Somewhere in the last decade I began learning about the DiSC Personality Model.  I first became aware of them through a friend who pointed me to Manager-Tools.com.  They’ve got an excellent podcast series on the DiSC framework and my attempt to duplicate it here would be less valuable at present than your listening to the series.  Rather than spend time writing about the DiSC model by itself I’d like to share a conversation I had with a friend who has a degree in psychology.  I had asked her whether or not the personality models were actually relevant in any way in light of more recent psychological research.  I’d hate to recommend folks check out the DiSC model with it being complete rubbish.

As it turns out these systems are effective starting points for learning how to interact with your direct reports and team as a whole.  In addition it is recommended by many to do a personality test before hiring on a team member to confirm that they’re aware of their own personality attributes as well as being able to ask specific pre-hiring questions about how they handle their weaknesses.  My friend shared about how someone she knew had been asked how he handled not being a heavy data collector and his answer was great: he hired people around him that had that as a strength and worked on allowing their strength to support his weakness.

Using DiSC as a starting point for growth and development and not an excuse for inaction (I was born that way is a lazy personality excuse).  Take time to understand these profiles for your own betterment and for greater ability to interact with folks from all walks of life. If you’ve learned another two-factor model for personality evaluation check out this great translator on wikipedia.