an adjunct professor at Lindenwood University and has years of experience training and working with people in communication, leadership, time management and DISC. Most importantly for us, she has been a wonderful supporter of Silver Creek Area CEO and continues to invest her time and experience in our students.

Thank you, Katie, for spending your morning with us, for challenging our students to look a little deeper at themselves and each other, and for the early-morning treat of bananas and apples!

And a special thank-you to Teagan, our CEO of the Day, for helping lead the class, to Annabelle, who captured the morning through her photos and to Nick who helped with technology today.

Today wasn’t just about four letters.

It was about understanding people. And our students are already learning that knowing how to work with people who aren’t exactly like you may be one of the most valuable skills you can have.