Everything DiSC Blog

In late February, Groupon announced that it was replacing Andrew Mason, the company’s founder and chief executive officer. I’m familiar with Groupon, and admit that I have purchased a few, but I don’t track Groupon’s stock or stay abreast of the company’s moves. What caught my attention was Mason’s farewell letter to employees, publically posted. It was downright refreshing. Continue reading “What Can We Learn From a Fired Leader?” »

Have you ever thought about all the things we have in our lives today, that we can hardly imagine how we survived before they were invented? How did we write term papers before personal computers? Make popcorn before microwaves? Get a cavity filled before Novocain? How did we live without the Internet, Google, Amazon, cellphones, and texting? Now you can add Everything DiSC® Comparison Reports to this list.

“Come on, really!?,” you say. Ok, I admit they may not be as indispensable as Novocain… but while Novocain dulls the pain, Comparison Reports can help prevent or reduce the very real pain of the interpersonal variety.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Everything DiSC Comparison Reports compare the DiSC styles of two people, highlight their differences and similarities, and provide tips for working more effectively with each other. People are encouraged to have a conversation about their similarities and differences, and consider how their working relationship may be impacted as a result. Afterwards, each person is asked to consider how they’ll apply what they’ve learned about working with the other.

So why are these reports so valuable?

• They’re the perfect tool to use in conflict resolution or when two people are struggling to work with each other. (And more importantly, in preventing conflict or struggle from happening in the first place!) Continue reading “Novocain and Everything DiSC Comparison Reports?” »

Dialogue. A word from the middle ages.
According to the dusty dictionary on my bookshelf, a dialogue is a conversation between two or more people. The practice of dialogue is powerful. It focuses on communication between people. It’s about sharing multiple perspectives, which often leads to problem-solving or exchanging opinions.

Blog. A word from 1999.
And it’s not in my bookshelf dictionary. (Which I just realized was published in 1981…Probably time for a new dictionary!) So I turned to Google, and found that “blog” is defined as “a web site on which an individual or group of users record opinions, information, etc. on a regular basis.”

So where’s the dialogue on the Everything DiSC blog? Continue reading “We invite you to dialogue…” »

Imagine walking into a training session. There are no tables, just chairs set up in a horseshoe. There are no workbooks, the facilitator hands you an iPad instead. Is this what training will look like in the future?

Nope! It’s what training looks like right now in Honda’s Dealer Development session “Building Lifetime Customer Loyalty.”

Continue reading “Customer service training shifts to more interaction, technology, and DiSC” »

It never occurred to me that there could be different approaches to writing emails—that how I write an email might be different than how others do.

Until one day, my husband posted an ad on Craigslist to sell our coffee table. An interested buyer responded and asked if she could come by and see it.  His response: “The table is still available. Come by this afternoon after 3 pm.”

My reaction to his response: “You can’t send an email like that! It’s too short and impersonal!” He had absolutely no idea what I meant. And then I remembered his DiSC style (Di) and my DiSC style (i). Although I was introduced to DiSC a few years ago, it hadn’t occurred to me that DiSC styles might inform the way we write our emails too.

With my i style, I prioritize enthusiasm and enjoy meeting new people. When I create an email, it’s very important to me Continue reading “How do YOU write an email?” »

This time of year, many organizations are turning their attention to talent management and training. But don’t wait for an invitation to begin your professional development. Here are five things you can do to take charge of your professional learning path.

1. Map it. To chart any course, you have to know where you are and where you want to go. While it sounds cliché, think about where you want to be in 2-5 years. What skills will you require? What knowledge will you need? Do you have the experience that will support your career objective? You might need to update your technology capabilities, add to your credentials, or take on more of a leadership role. Create a list of the things you’ll need when you get there, and start packing.

2. Get going. Don’t wait for your company to offer a class or to register you for training. There are a lot of available opportunities through free Continue reading “5 Steps to Creating Your Professional Learning Path” »

Here’s a great activity to build into your Everything DiSC^® training sessions to help people share more in-depth details about their DiSC^® style.  This activity is designed to be used after participants have been introduced to their primary DiSC styles.  It’s a great way to keep DiSC alive in your organization!

 

FACILITATION:

SAY:   Pure styles are just the beginning of DiSC^®.  As we have mentioned throughout our session, everyone is made up of all four DiSC styles.  One way we see this is through primary and secondary styles.  This activity is designed to dig a little deeper into DiSC, and to help you tell your DiSC story. 

SAY:  Write your name at the top left hand corner of the handout.  Next to your name, list your primary and secondary style(s), and make each style into a separate column.  Place your dot on the DiSC circle. To help others learn more about you, list real things that others will see you do that reflect your primary and your secondary style. (5-10 minutes)

• “She’s a D, so you just have to deal with her bluntness.”
• “He’s an i. There’s no way he can work independently to get this done.”
• “He’s an S, so he won’t ever deal with conflict head-on.”
• “She’s a C. If we give her this task, she’ll over-analyze it and it will never get done.”

Photocredit: Chris Beach

Continue reading “DiSC is not about stereotyping, pigeon-holing, or judging.” »

I was recently speaking about our book, The 8 Dimensions of Leadership, to a group of Human Resource Professionals in California. My talk, “Becoming a Multidimensional Leader,” focused on three major themes: 

1) The personality of the leader (that is, who you are as a person) is a critical part of the dialog about “what makes a good leader.”

2) Good leaders understand that being an effective leader requires integrating knowledge with a real understanding of emotional, psychological, and interpersonal “default settings” and “blind spots.”

3) Leaders who are rated highly-effective by their subordinates are “multidimensional.” They have learned to be highly flexible in responding to the wide array of demands required by their organization. They can move outside their comfort zone and overcome the psychological barriers that keep some leaders from acting.

In essence, effective leaders are people who have attained a certain level of self-awareness and put that understanding to work as they contribute to helping an organization respond to challenges. Continue reading “Leadership for All?” »

Wondering how DiSC can help to transform organizations? Hear how one organization used Everything DiSC to to increase organizational performance and productivity.

The Organizational Challenge
In a large law firm with a staff dedicated to supporting hundreds of lawyers with high expectations, team performance and productivity are key to success.

Since team performance and productivity were suffering, management saw an opportunity for teams to learn how to work better together. Since their team members changed on each project, they needed skills to work better with their manager, direct reports, and all other team members.

Solution
The Human Resources management team decided to pilot the Everything DiSC^® Management program themselves. The half-day session was meant to test two things:

• Would the program be accepted by other work groups?
• Would it give employees a tool to help them work better with others?

If this training met their goals, the next step would be to train another pilot group of managers from various departments. Continue reading “More Everything DiSC Success Stories” »