Have you heard of DISC? It’s a data backed behaviour profiling and insight tool used by more than one million people every year across the globe to assess levels of Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance (or Conscientiousness) particularly useful for leaders and teams in their ongoing development journeys.
It’s popularity naturally comes with a healthy dose of scepticism and so there are plenty of myths, half-truths or down-right inaccuracies out there around DISC from sources who may not understand the full potential of the tool.
As responsible accredited DISC providers, in this Blog, we want to ‘bust’ some of those myths and highlight best practice around DISC to ensure organisations are not missing out on a valuable asset to their talent development toolkit.
So here goes…
MYTH 1 – DISC will rigidly box me into one of the four categories or colours.
Myth…BUSTED!
We have facilitated hundreds of DISC assessments and have yet to come across two matching reports, and why would there be? Whilst profiles may be similar, every response to the information presented is as unique as the experience, context and situation of the individual providing the responses, resulting in a highly personal report.
And there-in lies the value – a DISC assessment (and debrief) will help you understand how your unique combination and levels of the factors look and feel like to you. Shining a light on how this helps and hinders you in achieving particular objectives, in different environments or under varying level of stress can be enlightening.
Therefore, we cannot narrowly describe someone as simply say a “D” or an “S”, DISC is all about understanding how each factor influences your behaviours as well as how the combination of all four factors interact to create unique preferences and styles in specific situations giving an infinite level of possibilities.
MYTH 2 – To save costs, I can interpret the report without the help of a qualified practitioner.
A big….BUSTED!
Because DISC isn’t simply boxing people in, it is particularly important for DISC assessments to be overseen by a qualified professional (we would say that wouldn’t we :). Seriously though, without independent guidance, individuals can interpret their results negatively and reinforce existing long held beliefs which may or may not be helpful.
Debriefing your assessment with a qualified practitioner allows a balanced, holistic sweep across the report which can highlight clear and meaningful focus areas. After all, just like any raw data, it is only as good as the context, richness and the quality of interpretation provided.
A DISC practitioner can also guide and advise you on other assessments that could be combined with the standard DISC assessment to give further helpful information….which neatly segways into..
MYTH 3 – DISC gives me minimal information only suitable for narrow leadership development scenarios.
Yet again…BUSTED!
The DISC assessments that we work with are extremely comprehensive and versatile and can be undertaken for a variety of roles or situations. They can also be combined with other powerful information such as a measure of Emotional Intelligence and identification of Drivers and Motivators.
Here’s just a few Use-Cases to illustrate how we have used DISC to make more impact in different business scenarios and roles:
MYTH 4 – DISC defines who I am and therefore what I can or can’t do.
Yes, you guessed it….BUSTED!
A DISC assessment and debrief will give you information in terms of your preferential styles and behaviours. It will highlight the strengths and risks behind these behaviours and how they may manifest themselves under stress. It will also help you understand how certain behaviours may be received by certain individuals who have a very different profile to your own or why certain behaviours from others are particularly difficult for you. The assessment will give you information about how much you adapt in the workplace and spark awareness about where your optimal energy and focus centres lie. Once you have this awareness and insight, targeted and meaningful development can take place.
What a DISC assessment will never do is indicate what you can and cannot do. For example, we have heard people describing themselves as an ‘Introvert’ or low ‘D’ and that is why they will never speak in meetings. This is wonky use of the data being used to reinforce a given behaviour. Any assessment tool is only used as a pointer and the overarching principle is that people can undertake any tasks that they wish – DISC will help us understand that certain situations or behaviours are less natural to us and therefore may require more energy shifts or may result in certain triggering emotions- however this does not mean that they can’t be done, quite the opposite, with this added layer of information, we are more likely to achieve what we have set out.
MYTH 5 – DISC takes will take me too much time and effort to run.
..and for the final time…BUSTED!
Oh yes, the familiar – “we’re too busy chopping down trees to sharpen the axe’ myth. DISC is an online tool which means once you have the link it will take around 30 minutes to complete, and the report will be available to your qualified practitioner immediately. So, we would recommend booking in a session before hand with your partner to go through results as soon as taken– simple.
In Summary, let’s turn those myths into truths…
Truth 1 – DISC assessments help you understand how your unique combination of behavioural styles (D, I, S, C) influences your experience within specific situations and relationships.
Truth 2– To maximise the value of the assessment you should enlist the help of a qualified practitioner…
Truth 3- DISC gives you a wide variety of information suitable for multiple uses within leadership and talent development, including emotional intelligence and drivers and motivators…
Truth 4- DISC helps you understand your natural preferences and style, highlighting where more or less energy and focus can be applied to adapt to your unique environment and circumstances…
Truth 5 – DISC is one of the most effective methods of highlighting potential development focus areas in terms of time and budget commitment.
So yes, whilst DISC is certainly not 100% perfect and there are pitfalls out there to be aware of, here at Questline we remain supporters of using DISC as part of our Insight toolkit to accompany your development journey.
Let me know your experiences of DISC – and if we can help, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
All the best
Steph
Stephanie Nellis is a leadership development specialist and Director of QuestlineGlobal.com – Leading Progress – helping leaders and teams make more progress and create a greater Impact.
Contact Steph directly on steph.nellis@questlineglobal.com to arrange a free DISCovery call to start your development journey with us.