DISC is a model of four behavior styles, developed on the basis of research conducted by an American psychologist, William Marston. He analyzed human behavior in a concrete environment and in concrete situations. Marston discovered a repetitiveness of behavior in people with similar styles.
For example, some people are more task-focused, while others are more human-focused; some will concentrate more on the goal, while others on the process; some find taking the initiative natural, while others will act swiftly only in reaction to clearly-defined expectations; some will talk about solutions while others will analyze the problems, etc.
The DISC survey provides feedback on communication style, innate predispositions for sales and an individual approach to clients; it determines the decisiveness level, stress resistance, attitude towards changes or analytical skills, etc.
DISC accounts only for observable behavior styles. To better UNDERSTAND them, it is worth looking at what is invisible and what things impact your behavior to a different extent (team roles, values, inner motivations).
DISC (including communication style, decisiveness level, reaction to change, natural reaction to stress, work organization style, values for the team, areas for growth resulting from behavior styles)
+ the sales section: strengths and weaknesses in sales and customer service
+ how you can motivate particular people (leader section)
+ how you can cooperate with different shopping styles of your clients
TEAMS (preferred roles/styles of thinking about one’s role in the team: Theorist, Executor, Analyzer, Manager, Strategist)
VALUES (the values that result in specific decisions being made: Loyalty, Personal Freedom, Equivalence, Justice)
BAI (inner motivations that translate into results: Inner peace, Solidarity, Influence, Economics, Artistry, Knowledge)
It is thanks to the DISC D3 survey, not the DISC survey, that we know why two people with identical DISC profiles make different decisions, what else impacts their long-term engagement, why they have a different style of leading a team or a different level of effectiveness in sales, etc.
DISC D3 is a validated psychometric tool that diagnoses and measures observable behaviors (DISC behavior styles) and as the only one on the market, deepens the analysis by taking into account unobservable behaviors (TEAMS roles, VALUES and BAI attitudes), which have a huge impact on our effectiveness and engagement level, as well as on fitting well within the organization’s culture, including in the long term.
POTENTIAL
Where does your potential lie? What is your greatest strength, e.g. strategic thinking, implementing the process, etc.? What unique values do you contribute to the team?
How can your potential be developed?
STRENGHTS AS A LEADER
(of a service/product/team) on the level of: impact, management, conducting the process, relations with others, being detail-oriented, creativity and perseverance.
DAY-TO-DAY COOPERATION
How do you communicate? How do you choose your arguments during a conversation? What are you guided by when making decisions? Why do you work very well with some team members
whereas working with others may constitute a challenge?
DIFFICULT SITUATIONS AND THE CHANGING CONTEXT OF ACTIONS TAKEN BY THE COMPANY/TEAM:
What is your natural reaction to change and how do you communicate it to others? How does your natural working style and behaviors change under stress and how might they be perceived by others? What do you need to work in a changing environment? ? In what ways does your profile support you in being effective in a crisis and in what ways does it not?
SOLVING DIFFICULT SITUATIONS IN THE TEAM
e.g. Where did this misunderstanding come from? Does one party understand the others’ perspective and if so, in what way? Why might someone misinterpret your good intentions? etc.
SELF-MOTIVATION VS MOTIVATING OTHERS
What do you need to feel internal job satisfaction? What arguments do you use to motivate others, including your co-workers?
THE TEAM’S POSITION AND ROLE: DISC D3
supports strengthening values of a given team in relation to the clients/patients/market environment; the team becomes more aware of what unique value it actually has to offer and becomes more mindful of the areas that need to be worked on; in this way, the following aspects become stronger: sense of exerting influence, sense of joint responsibility for the common goal and loyalty to the organization.
NATURAL STYLE OF SALES AND CUSTOMER SERVICE
(here: the persons engaged in this area of company’s operations) at the level of communication, decision-making, closing sales, reacting to change, building relations, responsibilities with which a given person feels best and is most effective, as well as the values they are driven by when making decisions (strong suits and possible growth areas).
When analyzing DISC D3 profiles of a team or of a selected representative group, we identify the values of the organization as well as behaviors and attitudes that will support these values and those that will not.
The analyses enable us to see what the team needs to increase the probability of acting in line with the values, and what causes the difficulties (and typically there are some): for example, a different perception of values and different understanding of expectations for a given project, as well as what we can/should do about this.
Communication with the candidates If we are to identify the behaviors and attitudes that the organization, team, or leader are looking for, we know what information should be communicated to the potential candidates to attract the attention of those whose personal values and attitude towards work, goal achievement and development are congruent with our offer.
Candidate selection Taking into consideration the candidate’s DISC D3 profile in the recruitment process (regardless of the position) will help foresee how, regarding their personality, including their values and internal motivations (which are very difficult to identify during an interview), they will adjust to the organizational cultures, its values, and the nature of cooperation typical for the team and its leader.
Having selected the person who will join our team, it is worth using the information provided by the DISC D3 profiles also during onboarding.
It is important to get to know each other not only through the experience and knowledge, but also through what is crucial for both parties in cooperation. What I have in mind is communicating the expectations of the supervisor to the person joining the team. But it works both ways. It is essential to watch each other together (if possible, even with the entire team), considering how the new person likes to work and what the dominant working style in the team is, what support they need to settle into the new job (for example, a mentor – support from a designated person – sometimes only a clear path on where, when and from whom to get specific information), what they might find challenging, what unique value they bring to the team, what they can get from the team, what they can need, etc.
Using DISC D3 (their own profiles and the employees’ profiles), the leader knows how their behavior impacts others: when they empower employees and when they discourage them. This is valuable information for the development of management skills because each change in behavior starts with gaining awareness: which areas of behavior are now my strengths, and on which I should work.
Getting to know their colleagues’ personality-wise gives the leader clear information on how to help each employee grow, how to arrange the work, how to get results from particular persons, and what they need to maintain their engagement. The team leader working with DISC D3 can constructively react to any misunderstandings (because they know what caused them) and to lead and develop the team in a very deliberate way.
With DISC D3, we understand why cooperating with some members of the team is easy, while with others, it is quite the challenge. Why, despite the work on the project having been planned in detail, there are problems with taking personal responsibility for one’s scope of work and the common goal, as well as why there are unexpected difficulties: lower motivation levels, communication problems, etc. These challenges are typical in teamwork and facing them helps understand the differences in personalities.
Such understanding not only supports diagnosing challenges in cooperation and helps to respond to difficulties in a constructive manner. It is also effective when a team is preparing for changes or development of new products or services and wishes to verify who will be best suited for particular tasks, what behaviors and what attitudes will be particularly desirable to implement the adopted goals as a team. In other words, understanding differences in personalities helps increase the quality of the cooperation while responding to current challenges.
In day-to-day cooperation, one should remember that information from DISC D3 will support work methods and philosophy of action, for example Agile or Action Learning. By working with DISC D3 and combining different forms of work, you can identify what behaviors in particular support joint work as well as why the cooperation is not going as well as we would expect it to.
DISC D3 helps our employees gain and improve their skills. It is also important in the context of present (as well as future) business reality, in which we experience staff shortages, because work tools and methods also change, and business must be open to new fields of activity. Knowing the DISC D3 profile, we will know who will be passionate about developing and in what field, while supporting business needs at the same time.
DISC D3 profiling is worth including in all training areas, such as leadership, communication, negotiations, assertiveness, sale, and customer service. It will allow us to work on each topic with individual needs in mind. I know first-hand that in such an approach, employees participating in developing projects are more willing to try on new behaviors, as they process even certain general communication aspects, such as assertiveness, through their own profile, verifying what comes easily to them, what they find difficult, why that is the case and what they can do about it to introduce changes while remaining true to themselves.
DISC D3 also strengthens individual and team coaching because it helps diagnose the current situation, which enables us to get to the bottom of the challenge more quickly and determine in what direction a person or a team should be steered towards.
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved.
