DiSC Profiles

Understanding DiSC profiles

May 7, 2012

Have you just been asked to take the DiSC profile test? Or to administer the DiSC profile? We can answer a few common questions about this popular personality assessment here.

Why is DiSC used?

Many businesses and organizations use DiSC profiles as a tool in creating a positive working environment. For example, a dental office used it to highlight ways for their teams to work more effectively together. They know more about how each team member prefers to act in the world, what motivates them, and what might cause them stress. They have a shared and non-judgmental vocabulary for discussing issues and a better sense of what their office culture is and what they’d like it to be. An office might all take a Workplace or Classic profile. If they were really committed to growing their business, they might all take Work of Leaders.

Another example is from a construction company. Whenever someone new is hired, that employee is asked to take the profile. Profiles are shared and the on-boarding process is sped up. The new employee in accounting might learn that the boss is an i and tends to judge people by their openness, social skills, and enthusiasm. And the boss might learn that the new accountant is a C and is more concerned with accuracy and objective processes. Together they’ll see that each of these traits is necessary, bringing flexibility and depth to the organization. Each gains some insight into how they might want to adapt their preferred styles when working directly with each other.

A real estate firm determines that their agents need training to be more effective in sales. They use DiSC Sales to help their agents and administrative staff learn about how to read the buying styles of their clients. They learn how to adapt their own sales styles to address their clients’ preferred pace, relationship needs, or areas of stress.

Promotions are often a reason an organization chooses to use DiSC Management. Becoming a new manager or managing a new team can be a stressful experience for all involved. DiSC can make it easier to quickly learn about your own management style and, if you make use of Comparison Reports, about your direct reports.

How is DiSC administered?

The test is very simple to take online. The Classic and Everything DiSC profiles take less than 15 minutes to complete. There are no right or wrong answers. The average person’s profile tends to stay fairly consistent over time, but the accuracy of the test has been improved over the years so a new Everything DiSC profile will be more complete (and more memorable.)

The scoring and reporting are done electronically or in a few simple steps for an all-paper version. The administrator of the profile does not need to be certified. If you need a print version, DiSC Classic is available–even in languages other than English.

Sample DiSC profile reports are available online and will give you a good sense of what is covered and how they might be used.

What do the letters D, i, S, and C mean?

DiSC theory looks at four basic styles to describe how people approach their work and relationships. These are represented by the four letters. The assessment goes much deeper than this, of course, but a quick overview of each style can be read at the links below.

Reinforce your staff’s training with DiSC

April 18, 2012

How can managers and other leaders reinforce what people learned in their DiSC training?

Being influential people, managers can easily derail a training or reinforce it. Let’s look at a few ways to add value to the training you invested time and money on.

Ask your employees or clients what they learned. Even if you were there, you probably weren’t able to observe everything going on.

Ask how they will apply this new learning. Ask for examples of how that insight or tool will help them in the next week or month. You might have to lead this conversation with questions like these: How will you use this to prepare for your next presentation? How will you use this in a difficult meeting? How will you use this on your team? Can you think of a recent conflict where this learning would have helped?

Ask how you can support this new learning. Here’s where you can really add value to their training. Would they like a follow-up discussion in two weeks? Would they like to be encouraged to use the DiSC vocabulary? Would someone like a Comparison Report showing how they compare to you or another team member?

Buy an Interaction Guide for each participant. Interaction Guides or People Reading Cards can be kept by the participants and used as a reference.

Watch for moments when learning could be applied. If you’re preparing for a significant change, for example, are you reminding people about how different types respond to stress? If you‘re pitching a new client, are you responding to their DiSC style?

Share about when you’ve used the training. For example, are you going to use the Comparison Reports to prepare for performance reviews? Have you initiated a discussion with your direct-report about what motivates them?

Managers and other leaders provide an example of how to respond to trainings. In fact, they are trainers themselves. Simply reminding someone that you’re a strong S and love having the opportunity to help someone out, will reinforce the message that their training was valued.

Using DiSC to prepare for an interview

April 10, 2012

A common interview question is actually a statement : Tell us something about yourself. You obviously don’t want to answer that the same way you’d answer a blind date. You don’t want to say you’re hardworking and love people–just like everyone else. Where can you get some help identifying who you are in the workplace and the language for expressing yourself?

Prior performance reviews

If you’ve had good reviews with someone who gave you direct feedback, mine those reviews for content. Look for both general and specific feedback. Confidently state something like, “My prior managers have described me as insert adjective after I insert accomplishment.”

If you’ve had peer reviews or a 360 review you’ll have even more useful descriptions and adjectives to employ. “On team projects I’m seen as insert description.”

Everything DiSC Workplace

Another useful source for a descriptions can be personality profiles. Many folks in HR understand when you tell them your MBTI, DiSC, or StrengthsFinder results. But don’t just say you’re a ESNJ, an S, and have Achiever, Input, and Woo in your top five strengths. Sometimes people begin to stereotype after working on a service level with these tools.

Give specifics related to the workplace. Here’s how I could use my DiSC Workplace profile. It states “Since you’re most inclined toward the C style, you’re probably a bit on the systematic side, and you may enjoy creating standards that help bring about efficient, high-quality outcomes.” This is, indeed, true of me so I’d tell an interviewer that I enjoy creating standards and give an example of a worksheet I created and how well it worked.

My DiSC Workplace report also states “You probably prefer to have a greater sense of control and stability in your environment.” I would use that information to craft a question for the interviewer about what changes are anticipated in the next year. Or to ask how close to the job description should I expect the actual job to be after six months.

Perhaps your report would tell you that you speak freely, sometimes without concern for filtering your thoughts. So you could take that feedback to the interview and remind yourself to pause a bit before speaking about something you’re passionate about. Or maybe you’d rehearse how to speak about a previous manager with whom you had a conflict.

Reading your interviewer

People in sales know that they need to alter the message to the interests and personality of the buyer. Being able to get a quick read on your interviewer will help you, too. You might be able to tell that your interviewer is responsive to enthusiasm, or is looking for proof of accomplishments, or needs to move at a quicker pace than you prefer. You can review how you relate to other styles and prepare how you will respond to their needs.

====

How have you used a personality profile to prepare for an interview or build your resume?

Everything DiSC Comparison Reports explained: How do you compare to me?

March 21, 2012

What is a Comparison Report?

The Everything DiSC Comparison Report is an additional 11-page free report you can run for pairs of people who have already taken an Everything DiSC profile: Workplace, Sales, Management, or Work of Leaders. (If you’ve taken the online DiSC Classic, you don’t have to lose out. During 2012 if you have completed a DiSC Classic online report (DiSC 1.0, 2.0, Plus or PPSS) you can migrate to Everything DiSC for less.)

Each of the paired people receives their own report comparing them to the other person. The report reminds them of their results and provides specific information about how they compare to the other person. This comparison is presented both through visuals and through narrative explanations.

If you manage DiSC reports for your organization, you can run Comparison Reports through your EPIC administrator account. If you’ve taken the DiSC profile, you’ll need to contact the person who ran your initial DiSC report (probably the one who sent you an email asking you to complete the profile) and request a Comparison Report.

Traits compared will include at least six of these pairs:

Daring vs. Careful
Soft -spoken vs. Forceful
Calm vs. Energetic
Tactful vs. Frank
Skeptical vs. Accepting
Accommodating vs. Strong-willed
Patient vs. Driven
Private vs. Outgoing
Lively vs. Reserved

Management and business use of DiSC Comparison Reports

Two employees are frequently in conflict. A manager gets a new direct report. Two people have been asked to work together on a new project. These are examples of when the Everything DiSC Comparison Report can prove its worth.

Comparison Report recipients are asked to consider this question for each trait pair: “How do your differences affect your relationship or your ability to work together effectively, and what could you do to make improvements?”

Tips are provided for working more effectively with the other person being profiled. These are very specific and are a great way to initiate discussions around issues that might be harder to address outside this formal structured report.

Comparison Reports can only be run for pairs, but many of our clients have run reports for groups, e.g., A to B, A to C, B to A, B to C, C to A, etc. If a facilitator is presenting these reports, we suggest that the facilitator also uses the Group Culture Report which helps you understand needs, goals, fears, emotions, and behaviors within a group’s culture. It does not show participant names and is designed to be distributed to participants for training and group discussion.

Counseling use of DiSC Comparison Reports

DiSC is often used in counseling situations, marital counseling, relationship counseling, life coaching, job coaching, and more. This report can be very revealing of possible stressors for a relationship. The example above highlights an obvious one. It provides a way of addressing issues without judgement since DiSC does not value one personal style over another.

Sample Everything DiSC Comparison Reports

Comparison Report (A to B) (245KB .pdf)

Comparison Report (B to A) (245KB .pdf)

Motivation and the DiSC profiles

March 8, 2012

Originally posted at CLASS5 Energy Insights blog.

Are you trying to motivate your employees, customers, or clients? You’ve probably already learned that what motivates you doesn’t always motivate them. You might have worked on a yearly fundraising campaign where some people always showed up for a fun group activity while others never showed up but gave generous donations anyway. How can you identify and reach different types of people?

DiSC is a personality assessment tool used to improve work productivity, teamwork, and communication. The DiSC style concepts can be helpful generating creative ways to motivate different types of people. Consider the people you want to motivate. You might not know their DiSC style and that’s OK. You simply want to be sure that your motivational campaigns address every style.

If you’re having trouble with a department or team, you might want to ask your HR department if they know the dominant DiSC style of that group or can give you insights into them. Groups can have personalities, too.

The dominant personality

The first style DiSC identifies is the D. This reflects a person who desires to be in control and to win. They want to see positive results and know that they had a hand in them. For this type of personality you might want to sponsor a competition where they can lead a team or be a judge. You might want to put an influential D on your committee. They like to be challenged and to solve problems, so don’t be shy in giving them one or two. Let them know when you observe their results.

If you don’t have a strong vision and the strategies to achieve it, this style might try to take things into their hands. You should avoid giving direct orders to a person with this style.

The influencing personality

The i-style is motivated by social recognition, group activities, and relationships. If you’re sponsoring activities to raise awareness or celebrate a success, you’ll find these people enjoying themselves. They are often a good choice to plan for such events. They will appreciate being given the authority and recognition. Let them be your cheerleaders, and be sure to cheer on their efforts. They will enjoy achieving results as part of a group effort. This style also appreciates hearing about personal experiences and stories.and can identify with a personal story.

A person with this style might want to be a spokesperson for your campaign. You might also want to let them work on something other than facts, policies and procedures. They will appreciate not being bogged down with the details.

The conscientious personality

The details will appeal to a C-style person. This personality wants to gain knowledge and become the expert. They are often cautious and don’t like change, so be sure to give them access to all the facts and information they need. Let them know what steps they need to take to be successful. They won’t need recognition as long as they can tell that they’ve reached a tangible goal.

Be aware that a person with this style might have trouble making quick decisions or delegating any tasks you give them. If you create new procedures and don’t stick to them, you may offend the C folks.

The steady personality

The S-style person really wants to help. They enjoy giving support and collaborating with others. But they don’t like change. Let this type of person know how their efforts make a difference in the world and that their actions matter to others. If their group is making changes, it’ll make it easier for them to do so, too. They can become your loyal supporters and enjoy having a formal role in any activities. Express your interest in how they are helping out.

If a person of this type is heavily focused on another task, then you might want to wait to ask them to do anything more. Take enough time to clarify any issues they bring up and be clear on what you expect from them.

Conclusion

Can you see how one person might respond well to a thank-you card, but another might toss it before reading? How one person will enjoy individual public recognition, and another just wants to know that his or her team enjoyed themselves? Some people will want to know how your top leadership is involved and some will want to know how things will change around them.

No one motivational or recognition campaign will work for everyone you want to reach. That’s why it’s important to know your audiences and run more than one campaign.