Have you ever been in a situation or discussion with a person or group and thought “What in the world is going on in their head?” or “What in the world are they talking about and why don’t they just say it where I can understand it?”? I bet you have. I bet you have also been in a situation or discussion where it simply “clicked”. You got each other! Communication was a breeze and you enjoyed it.
All of the above has to do with both self-awareness and emotional intelligence (EQ); two frequently used buzz words in organizations and leadership today. Self-awareness is pretty self-explanatory; it is the awareness of your character, feelings, motives and desires. Emotional intelligence is taking that self-awareness and applying it to meet your audience where they are; or, the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically.
Why did I just bore you with Webster definitions? Because these two terms, although maybe overused, are crucial to leadership, culture and plain old being a good employee. When you practice self-awareness and emotional intelligence and have a culture of those practices, work, collaboration and communication are easier, more efficient and kinder.
Now knowing that, let’s talk DiSC. The My Everything DiSC Workplace Assessment is a tool that assesses behavior preferences and styles. It is a hugely impactful tool that can be as complex or as straightforward as it needs to be for the audience. Meaning, it can be used to identify and coach on something very specific like sales skills or EQ or it can be used to explain generalities around team’s communication and work styles. It is also my favorite tool and I love to talk about it, teach it, coach with it and use it to continuously improve myself.
When it comes to personality assessments, there are flavors of the month and there are the ole stand-bys that pass the test of time and will be around for the long haul. DiSC is a long-haul tool! I love DiSC because it is, as I stated earlier, easy to understand and implement into a culture. There are 4 letters, that’s it. Each person is designated their dominant style by a letter and provided further information about preference and behaviors by a dot on the “map”.
DiSC can be used in a multitude of different ways such as to help with team issues, to support team building, to help coach a leader, to assist with leadership development, and so many others. The great part about investing in the DiSC assessment for an entire organization is that it gives everyone the same language and terms to use for discussions around communication, team work, emotions and other areas for improvement. The most impactful results we see from businesses using DiSC are the improvements of:
- Self-knowledge and knowledge of others
- Response to conflict, stress, and problem solving
- Working relationships, communication and team work
- Skills sets such as; sales, customer service management. leadership and emotional intelligence
Don’t be afraid to push the limits of your team and think outside the box. We build customized solutions to fit your needs and goals! If you’re interested in what DiSC can do for you and your team contact us today.
