DISC Model of Human Behavior
Imagine I take a photo of a house with people standing in front of it. If I show you the photo, you can describe fairly accurately what is in the photo. Some of us are more detailed than others, but in general you would get it right—
• Four people
• Two adults and two children
• African American Family
• House is Sold
• There’s a front porch
You can keep going and point out a number of different things.
Our personality is somewhat analogous — you can take a snapshot (assessment) and describe what you see. The great thing about our behavior is that it gives a fairly accurate picture of what you look like — from a personality perspective. In fact, your behavior shows an enormous amount of how you think, feel, and act. So if you understand how to “read the photo” of your behavior, you can understand others — and yourself —pretty well.
So what is the DISC Model of Human Behavior?
You’ve probably heard of the DISC Model of Human Behavior, or something similar like the Keirsey Temperament Sorter, Galen’s Four Temperaments, the Animal Characteristics of doctors Smalley and Trent, StrengthFinders, and other ones. There’s a good chance you have taken a DISC assessment at work or maybe on your own. You probably have a neutral opinion on it and probably have not used it to better yourself significantly—if at all. Your boss or HR probably had you take it and that’s as much as you remember. 40 million people have taken the assessment. Most people do not remember what their detailed assessment is. For those that have taken it, you may remember that you are a D, I, S, or C, but probably don’t remember your blend—which means your combination of DISC. No worries.
The DISC Personality Profile is a model of human behavior and it is a fine-tuned science that will show you what type of personality you have. Already. It is not stereotyping you, pigeon-holing you, or putting you in a box. It is simply reflecting back to you what some 15 different personality characteristics have been built in you throughout your life. So why do you need it? Because it brings a number of other truths to the surface that you have not thought about and helps you understand yourself and others much, much better. It allows you to have self-control in understanding yourself and others and make sense of everything instead of wondering why someone acts or thinks a certain way.
Of all the helpful things we have found in life, understanding your DISC personality blend and understanding other people’s personalities, is the greatest help in discovering who you truly are, and knowing who others really are. We have found it to be an invaluable asset—indispensable. We have seen it become the secret to many people’s success and reconciliation with others. It is the single most objective tool for helping you build all relationships—and discover who you really, really, really are.
By knowing your personality profile, you can power through those areas that are more difficult—and because the lack of persistence is the biggest deterrent in life, you need to know where you are weak and how to get on and stay on target.
The DISC Model of Human behavior has an 85%+ average effective rate—meaning that your assessment is correct at least 85% of the time—and it could be more. That’s huge. Much better than guessing. As well, because we am certified human behavior specialists with DISC, we have personally seen it help thousands of people gain a better understanding of self and others—including ourselves. Our DISC mentors and instructors have assessed hundreds of thousands of people on six continents and have seen it work the same no matter who you are, where you live, or what you do.
If you knew that you have trouble focusing—and why—you would be able to build a system to help you focus more when needed—and there are a lot of good systems for that. That one thing alone helped me gain the focus I needed to stay on target and write my last book. If you knew that you are task oriented person, but weak when working with people—and why—you would be able to build a system to help you communicate better with others. If you knew that you had trouble saying no—and why—you would be able to build a system to help you not take on too much. By knowing how to correctly assess yourself and others, how to strengthen your weak areas, you can adjust to have the crucial conversations to accomplish the necessary things to succeed. There’s no reason to guess anymore.
By knowing your personality blend and applying this knowledge, you can have a much better marriage, better relationship with your parents and kids, better relationships at work—better experience with anyone and everyone. If you learn and apply the concepts behind DISC you will learn things about yourself that otherwise will baffle you your entire life. We use the DISC system because it is very simple and very accurate.
Many people think they will be pigeonholed so they are unwilling to take the Assessment. Remember—the DISC assessment doesn’t make you something, it simply reveals (reflects what you tell it) things about yourself (your behavior)—but in many specific ways you probably don’t think about. It also reveals truths about yourself that you didn’t realize. So it is not making you something you are not—it is revealing who you already are—to you! It’s fascinating, accurate, and if you take the time to work it, it is life changing in all areas of your life.
We teach a seminar to other married couples how to use DISC to grow your understanding and communication in marriage. We use it in the business world to help leaders and teams communicate much better and help put the right people in the right places. We use it to help sales people understand their clients better and meet their needs better. Weuse it to help students and their parents understand each other far better which helps build family relationships and proper training and discipline methodology. We are all different and need to relate according to our understanding—or we simply don’t relate well! The tool really is extremely valuable.
DISC stands for four personality types—
D is for Dominant
I is for Inspiring
S is for Supportive
C is for Cautious
The DISC system is a sophisticated model that will help you understand yourself and others better. It will lower stress and raise productivity. We use it in almost every situation in life. At work. At home. At play. It is true for every type of organization because it’s about the person(ality).
No single style or personality is better than any other—though each personality blend believes their way of thinking is the only correct way and others need to bend to their thinking—that’s natural. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. Some traits will make it easier for you to accomplish in certain fields—and some will make it harder. Not impossible—just harder because you may be wired differently than what it takes in a specific field. If you understand this, you can take the necessary precautions to ensure success. Some of the traits that make you good in one part of success, can be the same traits that make it difficult in another part of your success!
For example—it you’re an Inspiring personality (I), the same things that make you a great people person and good with clients, make it difficult to focus or do accounting (where ‘C’ personalities naturally live—in detail). Actually, ‘I’ types will even struggle keeping your receipts and logging business transactions. Those things are boring and unimportant to you. Not that you can’t do it and do it well, it just doesn’t come naturally or easily—like working with your clients does—and you must focus and be deliberate to accomplish it.
So there are things that come easily and things you will need to work on. We will show you how to do that, too.
Very important note: ALL of us are a blend of ALL four types, and when you take the assessment you will see exactly where you stand.
You are born with these traits and the sooner you learn where your strengths and limitations are, the sooner you will be able to step up and raise the areas you are weak in and move faster toward your goals. We want you to succeed at this now instead of look back in 20 years and still be in the same place.