Using DISC personality assessments to improve team leadership and performance

DISC Evaluations

Leadership is both an art and a science. As a leader wishing to make a strong impact and achieve the organization's objectives, it is important to understand the individual components of the team. This process requires balance, experience and intuition. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the team is instrumental in maximizing the efficiency, effectiveness and economics of any team organization.

The DISC evaluation, which stands for dominant, influential, steady and conscientious are four qualities that consist of a personality inventory that helps create some general ideas about how these parts of the personality can be used to contribute to a larger team. The purpose of this essay is to develop a plan using these DISC personality categories and incorporate them into a real world example using my mentor's personal situation. The plan will incorporate ideas on how to best identify and employ the difference in attitudes, emotions, personalities and values amongst member of my learning team. The results of their DISC evaluation will be used as a basis for this plan and will discuss ways in which to maximize their performance as a member of my mentor's organization.

Plan

My mentor, Jane Smith, is a cash applications manger at PHS. She manages a team of 60 individuals that all have their own unique and special traits that they bring to the table. For Jane, 60 people consist of a large and challenging number that tests her leadership skills on a daily basis as her social skills are very important as well. Jane believes that a strong emphasis on communication and the many subtle details of this art are extremely important and integral in maintaining some level of success and order.

In the 8 years of holding this managerial position, Jane also realizes that motivation is a very important aspect of building a team and a cohesive atmosphere. Jane aligns her actions with the strategic and ethical principles that are explicitly practiced within the PHS organization. She realizes that motivation comes in many shapes and sizes, and what motivates one person does not necessarily motivate another. The individual is important in her group and by recognizing this allows for the team members to be more comfortable in their own skin and therefore resonate with the larger group effort of joining forces to accomplish goals.

The intent of this plan is to increase the team member's motivation, job satisfaction and performance based on their personal profiles. To do this successfully, it is necessary to examine several of these profiles and extract the information that can assist in creating the plan. To accomplish this, plan will take several team members and, using their DISC evaluation, highlight and comment on ways that personality and the energy that is created from the unique qualities that resonate within a personality, can be transmuted into a material gain that is supports the larger organizational strategy that is laid out by leadership.

Me

My own specific category placement within the DISC system is Dominance (Ds). I enjoy working with numbers and find it easy to establish relationships and models with the use of mathematics and mathematical modeling. It could be assumed that I am left brain dominant and the more masculine attributes of this mode of thinking suggest that details and organization are very important in how I accomplish tasks. I inspire my own motivation mostly and prefer to work in solitude. My hunger for knowledge drives many of my actions and helps in keeping me interested and energized.

Jane's plan should realize that dominant personalities need opportunities to be dominant and accomplish goals. For me, it would be best that Jane gives me specific tasks to work on by myself in order to give me the sense of accomplishment that I crave and need to feel special and keep me motivated

David

David, as a member of Jane's team, would need to be treated with some differences according to his DISC analysis. David has been categorized as an Interactive (Id) by this evaluation method. David, much like myself, enjoys crunching numbers and paying attention to details. But unlike myself, David enjoys working with others and joining forces most of the time to accomplish tasks. David also enjoys interacting at a fast pace and needs many different subtasks to help keep him motivated. David is a strong leader and needs little guidance which can prove to be a useful help to Jane's large team which needs sub-leaders to help guide and assist the organization in reaching its goals.

Khara

Khara, as the final member of this analysis, is an Interactive (Is), similar to David, according to the DISC evaluation. Khara brings some unique skills and attributes to the team as she is a very socially proficient employee. Khara brings a much needed breeze of humility and kindness to the team that can be soothing and helpful in a large dynamic organization. Khara is not concerned with details and likes to look at the general picture for her guidance. Khara is always dressed nicely and knows how to really sell an idea or a product.

Conclusions

What is most important in developing a strong team is knowing that everyone is different and has a different outlook to what is happening. Motivation comes in a variety of forms and it is up to leadership units to identify and then maximize these skills into a powerful organization that is focused on larger and more precise goals. The DISC evaluation system used in the creation of this plan can help these leaders develop some approaches that can be used in the day-to-day execution of the many qualities that entail strong leadership.