FAQ

A DISC assessment helps you identify your dominant behavioral style and adapt your communication so you can work better together. It is a measure of what energizes you and gives insight into burnout or roles you would naturally excel at. It can be used when creating organizational charts and assist with hiring. It helps you manage stress and shows how to interact effectively with others. In our coaching programs, we integrate DISC to tailor leadership training, coaching, development plans, and create synergy across teams.

It depends. The value of the assessment is in the trained eye of the consult. Reading your results can help with your own personal awareness, but you will often require an expert to help you integrate it into your leadership or organization. When used correctly, a DISC assessment is a valuable investment. It can provide a common language for teams, insight into organizational charts and company roles. Many of our clients report improved productivity, reduced COGS, and reduced turnover after implementing DISC‑based coaching to help apply the concepts specifically into their business. You will want to look for a consultant who has used the profile in the ways that have produced results in other organizations becuase not all will be able to help with this.

While free DISC assessments exist online, they often lack validity and interpretation. A valid assessment has a Crohnback’s Alpha score of 0.7 or above which means it has a 70% face validity. You cannot trust the results of any assessment that has not be validated. A professional DISC assessment includes a detailed report and debrief with a certified coach, which typically involves a nominal fee. We recommend investing in a certified assessment to ensure accuracy and meaningful insights.

The four DISC personality types are: Dominant – driven and results oriented, Inspiring – influencing and optimistic, Supportive – steady and patient, and Cautious – analytical and methodical. Depending on the provider of the assessment, other words may be used as descriptors such as dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness. Different assessments may use different colors for the personality types, but the descriptors of their behaviors remain consistent across the different assessments with minor variations. About 80% of people have a blend of two or more types.

The rarest DISC profile is Dominant (D) which makes up about 10% of the population and are typically found in leadership positions because they are energized by challenges, control, and choices. Dominant styles are driven, results-oriented, assertive, and comfortable with risk. They usally lead well under chaos and help to chart of path forward when there seems to be no way. They tend to be disruptors in industries so harmony and stability can be sacrificed in the name of progress.

Dominant (D) is the most common DISC type for CEOs/Co-Founders/Entrepreneurs. Dominant styles push for progress, lead well under uncertainty or chaos, and are results-oriented. They are capable of pivoting quickly and making decisions under pressure to achieve goals. This is becuase DISC is a measure of what energizes you and is behavior based. Companies looking for high growth usually have a Dominant style leader in the the leadership position becuase it energizes them to achieve growth and results.

It is based off of William Marston’s model he developed in Harvard and is a predictive model of human behavior. Marston wrote a thesis called the “Emotions of Normal People” which is open source and able to be used to create an assessment. Assessments then need to be validated through the Crohnback’s Alpha test to prove a face validity of 70% or more. Interestingly, the lie detector test and the character Wonder Woman were also based off his work.

DISC assessments do not predict job performance. EQ is a better predictor for that as 90% of high performers have high EQ and only 20% of low performers. DISC can help you work better together because it shows what energizes you and details how you chose to behave in the workplace. Therefore, people can understand how to work best with you.

You cannot change your personality but you can adapt your behaviors to be more effective in different settings. DISC shows you how to “visit” a personality style to work better together and communicate more effectively. However, modifying to others will always cost you something i.e. energy. You can deliberately increase your socialness, influence, assertiveness, etc research suggests. However, because these may not be natural to your DISC style it will cost you energy and you will likely feel an internal resistance to those things that are not natural to your style.

DISC is one of the only personality assessments that can be used effectively in any environment where you are interacting with other humans. You can learn how to identify the four primary styles in less than a minute for complete strangers which has impressive implications for sales, working better together, increasing your influence, etc. However, you must first learn how to identify those traits within yourself and understand how to access them which is why taking a DISC personality assessment is important.

You cannot change your personality but you can adapt your behaviors to be more effective in different settings. DISC shows you how to “visit” a personality style to work better together and communicate more effectively. However, modifying to others will always cost you something i.e. energy. You can deliberately increase your socialness, influence, assertiveness, etc research suggests. However, because these may not be natural to your DISC style it will cost you energy and you will likely feel an internal resistance to those things that are not natural to your style.

Good leadership qualities can vary greatly, but there are a core set of things that really do matter. First of all having a positive mindset and self-awareness are vital. Without these two important leadership qualities people will find it very hard to lead well. Your mindset will affect everything you do. It affects how you see yourself and how you also see and treat others. The best leaders have their mindset dialed in. They are constantly aware of their mindset and challeging things that are not helpful or that no longer serve them. They also possess a growth-mindset that really goes hand-in-hand with self-awareness. That’s because you can’t manage what you aren’t aware of and you can’t learn or grow if you don’t want to. A few other leadership qualities that matter in business is tenacity, honesty, and empathy. You need tenacity to have the grit and gumption to never quit and to persevere at all costs, but to maintain a heart of integrity and honesty matters. What a leader does when nobody is looking says a lot about who they really are. A solid leader will not faulter in this area. They will be the same in any situation and it makes the team able to trust them. Finally, empathy to understand others and to truly have compassion for what they might think, feel, or be going through. These are just a few key, but core leadership qualities that matter in business and in life.

There really is no such thing as a natural born leader. Some people might have a gifting to lead or be naturally inclined, but true leadership greats are committed to learning, honing their skills, and growing their leadership. Every single person has areas of strengths and ares of weaknesses. So yes, some leadership qualities might come naturally for some. For example, if you are more outgoing you will likely connect with people easier. However, that doesn’t mean that someone who is more reserved can’t learn to be skillful at connecting. The difference? It might require more work and energy. So each person probably has some leadership qualities that come more naturally for them and others they need to learn and grow at. The real key here that every leader needs is self-awareness. Once again this is something that come more easily for certain people and styles, and something that might require some work and effort for others. A great way to grow in self-awareness and in leadership is to constantly received feedback and use it to become better not bitter.

Team building activities for work can vary greatly. Sometimes it can be a simple ice breaker to connect with one another. This might take thirty seconds to five minutes, but the goal is to elicit conversation based on some topic or question(s) for people to answer. Other team building activities might be more in-depth from conversations to shared projects or challenges. Team building activities can look very different and have very different rules or timelines, but the beauty is they all aim for a similar goal. That is to promote work places camaderie and appreciation of one another. Team building often looks to form a bond between individuals so they connect better and thus can be more productive and happier in the workplace. Studies show if someone has a friend at work they are more likely to stay at their workplace and to be more connected, committed, and report a higher workplace satisfaction. The best trainers and facilitators will incorporate key team building activities and conversations into their training day to maximize results and to improve participation and overall satisfaction. Team building activities are important and can be anything from conversations, to ropes courses and adventures, to shared experiences.

Leadership qualities are crucial to business to ensure there are quality leaders to drive performance, strategic direction as well as fostering a positive culture, and team development. These things all impact the bottom line either positively if you have them or negatively if you do not. Strong leadership and good leadership qualities helps to bolster employee morale, engagement, and ultimately retention. When you have employees who collaborate and connect they will be more productive and this helps drive innovation, thus improving profitability.

Cultivating good leadership qualities is not a once and done thing. This is a process and also a commitment to grow as a leader and a person. The daily work can start to happen by leading by example and setting the standard for hard work, ethics, integrity, and honesty. Communication is also key to developing yourself and your team. This is another item that can worked on and practiced daily. Also, developing EQ (Emotional Intelligence) should be part of a leader’s daily walk. Leaders don’t develop in a day, but day by daily. The daily walk and intentionality in cultivating good leadership qualities is what matters. Small steps over time equals big results and this is especially true with leadership qualities.