5 Ways Leaders Can Use DISC
The DISC family of profiles are powerful, highly usable workplace profiling tools. Apart from being relatively simple and easy to understand and remember, DISC is practical because it focuses on behaviour, which is important because behaviour is observable and modifiable - it can be seen and changed.
Perhaps the most commonly used DISc Profile is the DISC Workplace Profile. It’s the one I use the most. Assuming you have got a DISC Workplace Profile for you and each person in the team you lead and have had some sort of debrief session for people to understand DISC and their profiles, to get real value from DISC you need to make it part of your team’s way of working.
Here are five ways you can incorporate DISC into your team’s work.
1. Understand Your Styles
It’s easy to know what your DISC Style is - your ‘dot’ represents it. But it takes a little more time to read your profile and ‘on-board’ what it says so that you automatically know the tendencies of your style without having to refer to the profile.
The greatest value of DISC lies in how it helps people understand how to work together more effectively and happily. Take the time to learn what the DISC Style is of each member of your team.
2. Print and Share a DISC Map
Print a ‘DISC Map’, with the name of each member of your team, including you, on it and give everyone a copy. Stick it up somewhere appropriate.
3. Diagnose Team Tension
Frequently, workplace tension is based on people doing things differently more than differing views. When there is tension between team-members or relations in the team are not as collegial or collaborative as you want consider their various DISC Styles (your DISC Map will be helpful).
By understanding the different DISC Styles in play you can make gentle suggestions to people about how they might be more accepting of others’ natural ways of working and/or tweaking their own behaviours.
4. Delegate with DISC in Mind
We don’t always have choice about who we delegate a task or ongoing responsibility to. Sometimes capability and capacity limit our options and we have to delegate to the person that can do it and has the time to do it.
But in those situations where we do have choice, consider the nature of the work that will be required and the DISC styles of the candidates.
For example, detailed, structured work which needs to be right will likely be best given to someone with high levels of C. On the other hand, work that requires building new relationships and collaborating may be best given to someone with high levels of I.
5. Drive Team Performance
At times leaders and their teams mistake individual performance for team performance. If the levels of collaboration required in a team are not particularly high, individual-focused performance may be appropriate and effective.
However, in teams that require high levels of collaboration and collective performance, individual performance alone is not enough. High levels of team performance are necessary.
If your team needs to collaborate more, actively use DISC to guide people to working together better. Get the team together and get each person to: share their style, a priority (p.5 of the profile), a motivator and a stressor (p.6), and something they could do differently (p.16). Then get them to pair up with someone with whom they work with a lot to compare their profiles and preferred working styles.
For a quick, fun video on high-performing teams from the world of geese click here or to learn about the behaviours to avoid in the 5 Dysfunctions of a Team.
Leading is a challenge. Building consistent team performance is more work than many leaders realise. DISC is a powerful, practical tool that you can easily integrate into your team.