Merry DiSCember!

Welcome to our Holiday Fun and People-Reading Holiday Series!

We’ve created this fun exercise to help you and your team to celebrate, build and practice your DiSC knowledge.  We have secretly ascertained the DiSC styles for some holiday characters and personas that we’ve all come to know.   In the graphic above you’ll see the characters on the left side.  Every couple of days we will post several characters from the list to the DiSC map – and share DiSC tips – so play along!

Are you new to DiSC?  Learn more here (includes a short video!)

DiSC has 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.  Our Merry DiSCember exercise will help you and your team practice your people reading skills.

Now Practice Your People Reading Skills – On Your Own or With Your Team!

Click one of the links below to download you very own copy of the Merry DiSCember exercise.  The PDF provides a printable version while the Powerpoint version will allow for interactive placement of the characters.

• Printable Holiday Fun DiSC Exercise – PDF
• Interactive Holiday Fun DiSC Exercise – PPT

Have your team do the exercise together and have fun with the conversations that ensue.

Share Your Experience

We want to hear your stories!  Please share your feedback . . .

• through comments below
• our LinkedIn page using the #MerryDiSCember tag
• our Facebook page using the #MerryDiSCember tag
• on Twitter using the #MerryDiSCember tag

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.

And to help you get started, see where Buddy the Elf lands. . . 

Coaching Thoughts:

• Think about someone you work with often that you may have communication issues with.  Using what you know about people-reading, assess their style to determine what their needs and preferences may be.
• Keep in mind as you people-read that it isn’t meant to label people; it is a way to help us understand their needs.  There are no good or bad styles.  All styles have their strengths and limitations.
• We’d like to hear your thoughts.  Which of your favorite holiday characters did we miss?  What do you think their style would be?  Leave your comments below.

“DiSC”, “Everything DiSC” and “The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team” are a registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.