Have you ever tried to understand someone else’s behavior when they do things that you wouldn’t? It can be difficult for one to comprehend, but also difficult to communicate and deal with. To be more understanding of each other People throughout history have created theories of personality, models and assessments to aid in understanding why and how people make the choices they do.
Be it at school, in the workplace, or even via social media platforms, you’ve likely seen profiles of celebrities. They include myer brgs type Indicator (MBTI), DISC assessment, Enneagram and the Big Five.
These tests are great to provide you with information about your behavior styles and preferences, how you react under pressure, and how you interact with other people. More and more, companies are using tests to assess their employees’ personalities. Dori Meinert of the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) has found that 60% of employees are now required to take workplace assessments, with companies employing these tests for hiring and career advancement.
In this guide we will discuss the purpose of personality tests and, more specifically the way DISC profiles work. We will also give strategies for incorporating the DISC profiles into group building.
You will learn:
What personality tests are there?
What is the DISC personality assessment is?
How to utilize the 4 DISC personality styles to conduct an exercise to build teamwork
Strategies for group building activities using DISC profiles
The Introduction to Tests for Personality
According to The Institute of Psychometric Coaching, tests for personality aim to determine your personality and style of behavior through a self-reported questionnaire. The questions are usually covert (i.e. it is not evident from the questions how the response is interpreted), and then, your answers form an individual profile. There aren’t any correct or incorrect solutions testing your personality. Your results will give predictions about how you will react in various situations.
There are more than 30 personality tests on Wikipedia. Each test measures different aspects and provides different end-results. For instance, The Holland Codes (RIASEC) test is designed to determine the type of personality and jobs whereas The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) concentrates on assessing 16 personality factors across 5 dimensions and provides a profile of a person’s personality.
Why should you take a test on your personality? From an individual’s perspective an individual’s perspective, a personality test makes you think about yourself… how you behave according to your personality, what you like about yourself also how well you communicate with the world and people who surround you. It’s a method of learning more about the things that make you tick.
If you use a legitimate and reliable method, the results of a personality profile usually instantly resonate with people and cause them to think, “Yes, that’s me!” But no matter how each person’s reaction to the results the report on personality profiles is valuable because it gives a information about the person’s motivations, fears, strengths and challenges, which leads to self-reflection as well as growth.
From an organizational standpoint, personality assessments can provide companies with additional information on potential employees as well as existing ones. In instances where collaboration and teamwork are necessary to achieve success, understanding the personality of each employee’s individual. This can aid in defining roles, project assignments,team formation and the hiring process. The personality types can be utilized to create an atmosphere that is fun and productive.
Get in touch with the team at Inner Leader for DISC coaching for teams UK.
There are several reasons why personality profiles are popular within the work place. They are useful for:
Uncover the potential strengths and potential weaknesses
Use it to capitalize on the strengths of an individual and reduce blind spots in teams.
Assess a candidate’s fit to fill a particular role.
Find out if a candidate will fit into the corporate culture
Leaders and managers to coach their team members
The DISC Personality Assessment
A popular and widely commonly used personality tests used in the corporate world includes the DISC assessment. The basis of the test can be traced in the time of American psychotherapist William Moulton Marston.
in the 20th century, Marston invented a concept about our emotional reactions to different stimuli. Out of the theory came an equilateral model that was anchored by four different emotions: Dominance Influence and Submission as well as Compliance. Marston’s model was refined by Dr. John Geier in the 1970s when he wrote the DISC Personal Profile System. The words used to describe the letters D-I-S -C have been replaced with other terms such as Dominant Interacting or Influencing, Supportive or Conscious and Compliant.
Typically the DISC profile is created using an online questionnaire comprising between 24 to 28 questions. Each applicant is given four terms and has to choose one word that best describes them and one word that describes them most.
When the questionnaire is complete after the survey is complete, a graph will be created that shows the individual’s overall DISC pattern. The theory behind DISC personality styles is that we’re not a single type however, we are a blend of the four dimensions. However, the majority of people have a preferred style which is the most natural to them. This natural style is easy to display. Styles with lower scores on the graph take more effort to display.
A typical DISC test will give three graphs for an individual. The first graph is “the disguise,” which is the visible self that others view. The second graph represents “the the core,” that shows how an person naturally reacts to pressure and stress. The third is “the mirror,” that shows the way the individual perceives their personal behavior. The graphs can be quite identical or completely different depending upon the person.
What exactly do the four dimensions refer to? In order to make the styles easier to understand and remember, Merrick Rosenberg, CEO of Take Flight Learning, came up with a fresh way for explaining the DISC models in his book The Chameleon: Life-Changing Wisdom for Anyone Who Has an inclination or knows someone who has. In the book, he outlined an engaging and memorable way to relate four DISC patterns to 4 birds.
“D” is a reference to Dominant and is represented with an Eagle. They are bold, decisive and direct. They are also driven.
“I” refers to Interactive and is represented by a Parrot. Parrots are imaginative, influential, intuitive and inspiring.
“S” is for”supportive,” and it is represented by a Dove. Doves are honest, loyal and tolerant. They are also happy.
“C” refers to Conscientious and is represented by an Owl. They are thoughtful as well as critical, clear, and constant.
Rosenberg redefined the DISC styles using the four birds as an appealing, easy-to-remember way to get people more engaged in using the DISC system. The matching of each dimension to the specific bird corresponds to our understandings of how these birds usually behave, allowing us to retain the information through associative learning.
At work, the DISC styles have many uses. They can be utilized for recruiting, staff deployment as well as career development and team building.
Utilizing DISC Personality Profiles in Team Building
Collaboration and teamwork essentially is about how the members communicate with each other and how they adapt to various personalities and how they function as a unit. So how can the DISC system assist teams to perform on a greater level?
A team that is highly productive can be described as one with diverse in its capabilities, yet united in their intention to achieve the same goals. Being a good team member is about managing the relationships among team members in a way that pushes the team forward. The DISC styles offer a framework that allows you to gain a better understanding of the desires and motivations of each member of the team.
Each DISC dimension has its own job to fulfill in a team structure. Also, it is about the balance. Imagine a team of Dominant Eagles. It could result in the need for leadership when every Eagle seeks to assert their superiority over everyone else! However it is likely that a group of Conscientious Owls would be risk-averse, too by-the-book and would have difficulty transitioning from planning to action.
Each team has a distinct mission or goal, and DISC will help your team become more efficient. If you’re forming the first team for your organization, the DISC styles will help you ensure that you’ve got the right mixture of Eagles or Parrots Doves and Owls to ensure that the team will be successful.
For teams with existing teams, understanding each individual’s DISC preference can make everyone aware of the other’s style preferences. This allows people to adapt to each other. If your team seems like it is stuck in a “storming” phase it is possible to use DISC styles to get in touch with team members more effectively. Once you are aware of their preferred DISC style (or what bird they’re) it will be easier to connect with them, recognize their strengths and the benefits they bring to the team, and be more prepared to assist them in helping professional development.
Tips for delivering team building activities using DISC
One of the first steps, naturally the first is to encourage everyone on the team take an DISC assessment. There are a variety of online resources offering the test (some even have no cost! ), but if you are building a team budget and would like to utilize a statistically valid and realizable test, you might want to consider taking the Taking Flight with DISC assessment and training program. The program will help your team learn more about themselves, each other and the best way to work together to reach team goals. The program makes use of the four Birds that you may remember — Eagle, Parrot, Dove and Owl? -in order to ensure that the event is not only fun, but also memorable.
A key element of a team building session which utilizes DISC involves the facilitation method. The DISC system provides a foundation that can be used to facilitate an honest DISCussion about the personalities and dynamics in an organization. It requires a skilled facilitator who will ensure that everyone takes part in the discussion, asks provoking questions to help deepen the discussion, etc.
When you deliver a DISC-related team building activity, keep a lookout for how people are reacting to the activity. Group building activities, in general, are stressful for certain personalities and often, people remain quiet instead of expressing their worries. These are generally the Conscientious Owls as well as the supportive Doves.
If you have a person who seems to be uneasy or irritable with participants, you can take the alternative of having them be “observers” alternatively. Their role is to observe the activities and share their observations with the group at the conclusion of the exercise. This is a great method to get people involved in team building without necessarily actively participating during the activity. It also gives participants more control.
