For managers, it is imperative to understand the people they supervisor in order for a positive and productive business atmosphere. This doesn’t mean that supervisors need to go out for a drink with the staff every night after work to understand them. However, it does mean that managers need to begin to observe certain behaviors in order to understand their staff so they can help the organization be more productive. How do employers, upper management and supervisors accomplish this feat? One of the best ways is using the DISC tool.
Why Use the DISC?
When observing a true leader common themes tend to stand out. It is often noted that the leader tends to work well with people, people seem to trust them and they have the ability to get commitment and cooperation of others using their own particular style. True leaders tend to have an uncanny ability to understand people and why they behave the way they do. They often can guess what they are going to do before they do it. In a sense, true leaders often use an informal "DISC language" to figure out what people will do. They know that understanding people’s behaviors can help them manage their staff effectively and through this understanding they can better create teams as well as resolve and prevent potential conflicts.
It also can help to motivate staff. Leaders in productive businesses know that if they really want to get something done it is almost impossible to motivate another person. They soon learn that the only way to motivate someone and accomplish all the goals of the business is to create an environment where people can learn to become self-motivated. The DISC teaches help managers truly understand this concept.
What is the DISC?
The DISC is a fantastic tool to help staff learn how to recognize the differences people have. For instance, how they approach problems, people, the pace of doing things and the type of procedures they will use in doing so. Once they understand the differences, they are more apt to want to work together and complete the goals that have been set forth.
To use the DISC, an organization must purchase the DISC tool and ask managers and staff to complete it. Once the DISC is completed and the results have been analyzed (either by a consultant or someone familiar with the tool), the results will then categorize the different behaviors of people, teaching the person and the people they work with about their behaviors in relation to how they approach problems, people, pace and procedures
The DISC describes in detail that all people exhibit four different behavioral factors in various degrees.
- D = Dominance – Challenge
How a person reacts when there are problems and challenges.
- I = Influence- Contacts
How a person influences people to a point of view.
- S = Steadiness – Consistency
How a person responds to the pace of a work environment.
- C = Compliance – Constraints
How a person reacts to rules and procedures created by others.
Once the staff have completed the tool and the information has been analyzed, each staff member will be put in a specific behavioral category. Staff will learn a lot about themselves, their strengths, limitations, and what motivates them. They will also learn how to recognize behaviors and how to work with people who are in each category.
The DISC tool can be powerful for increasing communication effectiveness in an organization, therefore making the business much more effective and successful.
Laura Block-Stewart - Hello- My name is Laura Block-Stewart and I am a professional writer and editor that, throughout the last 14 years, has focused on ...
