What is DISC?
What are DISC assessments and how do they work?
DISC is a simple, practical, easy to remember and universally applicable model. Based on the research of Dr. William Moulton Marston, DISC is the most widely-used behavior identification tool of its kind, supported by decades of research and continuous validation.
It focuses on individual patterns of external, observable behaviors and measures the intensity of characteristics using scales of directness and openness for each of the four styles:
Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientious.
|D = Dominance||How people address Problems and Challenges.|
|I = Influence||How people handle situations involving People and Contacts.|
|S = Steadiness||How people demonstrate Pace and Consistency.|
|C = Conscientiousness||How people react to Procedure and Constraints.|
Benefits of learning and applying DISC
The DISC Assessment and Report makes it easy to identify and understand our own style, recognize others and cognitively adapt to different styles, and develop a process to communicate more effectively with others.
People generally make the mistake of assuming that others interact and think the same way they do, and many of us grew up believing in The Golden Rule: treating others the way you would like to be treated. Instead, we encourage another practical rule to live by – what Dr. Tony Alessandra calls The Platinum Rule®: to treat others the way THEY want to be treated. (Watch the video on the right hand side of this page for a fascinating explanation of DISC from Tony Alessandra)
In addition to building personal effectiveness in relationships and communication, companies use DISC with their teams to help them create competitive advantages such as:
- Increase Commitment and Cooperation
- Build Effective Teams
- Resolve and Prevent Conflict
- Gain Endorsement, Credibility, Rapport
- Know or Understand Others (interpersonal skills, communication preferences, behavioral strengths, potential areas of improvement)
- Build common language
- Increase Sales
What is DISC?
- DISC is: needs-motivated, observable behavior and emotion. It is a combination of nature (inherent) and nurture (learned).
- DISC is NOT: a measure of intelligence, skills, education or experience, or an indicator of values.
What are some of the observable behaviours of each style?
How can DISC be used?
- Change Management – Learn behaviors for transforming resistance into receptivity.
- Coaching & Mentoring – Discover how to help others consistently achieve their potential.
- Conflict Resolution – Bring clarity and understanding to otherwise disparate behavioral styles.
- Customer Service – Teach administrative and customer support teams how to dependably provide stellar service and interaction regardless of behavioral style.
- Hiring & Selection/Benchmarking & Comparison – Empower business owners, managers and HR professionals with the ability to compare new applicants to desirable job-performance benchmarks.
- Leadership & Management Skill building – Empower your organization’s leaders with the ability to get the most out of their teams by dependably and genuinely motivating their staff.
- Sales Training – Drive revenue by teaching even the most novice or experienced sales professionals the keys to identifying and harnessing identifiable behaviors in their prospects.
- Team Building – Create your teams based on compatible skills and traits, not just generic ideas of balance.
- Productivity – Plan meetings and projects with differing behavioral styles in mind to ensure best outcomes.