There are many ways to use DISC in your organisation, from assessments to workshops and training days. However, one of the best ways to get the most value out of DISC profiling is to nominate internal champions to undergo a certification in DISC and embed it effectively in your organisation.
While it’s often an HR or learning and development professional who receives DISC training and certification, another option is for team managers to get certified. In this article, we’ll explain some of the key benefits of managers doing DISC certification training and why it’s a great way to embed DISC in your business.
DISC explained
The DISC assessment is one of the world’s most popular personality assessments. Used in workplaces around the globe, the assessment seeks to help individuals and teams improve self-knowledge, communication, leadership, conflict resolution, and personal growth.
The DISC model was first created by American psychologist William Moulton Marston in his 1928 book, Emotions of Normal People. This model laid the groundwork for the modern DISC assessment although Marston himself did not create a way to assess a person’s personality. This was first done by industrial psychologist Walter Clarke in 1956. Since then, the DISC assessment has been developed into an advanced and highly accurate personality tool that is used in workplaces around the world.
The modern DISC assessment identifies four key personality types (also called styles or profiles):
Dominance
People with the Dominance DISC style are competitive, assertive, and bold. They know what they want and they have a clear plan of how to get it. Ambitious and independent, they like to work alone although they’re also good at delegating the tasks that bore them to other people. They’re happy to take risks if they think it will lead them to success… and often it does!
Influence
Influence types are all about people; they love socialising with others and working on projects in a team. In fact, if they’re forced to work alone they often get unbearably bored! Energetic and enthusiastic, they’re good at using their powers of persuasion to motivate their team members or to negotiate a great deal. They sometimes have a tendency to generalise or overlook the details, but that’s a small price to pay for the benefits of their great people skills.
Steadiness
Supportive, agreeable, and great listeners, individuals with the Steadiness profile are a popular addition to any team. These employees are dependable and trustworthy, working most effectively in a team or in a slow-paced and harmonious environment. Resistant to change and averse to risk, they’re not the most flexible members of the team. However, they’re good at supporting their co-workers and creating a democratic and good-spirited work environment where everyone can thrive.
Compliance
The Compliance profile is distinguished by these individuals’ close attention to detail and analytical nature. In fact, C types often spend a long time perfecting tasks or deliberating over details when making a decision because they strive for accuracy and perfection in everything they do. Preferring to work independently than in a team, people with this profile sometimes stray into perfectionism and paralysis by analysis. Nonetheless, they’re often the team member keeping everything together with their ability to consider the details that everyone else overlooks.
What is DISC Certification?
While it’s easy to take a quick DISC assessment, read your results, and spend a session discussing them, it’s harder to embed the concepts and values of DISC in your organisation in the long term. As a result, your team members will quickly forget the insights gleaned by their DISC profiling and will miss out on the self-growth opportunities and skills provided by them.
To truly embed DISC in your organisation, a DISC certification course is the solution. Putting a manager forward for DISC training means that they can achieve a high level of knowledge and capability about DISC and how to use it in the workplace. The manager or managers who undergo the certification will gain a holistic understanding of DISC and how to apply its insights to their workplace, making them your very own in-house DISC expert.
To be certified in DISC, managers need to undergo a rigorous training course which may be delivered in your organisation or in external training sessions. This DISC training not only helps them understand their own and others’ personalities but gives them the skills for coaching others in everything DISC.
Benefits of DISC certification for team managers
What are the benefits of team managers getting their DISC certification? Here are just a few.
Become a better leader
DISC is a great way to unlock a person’s leadership potential — there’s even a specific DISC report that focuses on leadership styles and behaviours. As part of their certification, team managers will have a better understanding of their own strengths, limitations, and opportunities for growth in their leadership role. They will be able to identify ways to better help their team reach their full potential using the insights gleaned from DISC.
With an advanced understanding of DISC provided by the training, team managers can more accurately understand the goals and fears that motivate their team members in order to provide better leadership for all.
Provide detailed and actionable feedback for employees
Providing regular and effective feedback on employees’ performance is a key requirement for team managers, yet many managers fail to provide the right feedback in the right way. Employees often do not find performance appraisals useful, with 49% of employees feeling either indifference or dread about their performance reviews, according to one survey.
With a deep understanding of different DISC styles, team managers can adapt their feedback to be more effective and actionable for their team. They can also be more aware of how different DISC profiles might react to criticism and can therefore frame their feedback in a way that will be more palatable.
Embed a coaching mentality in your organisation
DISC certification doesn’t just help managers reach their potential as leaders; it also helps them enhance their capabilities as coaches. Using the insights and tips learned from their training, DISC-certified managers can embed coaching in your organisation and help team members develop professionally.
Coaching is different from providing performance feedback to team members; coaching using DISC encourages greater self-understanding that empowers coachees to grow in their professional careers and personal lives. This coaching mentality can extend beyond the managers who undergo the certification themselves, becoming an integral element of your workplace.
Champion DISC in the workplace
After being certified, team managers can champion DISC in the workplace by tying it to team, client, or company-wide goals. This ensures that the language of DISC and personality insights are permanently kept alive in your organisation even long after individuals have completed their individual assessment.
Certification provides team managers with training, tips, and ideas for enhancing the value of DISC in your organisation. Managers can come away with a new toolkit and action plans to help the rest of the team get the best out of the assessment. This allows you to multiply the value of DISC over time and adapt the model to best fit the unique needs of your workplace.
Conclusion
DISC profiling has the power to unlock your people’s potential and create stronger and more effective teams. However, it’s often not enough to just get employees to do an assessment to find out their personality type. For the best and long-lasting results, it’s important to ensure that your organisation has an internal DISC champion who can keep the language alive.
A DISC certification for team managers has many benefits, from helping them become a more effective leader to improving their team dynamic and ensuring the effectiveness of DISC in the organisation.
The DISC Group DISC Trainer Certification is the best way to embed DISC in your organisation. Available either as external training or as a customised in-house course for multiple participants, the DISC Trainer Certification can be tailored to your exact needs. In addition to participants learning about their own personal DISC profile, they also receive a workbook and classroom materials, a resource pack, marketing collateral, a certificate, and much more from their expert trainer.
Interested in signing up to be certified in everything DISC? Take a look at our DISC Trainer Certification or get in touch today to learn more.
