Have you ever taken a personality test? Chances are you’ve heard of popular personality tests such as the Enneagram and Myers-Briggs, designed to peel back the layers of your communication style, motivations, and preferences when interacting with people and various situations. While these are insightful for personal growth, there’s another level of assessment that can be a game-changer for leaders and professionals: the Extended DISC Assessment.
But what exactly is it? And how do you use your DISC assessment results? You’re in luck because, working as an executive and leadership coach, I administer and leverage this assessment often. In fact, I offer a free extended DISC assessment to every client in my coaching program!
In this article, I’ll cover everything you need to know about this test and how to use your results to enhance your leadership skills, improve team dynamics, and ultimately, steer your career toward your dream position.
What is The DISC Assessment Leadership Test?
The extended DISC assessment is a powerful tool. Think of it as a personality test for the corporate and business world. At its core, it measures four primary behavioral traits: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance, providing a deeper understanding of your leadership style. This clarity is crucial, not just for personal growth but for showcasing your strengths in a way that resonates with the demands of your current or desired role. It guides you on how to effectively communicate with teams, navigate organizational dynamics, and align your leadership approach with your career ambitions.
Some benefits of taking an extended DISC assessment include:
- Improving your self-awareness
- Growing your leadership and management abilities
- Getting a better idea of how you handle conflict
- Building your client relations and sales skills
- Boosted productivity with enhanced collaboration
- Strengthening your communication with others
Whether you’re refining your leadership skills or positioning yourself for a dream opportunity, understanding your DISC profile is an essential step toward realizing your professional potential.
The Four DISC Assessment Categories Explained
Your test results will place you in one of the DISC assessment categories: ‘Dominance,’ ‘Influence,’ ‘Steadiness,’ or ‘Conscientiousness’ (which make up the acronym for DISC). This will identify your primary style out of the four, along with any traits from other categories. Each quadrant relates to various personality profiles, and your final report includes a DISC graph. There are no profiles that are better than the others; view it as a strategic asset in your career advancement toolkit.
Dominance
This category represents people who are creative, developers, inspirational, and results-oriented. They are also firm and direct in the workplace. With a goal-driven and competitive nature, this profile trait leans toward working fast and taking risks. Those in this category like to be in charge and in control, usually reaching for executive and leadership roles.
Influence
This trait can be described as those who might identify as appraisers, persuaders, and promoters in their careers. They thrive in a lively and high-spirited environment. One may describe them as enthusiastic, optimistic, and outgoing. These profile types are sociable, talkative, and excel at influencing others.
Steadiness
This profile can be described as investigators and specialists who are patient and tactful. They’re accommodating, even-tempered, and humble in their work environments. Those who fall into this trait category are good team players with a cooperative nature but might fail to make assertive decisions. They’re known to be modest and trustworthy coworkers who know how to find the right balance at work.
Conscientiousness
Those leaning toward this group are objective thinkers and perfectionists. They’re very detail-oriented, analytical, precise, and systematic. They generally are more private and reserved, doing best when working independently. They’re skilled problem-solvers and work best with structure and rules to abide by.
Once you understand these quadrants and your place within them, you can more effectively interpret your results and use them to enhance your career, whether in your current role or as you pursue future opportunities.
How To Apply Your DISC Assessment Test Results to Your Career with Executive Coaching
Understanding your DISC assessment results is an important step toward advancing in your current role or exploring new career avenues. By reflecting on the strengths and limitations of your behavioral styles in relation to your work environment, you can begin to apply this knowledge meaningfully. Now, let’s translate these insights into tangible actions, with an added focus on how partnering with an executive coach who is also an Accredited DISC practitioner can amplify your growth.
Focus on Interpersonal Relationships at Work
If you’re more independent because of your ‘Conscientiousness’ trait, you might benefit from embracing aspects of ‘Steadiness’ to bolster teamwork. An executive coach can support you in creating awareness through your DISC insights to foster collaboration and enhance your interpersonal dynamics effectively.
Find More Helpful Ways to Cope with Stress
Your DISC assessment test results can shed light on areas that might cause you stress at work and help you anticipate your natural reactions to them. Knowing your behavioral tendencies when under stress helps you better handle high-pressure situations in the future. If making decisions is hard for you, becoming more optimistic, like the ‘Influence’ trait suggests, can help you deal with stress better. An executive coach can explore with you how to manage stress according to your DISC profile and situational tendencies.
Determine Areas For Improvement
When you become aware of what traits you tend to exhibit at work, you can grow from them! Maybe your results placed you in the ‘Dominance’ style, but you want to add more traits from the ‘Conscientiousness’ category. You can aim to become more detail-oriented or analytical with certain projects at work rather than always being solely results-driven. An executive coach expert with DISC can help you find specific ways to grow and balance your professional skills.
Finding Your Path to Career Success
Using personality tests such as the extended DISC assessment can help you communicate more effectively, better handle stress, and make your team interactions more impactful as you build the career of your dreams. With these insights, you can enhance your performance in your current role, shine during interviews, and identify the best opportunities for career advancement or even a complete change of direction.
Whether you receive the extended DISC assessment for free with my coaching packages, or choose it as a standalone DISC debriefing service, my approach ensures you get support that’s customized for your specific needs and ambitions. Book a complimentary 1-hour exploratory session to get on the path to achieving your version of success, no matter what that looks like!
