Disc Leadership Optimal Leadership Role

DISC Leadership

Optimal Leadership Role as Determined by DISC Platinum Rule Assessment

Effective leadership and organizational management requires being able to work with various personality types, and this skill begins with understanding oneself. According to my results on the DISC Platinum Rule Assessment instrument, my predominant behavior style is Dominance and my classical profile pattern is Result-Oriented. Given the proper opportunities and position, combined with a conscious and careful self-restraint, these personality qualities can be utilized at several levels within a standard corporate organization. Dominance implies a desire to be in control, and this is not far off the mark, but the implications and advantages of this personality type -- as well as the pitfalls -- are of course more complex. Combining this with the extreme orientation towards results that is observable in my classical profile pattern provides a significant amount of insight as to the types of jobs and positions in a standard corporate organization that would be suitable for my leadership skills.

With estimates of just ten percent, Dominant or Decisive individuals are the smallest behavioral group in the DISC framework (Bosse-Smith 2005). Given the result-oriented nature of Dominant people in general, and as expressed in my personal profile pattern, a position in the elite ranks of upper management would not necessarily be preemptory (Bosse-Smith 2005). My skill set and personality could do well as a chief operations officer, directing other personnel and middle management with an eye towards the overall bottom line. This would utilize both my predominant behavior style of Dominance and my classical profile pattern of being Result-Oriented. It would also utilize the knowledge acquisition role performed by self-managers, which has been associated with dominant behaviors (Politis 2001).

John Geier, who was largely responsible for popularizing Marston's personality assessment via the DISC construct, notes that management/leadership behaviors on the job for Dominant or Directive individuals tend to push for results based on a constant perceived need for improvement and achievement (Geier 1999). Generally active and decisive, these personality types -- like myself -- perform best with a fair amount of independence and self-management (Geier 1999; Politis 2001). Such behaviors tend to be more prominently displayed by effective analytical problem solvers (Van Eeden et al. 2008). This reinforces the idea of my becoming a chief operations officer, or other management/leadership position responsible for observing and influencing the minutiae of day-to-day organization and operation. My analytical problem solving skills, combined with my dominance and decisiveness -- which is also marked by a quick adaptability when the situation and/or information changes -- will result in active adjustment geared towards the constant improvement of the bottom line -- and what corporation would not benefit from such careful attention?