DISC

Recently I had each member of my leadership team take a DISC assessment test.  For those of you not familiar with the DISC it is a behavioral test to see what a person's tendencies are mainly in regards to how they process information, communicate with others, and interact with others in general.  Each letter in DISC represents a different dominant personality style.  Often people will even assign animals to each personality style.  While I have heard a few variations of what each letter stands for, the one I got during the EntreLeadership Summit is as follows...

D - Decisive - This is characterized by the lion.  D personalities are very focused on "when" something is going to happen.  They are drivers, very result-oriented, often overlook details, and can have a tendency to hurt others feelings without intending to.  They are very task-oriented and quick to act.

I - Interactive - The otter is portrayed with this group.  I personalities are more concerned with the "who" part of any project or activity.  They are very people-oriented and often are also quick to act.  They are expressive, impulsive, persuasive, and can tend to lose focus on tasks easily.  This group needs to be around people to be happy.

S - Stabilizing - A golden retriever is used to represent this group.  While S personalities are very people-oriented they are slower to act.  Those who fall in the S group are concerned with the "why".  They dislike conflict, are often great team players, and are usually very understanding and amiable. 

C - Cautious - The beaver is used for this group.  Cs are very task-oriented but are also slow to act.  They want to know the "how" when it comes to things.  Sometimes people in this group can seem rigid and resistant to change.  Those in this category usually love details and are very analytical. 

Before my leadership team took their tests most of us could guess pretty well what each one's strongest characteristic was or at least what would be in the top two.  Some of us were surprised though how we fell into each of the categories in general. 

The best thing we all took away from these tests were it gave us each a better understanding of why we all behave the way we do and hopefully it will help us to communicate and work better with each other in the future.  It also was eye opening to us to realize the rest of our team will have various spectrums of the DISC as well as our customers.

Communication and work environments cannot be created with cookie cutters.  Each team member and customer will hear, process, and express information differently.  The trick is not to communicate and work with others only in the way you prefer but to find out what personality you are dealing with and communicate and work with them in a way they can best understand and utilize the information. 

My leadership team and I were able to laugh a lot looking back on some of our past communication efforts.  I am a high S so when I need to talk with my high Ds they tend to go crazy because they just want a decision and I want to take more time and see how everyone will be affected.  My high Is drive my Cs nuts because my Cs just want the details and my Is might not even know what the details are but they know what happened with each employee on Friday night. 

Once we knew what our strengths were we were also able see where our weaknesses were and we can all now work on those aspects.  Personally I need to pull the trigger a little faster on some decisions but I have a pretty good feeling I will never be a huge lion in our group.  I don't worry too much though.  I have several on my team who roar loud enough!  :)