DiSC® is a great tool to help individuals figure out how to communicate and work better with one another.
And when a team comes together to experience DiSC, a team map can be created to help team members – and the team leader – understand some of the strengths and weaknesses of their team.
Everything DiSC® assessments have two primary purposes. First, to learn more about your own style – increasing your self-awareness and helping you build your natural talents. Second, DiSC is a tool that helps you understand how to adapt your approach in working with others – increasing your effectiveness in working, and communicating, with others.
Being able to identify other’s styles – people reading – is the first step in learning how to work with people of different styles.
We used DiSC and the people reading approach to ascertain the DiSC styles for some holiday characters and personas that we’ve all come to know. See the results in the graphic further down in this post.
People-Reading: The How-Tos You May Need
Here’s a reminder on how to people read. Think about the person’s behaviors – their tendencies, tone of voice, expressions, word choice – and respond to these two questions.
- Question 1: What’s the person’s pace? Is the person more fast-paced & outspoken or more moderate pace & reflective?
- Question 2: How “agreeable” is the person? Is the person more questioning & skeptical or are they more warm and accepting?
Combine the answers to those 2 questions (see model below) to determine the individual’s DiSC tendencies.
(Learn more about Everything DiSC assessments and solutions)
What a Team DiSC Map Can Tell You
We’ve done some deep study of the Merry DiSCember team’s DiSC map and provided our insight below. As you read our opinions, please take some time to analyze your team’s DiSC map – and how you could leverage the convergence of styles within your team to help you achieve your desired results in 2024! Happy Holidays!
Value of a Team Map – Understanding Your Team Using DiSC
DiSC is a great tool to help individuals figure out how to communicate and work better with one another. And when a team comes together to experience DiSC, a team map can be created to help team members – and the team leader – understand some of the strengths and weaknesses of their team.
If a team’s DiSC styles are well distributed across all 4 quadrants – it is likely that the team will have a fairly balanced approach in how it works together. If a team members’ styles concentrate together in one or two quadrants, they will find that certain activities are easy for them but have blind spots or gaps in other areas. For example, a team that has a large numbers of S and C styles may find they don’t push themselves to take risks very easily, yet they are very effective at creating and complying to processes that increase their overall efficiency.
A Deeper Dive into Team Analysis
Analyzing a team map is fairly straightforward once we understand some of the shared tendencies of the 4 styles.
If we draw a horizontal line through the DiSC map, we see that the D and i styles share the tendencies of being more faced-paced and out spoken.
They initiate – and easily adapt to – change, they like to keep things moving quickly and get excited by new initiatives. But they may lose interest in projects that require attention to detail, routine or long cycle times. The S and C styles share just the opposite tendencies. They prefer repeatable, dependable processes, creating organized approaches that will help insure quality results, and have the patience to think through problems, analyze details and seek others’ input before taking action.
If we draw a vertical line through the DiSC map we find that the left side of the map – the D and C styles – tend to be more work or task focused.
They quickly focus on the work at hand, trying to solve problems – gathering facts and details – driving toward results. On the opposite side of the map, the i and S styles tend to be more “people” focused. They naturally look to collaborate – easily understanding how to bring people together to get buy-in. Their team approach helps build relationships – encouraging participation across team boundaries.
Our Take on the Holiday DiSC Team Map
The Strengths and Weaknesses of our Holiday DiSC Team
Look at the team map for our Holiday DiSC Team and first consider their “pace.” We have a fairly balanced distribution of D’s and i’s as compared with the S and C characters. So it is likely that as this team works together Mr. Potter, Cornelius, Santa and Scott Calvin will push the team forward, while Rudolph, Charlie Brown and Hermie the Elf insure that the necessary people are included, and processes are followed to insure success.
As we look at the “work” versus “people” focus of this team we see that this team has a strong tendency towards people (i/S). They are going to have a strong tendency to collaborate, and may find they would achieve greater results if they took the “divide and conquer” approach. It is also likely that they have a hard time challenging one another’s ideas, and agree to things too quickly, without asking the tough questions.
These are just a couple of examples of what we can learn from this team’s DiSC map that could help improve their effectiveness.
Coaching Thoughts – For You and Your Peers
- Where do the members of your team land on the DiSC map? What can you infer about the pace of your team?
- What quadrant of the DiSC map is the hardest for you to manage? Do those team members drive you crazy? Why?
- Think about the team your boss is on. How might the styles of the members of that team land on the DiSC map?
Learn more about Everything DiSC assessments and solutions
“DiSC”, “Everything DiSC” and “The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team” are a registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
