Management » DiSC Profiles

Using DiSC in performance appraisals or reviews

Struggling with conducting a performance review? Not sure how to say what you need to?

Review your DiSC profiles

Knowing your own style as the reviewer will help you to prepare. If you’re a D, you might want to reflect on how to avoid sounding confrontational or abrupt. If you’re an i, you might want to try to be more direct. Often how information is presented is as important as what is presented.

If you want a review to be motivational then knowing the style of the person being reviewed is crucial. You won’t motivate an S by asking her to lead a change management committee. You won’t motivate a C by giving him a generalized positive feedback.

Using the Comparison Reports

Reviewing the comparison reports for you and your direct reports together will give you more than an hour’s worth of productive conversation. Most importantly, it can be used to open communication about how to better work with each other. You can respond to what a report says about your differences in temperament or pace, for examples. If you don’t share the same traits, the report gives you a way to speak about them abstractly before you introduce concrete examples.

Example:

Reviewer’s priorities = action, enthusiasm, results

Reviewed person’s priorities = accuracy, stability, challenge

How accurately does the feedback describe the differences in your approach to risk-taking?

How do your difference affect your relationship or your ability to work together effectively, and what could you do to make improvements?

Are your differences being capitalized upon or are they causing problems? A challenge for this reviewer might be to consider the values of tenacity and questioning new ideas. Are these valuable to the organization? Are challenges to the reviewer’s spontaneous actions being viewed as insubordination or as honest and constructive questioning? Did you list different accomplishments by the review subject because of your differing values and expectations? Do future goals, objectives, or projects listed reflect a desire to stay within a comfort zone related to behavior, or to skill or training? Are you wanting to give a better appraisal than merited because of the “like me” factor?

If you look at a sample Comparison Report, you’ll see that there are sections where the person profiled can personalize the report and describe how she or he can apply the information from the profile. You could discuss these questions during the performance review.

Even if you don’t choose to look at your profiles together, you can receive helpful tips for conducting the employee’s review. For example, the report might tell you to avoid dominating discussions and encourage the candid sharing of opinions. Or provide more information about how a newly assigned project will work and what you will see as success.

Reviewing a team

If you have the challenge of reviewing a team that is in conflict, then the comparison reports of the individuals involved can be consulted before the formal review. You will be able to use their differences in preferred behaviors as one filter through which to view the conflict.

Even if a team is working together well, the comparison reports or group culture report can reveal the people who might not be as comfortable in the group or as productive as the could be because their DiSC profile differs from that of the group. The group culture report is designed to be used with the entire group, but can also be a useful tool to use with someone whose potential in the group might not be fully realized.

Objectivity

I suspect that we all want to believe that we review people objectively; that we use only objective measures to review accomplishments. But the truth is that our emotions and personality will play a role, so it’s important to know what our biases are. And to work on communicating clearly beyond those biases. No one wants to see this on their review form: “Your weaknesses are just overuse of your strengths. You need to work on ‘modulation.’ But a comment like “I want to see you increase your personal contact with clients. Is this a value and goal we share? How will we measure it? What assistance will you need to meeting this goal?”

Additional support to offer employees who need help in a few specific areas:

Your experience

How has knowing your DiSC profile style helped you better communicate with your peers and direct reports? Has it helped you to “manage up”? How have you used Comparison Reports?

Everything DiSC Management vs Everything DiSC Work of Leaders

Leadership and management are terms that are often used interchangeably in the business world to depict someone who manages a team of people. In reality leadership vs. management have very different meanings. It’s important to understand the difference when choosing between the two products in the Everything DiSC family: Management and Work of Leaders.

In simple terms, the DiSC Management’s approach is for one-to-one relationships–manager to individual staff. But, the DiSC Work of Leaders approach is for the one-to-many relationship. If you have an employee who has just moved into a new managerial or leadership role, it can be hard to choose which profile would help that person most. Both profiles are relevant for leaders at all levels.

The focus of Work of Leaders assessment is on tangible steps directed at leading a group or organization toward a desired outcome. The three step process includes creating a vision, building alignment around the vision, and championing the execution of the vision. All four DiSC styles contribute to leadership success and most likely someone’s strengths are reflected in their DiSC style. However, leadership is also influenced by a variety of factors including someone’s character, life experiences and cognitive abilities. Work of Leaders helps develop preferred behaviors that are based on best practices. Good leadership skills can be difficult to learn because they are behavioral in nature. Everything DiSC Work of Leaders focuses on developing preferred behaviors that are based on context specific best practices to develop leadership skills.

The focus of Everything DiSC Management is a deeper understanding yourself, as this is the first step to becoming a more effective manager. The DiSC Management profile will help you understand the preferences you have as a manager, thereby helping you understand what you enjoy and what drains your energy when managing. The profile also teaches you how to observe behaviors in colleagues, employees and clients to recognize their DiSC style and how to adapt your behavior to other DiSC styles to manage more effectively. The concentration is on directing, delegating, motivating and developing the people you manage. The profile recognizes that all styles are valuable and can manage effectively.

Reviewing these sample reports for each profile will make the differences more clear.

Everything DiSC Management Report (635KB .pdf)
Everything DiSC Work of Leaders Report (914 KB .pdf)

The Everything DiSC Work of Leaders and Everything DiSC Management profiles can both be used to improve your skills in the workplace. If you’re uncertain as to which profile might work best for you current needs, the people at DiscProfile.com would be happy to help. Just call (877) 344-8612.

Seven simple questions for a great employee conversation

By guest blogger Richard Hadden

I’ve long advocated that managers move heaven and earth to get out and spend more time with the people they lead. Borrowing a phrase from one of my favorite legendary leaders, Vietnam era Major General Melvin Zais, I call it “sitting on the footlocker.” There’s simply no way to lead when the only contact we have is enabled by electronic means.

In addition to sitting on the footlocker—just observing, free from any specific agenda, being available, and visible—there are times when you want to sit down, face-to-face, one-on-one, and have a meaningful conversation with each person you lead. Doing this once a year during the performance evaluation is a little like going to church only on that one Sunday when all the women wear fancy hats.

No, I think more frequent is better. How often? As with so many things, it depends. But two or three times a year probably represents an improvement, and so I’d say that’s a good goal to shoot for.

Call it a coaching session, a midcourse checkup, or whatever you like. If you’re like most of us, you sometimes have trouble knowing where to start and what to say. Here are seven questions that you and your followers will find helpful to move the conversation along:

How do you think you’re doing in your job?
What one thing do you think you could do better?
What help do you need to do that?
What one thing could others you work with do better?
What one thing do you like most about working here?
What one thing do you like least about working here?
If you were me, what one thing would you do differently?

The list starts with the sublimely simple and progresses through questions that take a little more courage for others to answer—and perhaps for you to hear.

Here some tips on making this conversation as productive as possible:

Be prepared to be nowhere else but right there with the person you’re talking with. Shut off the cell phone, don’t answer the landline, and close your email client. Clear the decks. Clear your head.
Learn the meaning of the number one. You’ll notice that five of the seven questions say “What one thing.” Stick to that limit. Otherwise, you’ll likely be there all day. If there are other issues that need attention, schedule a time to explore them. For this discussion, enforce the limit of one thing.
Listen, listen, listen. You’re in input mode here, not output.
Under-promise, and over-deliver. Make it clear that this conversation is to get your input, not to promise immediate changes. Question 7, in particular, could lead others to think that you’ll implement all of their specific recommendations. Be honest. Unless that’s your intention, sincerely thank them for their input and then weigh it up with the other feedback you get. But – and this is a big but – if you’re seen to ignore everything you hear, you’ll quickly shut down the flow. When your followers see positive changes based on their input, your credibility and effectiveness as a real leader will take off.

Finally, have fun with this. This conversation should be seen as a good one—anything but a chewing out. They’ll be taking some risks if they’re completely honest with you. Play with that a little. Thank them for it. And then, act.

Richard Hadden is a managing partner at Contented Cow Partners, LLC
This article was provided on request to Personality Profile Solutions, Inc.
© 2011 Contented Cow Partners, LLC

DiSC as a constructive tool

When you think of the construction industry you probably think of hammers and wrenches, not personality assessments. One trainer in the construction industry uses DiSC Classic 2.0 as a tool for his training of leaders in the field.

Michael Brunner, owner of CCS Construction Training, offers coaching, mentoring, and training to people in the building trades. He’s an experience trainer, age 66, who has used DiSC Classic for over 30 years.

“I do a lot of one-on-one coaching and teaching. The DiSC gives me an opportunity to know more about a person and how they’ll respond to my training,” says Brunner. Since his coaching relationships tend to last for months, this insight is helpful for him. It helps him plan how to keep his clients engaged and satisfied. “Before I meet them I learn how they are wired.”

His clients value the insights they gain from DiSC. “After they’ve taken the test, I ask them if they think it’s 75 to 90 percent accurate. Invariably they tell me it’s 90 to 95 percent accurate.”

Brunner’s clients tend to have come up through the ranks of the building trades. They have little formal management or leadership training unless they have they college degrees. “DiSC gives me and them a wide range of adjectives (pages 6, 7, 8, and 9)—a range of where they are in terms of strengths and limitations. I ask them to pick the ones they see that prevent them from attaining their next level. Then I ask them to pick two or three to work on for the next three to four months.”

“Seeing their own profile helps them focus on where they may use traits inappropriately or excessively. If they learn more about people—to value them more—they might get better cooperation and collaboration. ” He recalls that in the past, the person who yelled the loudest got the management job. Younger workers don’t accept that.

What DiSC style is most common among his clients? “In our industry we see a lot of Ds and Cs,” says Brunner.

Bringing on a new manager?

Bringing on a new manager is an important part to a company’s health and success. The first few weeks and months of the manager’s new position are a key to establishing a foundation for positive relationships. Employee onboarding, according to the North Carolina Office of State Personnel, goes well beyond orientation. Onboarding, the process of assimilating a new employee to the company’s culture, requires frequent and ongoing communication.

A critical part of onboarding is establishing communication between manager and employees.

According to Career Builders.com onboarding should involve frequent feedback, relationship building and mentoring to truly be effective. In turn, it should reduce employee turnover, increase morale and production and help become a valuable contributor to the future success of the organization.

A key element to a successfully onboarding is DiSC. Using DiSC Workplace and DiSC Management can be essential for giving your managers key insights for their success. Participants using Everything DiSC Workplace understand and appreciate the styles of the people they work with. The result is more effective and productive working relationships. Using DiSC improves communication between the employee and their new manager.

Using Everything DiSC Management can be an effective tool for a new manager. Everything DiSC Management participants learn how to read the styles of the people they manage. This helps the new manager communicate better with their employees. The tools helps them understand how to motivate, delegate and direct others. Another effective tool to use for the new manager is the Everything DiSC Comparison Reports. Everything DiSC Comparison Reports are follow-up reports that can be created for any two participants to illustrate their similarities and differences.

The result is managers who adapt their styles to manage more effectively.