John (as in John “Small Mountain” Hill) and I have been together for over 20 years. Nobody knows me better than him. Not my mom, not my friends, nobody. Since John and I have been together since we were 21 and 22, we’ve basically grown up together. We’ve gone from young, stupid, slightly irresponsible adults to not-so-young, smarter, and somewhat responsible adults. He’s seen the best of me and the worst of me, and he has miraculously stuck around for all of it.
So when I took the DiSC personality assessment, John was pretty sure he would know what it said. So did I.
I’d taken freebie tests before, and he’s practically a DiSC expert. He talks about it all the time. I’ve heard him discuss it so much with others that I could probably teach a whole college course about DiSC at this point.
So, we both figured it was more for confirmation and fun than anything else. We were both surprised by the results.
My Styles
While interesting, most of my results weren’t too surprising.
John assumed I was a pretty high S with some C thrown in. (Yes, most people have more than one style. We all have layers.)
Turns out, I’m basically 50/50 S and C, but S is still more dominant. Ha, I was right. I told him that I was more C than he thought. What did surprise us both was how high my D is.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not high compared to, say, Clint. As a matter of fact, it’s not high at all. But it’s higher than I would have expected, which is to say that it wasn’t 0.
I do, however, have absolutely no I-style in me at all. No surprise there.
The results consistently remind the test-taker that NO style is better than another.
I think that’s important to remember, so I’ll repeat it. No style is better, stronger, braver, or more successful than another. As somebody who has dealt with extremely low confidence her whole life, that’s become my personal mantra.
Strengths and Challenges
Well, those are my styles. That’s the easy part. The rest of it gets very detailed —almost to the point of being overwhelming. But it’s organized with many charts, clear bullet points, and lists to make it easier to digest.
First, it lists the things I have a naturally easier time doing and those requiring more energy — strengths versus… not strengths.
And a lot of that I knew, such as how I “cannot give [my] best in a big group of people.” Yeah, super aware of that. Or how “presenting in front of total strangers requires more energy.” Energy, deep breathing, and a barf bag.
And my listed strengths were dead on, too. I like consistency, detailed instructions, low risk with plenty of support when I need it, and being able to work on my own.
The cool thing about DiSC is that it isn’t black and white. It tells you what you’re most comfortable doing, where your natural strengths lie, and what is more difficult for you.
“All styles have strengths and developing areas.” It’s saying that you can have the strengths of any style, but the others won’t be as natural to you.
And so much more…
The other great thing about getting an extended DiSC assessment is that, unlike with the freebies, you get more than just results. (If you want to take it yourself with an invaluable guided expert, go to Adapted Growth and contact John. This is one of the things he does for people, and he’s very good at it.)
You get a 35-page report that outlines communication style, decision-making, selling behavior, and how to use all of this to determine where others are so that you can adapt accordingly.
This section is the real meat of the whole thing.
For me, learning more about my communication style was the most interesting. I never really put much thought into how I communicate other than knowing when I suck at it. Now, I understand better that I’m okay talking with others as long as it’s fact-based, logical, detailed, and direct. So yeah, I’m super fun at parties. But I am a good listener, so there is that.
I also appreciated the reminders and suggestions for improving my sales (and life) success.
My favorite: “Learn to look excited.” Thanks, DiSC; another person telling me to control my RBF. In actuality, it’s just an ‘I would rather be at home’ face. Again, socializing requires massive amounts of energy for me.
The Sales Aspect
Since DiSC is geared towards salespeople, the last half explains how to identify others and communicate more effectively with people across the spectrum. And the Throwdown team talk about this a lot; improving communication is vital to being more successful. They share many great tips for figuring out people’s DiSC style, and they all learned from these assessments and lots of practice.
The assessment goes into great detail about this: how to recognize other styles, how they think, and how you should adapt when talking to them. I’ll not get into it all here because a) there is SO MUCH information, and b) you need to read your own assessment. That’s kind of how it works.
Since I’m not in sales yet, I haven’t started practicing this part too much yet. But John loves to quiz me about the people in my life. “What do you think your mom is?” It’s a fun exercise!
Even though I’m not using the sales aspect now, I’m delighted I took it now because it has improved my self-perception and communication skills.
John, Al, Clint, and Nannette have been in sales for a long time, and they would all say that they wished they’d learned about DiSC sooner. Honestly, I do too.
Tl;dr – Learned a lot about myself and how to improve. 10/10 would recommend.