DISC Leadership

Full-time, part-time, remote, freelance… any kind of job arrangement is now available. And everyone wants to hire good people, but there are burning questions: how to find good people and how to keep them? 

We have gone through step one: alignment of core values and you can find it HERE. 

 Now that you have that out of the way, it’s time for step two in the hiring process. These are my secrets of employing people in my company Solor where we have 92 percent retention. What do we do when we figure out a new person is aligned with our core values?

Job benchmarking foundation

To put it in simpler terms: this is a process of matching a person to a role based upon their Emotional Intelligence. The goal here is to have a person get the energy from a role instead of losing energy.
Remember: when an employee is losing energy from a job role, the only possible outcome is the creation of a toxic, gossipy, passive-aggressive atmosphere. And who wants that?!

Use the available tools

To determine whether someone is good for the role you need, there are plenty of tools out there. I use DISC assessment and recommend it as it has proven to me times and times again that the results I’m getting are right on the spot.
DISC divides people into 4 different categories, ensuring that if I follow it and match it with the role that’s “empty”, a new employee will feel comfortable in a new role.

Let’s put things into perspective

If a person applying for a job is a D/I, they are very driven and outgoing. Let’s say you want to put that person into the sales department where they have to make a phone call every week, maybe not even to make a sale but to create a relationship with a customer. You want them to be interested in the person on the other side of the line.
Your new D/I employee will not be comfortable with that. What drives them is commission, quick turnaround, fast transaction. And they will not get a single thing from forming a relationship with a customer. They lose, and you lose. No sales, and no relationship.
Remember that we are not all wired the same. We are not all driven by the same things. Some people what to climb the corporate ladder, while others want to stay where they are and create long-term relationships with their clients. Some want money, others want connections.

How to connect the right person with the right role and why do we use DISC

When looking for a new team member, you need to find a tool that is going to work for you. You need to know how will the people be triggered by a role, and how will they communicate in a role. What are the things that will cause a conflict in your organization?
We use the DISC method in my company because we are working remotely. Many companies have switched to this kind of arrangement due to the pandemic so I’m sure DISC can help you organize your company as well.

What is important when you work remotely is to have people who are task-oriented. High D and C will be great because they will be more independently capable than I and S styles. I don’t need to micromanage D’s and C’s because I know they will make the job done, even though they will do it a little bit differently than how I would have done it.

Put the tool to use for proper job benchmarking

I usually have a manager or someone who is high-performing in a certain role already to do a DISC assessment with people because he/she will know what they need for a specific role. They also go through an assessment together. They compare what is written in an assessment to what a manager needs a person to do in order to determine where exactly is a new employee on a DISC circle.

Why? You need to know if a High C will struggle to get into an I role, or a High S in a D role. That will allow you to coach your people better, to understand them before they are even hired to determine if this person is going to need a lot of coaching or will they feel like a role is made for them.

Our retention is so high (92 percent) because we do job benchmarking and we connect the right people to the right roles.

Hiring is subjective. It’s super difficult to find objective means to hire someone. Some people are better in a resume, some are better in an interview than others. That’s what makes us all unique!

But if you use the tools available, you get more objective data points.

Watch out for this

Tools available out there to determine the right role for a good employee are vast. However, always consult with your labor attorney. You want to make sure that whatever tool you use, it’s not causing an impact it shouldn’t have. You cannot discriminate against one body of people (race, ethnicity, sexuality….). This is a tool you don’t want to use.
This is why I recommend DISC, as it is non-discriminatory.

Whatever tool you use, keep in mind that you want people to gain energy from their role because if they are losing it, that will create a toxic workplace, gossipy, passive-aggressive atmosphere.
Even in this case, people can stay for a long time but probably won’t.

Keep your workplace energy-driven and keep it up for many years to come.

Each of the four personality styles (D, I, S and C) has it’s strengths and blind spots. Knowing what personality style you are will then allow you to get familiar with the strengths that you are bringing to the table. Also, you will then know what are the blind spots that you have so that you can avoid issues in communication, and you can also surround yourself with those who can help you compliment the style that you have.

If you are still not sure what personality style you are, you can find it out HERE. It is a DISC Assessment that I have prepared for you and that will in only 25 questions give an answer to why you react in a way you do and open the doors of communication you didn’t even know is possible.

A big number of people who after DISC Assessment fall into High D category are CEOs, or Executive Vice Presidents, or any other leader in an organization. The reason behind this is that a High D personality style does not take No for an answer. They see climbing the corporate ladder as a challenge and they don’t stop until they get to the top.

Here are four major strengths that a High D possesses:

Result orientated – High D is all about getting the objective met, regardless of what is it going to take. Excuses are not something that they are interested in, rather results that will get them to that objective.

Strategic, forward-looking, innovative – the brain of a High D is always thinking how they can implement something new and better in an organization and it is always moving on to the next big idea. They come up with innovative ideas that have never been done before as they are always thinking outside of the box.

Direct communicators and challenge oriented – when a High D want to present something to you, they will do so in a direct manner. It will be so straightforward that they will usually not give any additional information or necessary words. Your task will be clear and laid out in front of you.

Making quick decisions and initiating activity – a High D is all about execution. They are doers by nature, and they try to pack up as much as possible in a single working day. They have the urge to constantly move so they will not sit around but take the decision on what the next step should be. Sometimes this decision will be based on facts, and sometimes it will be based on a High D following their gut feeling. Either way, the decision will be made.

Now that we know the great sides of a High D, we need to look at the things that they are not aware of and that can be perceived in a negative manner:

Setting standards too high – most of the time, a High D will be sure that something can be done in a smaller amount of time than it actually takes to get it done. As a High D, the standards that you set are too high for most people and if you are not aware of this, you can wear your staff out.

Changing course more frequently than it’s necessary – High D likes the change, and they have to be moving all the time, so they will bring many changes in an organization. While changes for better are always good, putting out too many incentives and new objectives will be hard for people to track. It is important to slow down and let people know what exactly are you doing and why when you want to make a change.

Lacking tact and diplomacy – what a High D will often forget since they are always busy, is that other people need time to process information. High D’s brain is always buzzing, and they sometimes forget to tell all the information, since they are following what’s going on in their head. If you are guilty of this, try giving out all the information to your employees, and see how they can achieve much more with you as their leader.

Appearing angry when they believe they are being passionate – as an innovative person, a High D is excited to speak about their new idea. The downside of this is that they get very involved when speaking, so others can see that as anger or frustration. A good way around this sometimes-unpleasant situation is to take use of other personality style. A High D who wants to be perceived in a correct way can hire an administrative assistant who is a High S. What they are going to get by that is to have a human filter for message they are trying to convey. This person will filter the message and smooth things over so the communication in an organization will be much more effective.

You can learn how different personality styles can work together to avoid blind spots on my YouTube channel and my weekly Podcast. Remember that the first step to thriving in your workplace or at home is self-awareness. Find out what style is yours and what excellent qualities you bring to the table. Take the step today HERE.