Having Communication Decoded
Thomas Eriksson
How we respond to certain environments and interact with others in different circumstances has become a reflection of our personality (Robbins & Judge, 2013). Efforts to conceptualize personal traits – either exhibited or implied – and their impact on personal and business performance have led to the development of various personality assessment models. These models aim to help the corporate world better understand and predict human behavior, often considered elusive and intangible.
Short History of DISC
A century ago, William Marston, in his book Emotions of Normal People (1928), introduced a four-factor behavioral model and defined the four main styles of DISC—originally Dominance, Inducement, Submission, and Compliance. These are now commonly known as Dominance (D), Influence (I), Steadiness (S), and Compliance (C). The DISC model draws inspiration from ancient wisdom, such as Empedocles’ Four Elements, Hippocrates’ Four Temperaments, Galen’s Four Humours, and, more recently, Carl Gustav Jung’s work on Psychological Types. Since the 1970s, DISC has become increasingly applied in business contexts, as business and academic contributors seek to solve hiring, motivational, retention, effectiveness, performance, and group cohesion riddles.DISC is a values-neutral model and defines multiple behavioural blends (over 380) that are considered different but equal (Bonnstetter & Suiter, 2013). It consists of 24 sets of neutral statements and derives results based on the most-preferred and least-preferred responses to each set. The model operationalizes two axes: the first distinguishes a person's focus as being oriented toward either people or tasks, and the second distinguishes their energy as being either outgoing or reserved. These two axes form the basis for the DISC model’s four categories, which are oriented around tasks (D, C) or people (I, S), and are predominantly outgoing (D, I) or reserved (S, C).
DISC Basics
People who exhibit high Dominant traits are easily recognizable by their direct communication style, preference for fast pace, determination, decisiveness, and ambition.The Influential type are inspiring, imaginative individuals who prefer informal and friendly
environments.
Those perceived as Steady, often are supportive, stable, sensitive people who seek security.
The Compliance-oriented individuals are typically careful, consistent, and competent professionals who prioritize procedures, rules and regulations.
The four styles and their blends bring a diverse range of communication preferences, expectations, strengths, contributions, fears, and challenges. Understanding DISC helps individuals and organizations better understand themselves, their clients, and their teams at personal, group, and leadership levels. It offers valuable insights for navigating negotiations, agendas, portfolios, conflicts, strategies, culture, time management, and more.
DISC in Action
How we respond to certain environments and interact with others in various circumstances reflects our personality (Robbins & Judge, 2013). Efforts to conceptualize personal traits - either exhibited or implied – and their impact on personal and business performance have led to the development of numerous personality assessment models. These models aim to make sense of and predict what is often considered elusive and intangible: human behavior.
Among these, three models have gained significant recognition in the business world due to their scientific grounding, consistent methodologies validated through millions of global tests, and practical applications: The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (aka MBTI), The Big Five Personality Model (often referred to as OCEAN), and DISC.
Unlike the first one, which is the most comprehensive and detailed among three, yet rather
unrelated to job performance and hence having potential to serve mostly self-awareness and
career orientation purposes (Robbins & Judge, 2013); and the second one, which has massive
empirical track record, however requiring comprehensive understanding of the model’s dimensions before being able to gain clear perspective about one’s behavioural traits,
DISC exhibits strong abilities to serve an individual for self-assessment and awareness purposes, as well as to suggest to their peer group one’s main behavioural traits, communication preferences, strengths, and potential contributions to team performance.
Its simple language, clear definitions and end-of-mind approach allow anybody to get easily
acquainted with the most common behavioural patterns and become capable of facilitating that
knowledge into their everyday life at work. With that, DISC provides better opportunities to the
global business ecosystem to successfully combine self-report and observer-reports – a blend
that “predicts performance better than any one type of information” (Robbins & Judge, 2013).
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Fifteen years ago, DISC test was taken by approximately 50 million people across the globe with resources about it available in 35 languages (Harlow, 2009). Its validity, consistency, and reliability have been tested and proven many times in the past 40 years.Today there is a comprehensive understanding about how DISC dimensions flow through the different generations, and how they manifest in men or women.
For example, knowing there is a significant spike in Influence dimension among Millennials (17.1%), over three times higher compared to Gen X (5.4%), outrunning even the traditionally open and empathic Baby Boomers (13.6%) is only one of the many key strategic findings (Gordon et al, 2019) that any business needs for managing its human capital, communicating its mission, and nurturing positive and inclusive corporate culture.
Raising awareness about our own behavioural patterns and preferences, as well as knowing others’, is a key factor to positively influence an organizational success – from employee journey to employer branding and everything that comes in between.
Peer reports suggest DISC assessment is considered very accurate about person’s observable behaviour - 88.5% on average, with those who exhibited primarily a D or an I profile deemed accurate in 91% and respectively 94% of the occasions. Among the two reserved profiles the S type was successfully decoded by peers in 85% of all occasions, and the C type – in 82% (Jones & Hartley, 2013).
DISC is a powerful, pragmatic tool that equips working professionals and businesses to excel in everyday workplace communication and enhance overall team dynamics.
Beyond its immediate benefits, DISC brings tested insights and a straightforward application process to support strategic goals such as hiring the best fit, delivering effective onboarding and training, retaining top talent, cultivating collaboration, empowering leaders, and much more.
Contact me today to explore how DISC can accelerate your professional and personal growth, empower your leadership team, or elevate your strategic HRM, L&D, and organizational culture.
Useful Resources:
Bonnstetter, B. J., Suiter, J. I. (2013). The universal language DISC. Scottsdale, AZ: Target Training International, Ltd.
Erikson, T. (2019). Surrounded by Idiots. Penguin Random House UK.
Gordon, K. A., Auten, J. N., Gordon, D., Rook, A. (2019). Linking Behavioral Styles of Leaders to Organizational Success: Using the DISC Model to Grow Behavioral Awareness in International Journal of Adult Vocational Education and Technology, 10-1
Jones, C. S., Hartley, N. T. (2013). Comparing Correlations Between Four-Quadrant And Five-Factor Personality Assessments. American Journal of Business Education, 6-4
Robbins, S. P., Judge, T. A. (2013). Organizational Behavior. Pearson Education Limited. 3-11
