DISC Profiling Instrument

DISC was created by Dr. William M. Marston in 1926 when he wrote the book, "Emotions of Normal People". Inside his book he explained that there are four distinct traits of human behavior, namely, "Dominance (or Drive as it is more commonly called today), Influence, Steadiness & compliance". DISC has been widely applied in many areas since then, mostly due to the reason that it is easy to understand, remember, and apply.

below is a short description of the D, I, S & C traits:

Dominance (the 'D' trait)

people who are dominant are full of drive, they pack their time tables with many tasks everyday. They push themselves (and people they work with) to their limits, often achieving outstanding results. Some common adjectives that can describe 'D' people are, "direct, decisive and driven". Often they are self starters, bottom line organizers and they have high ego strength. If there is a challenge to be conquered, they will be the first ones attempting to do it.

Influence (the 'I' trait)

'i' people are influential, they love people and they love attention. They are often charismatic leaders, able to command a crowd and motivate them towards a common goal. 'I' people love to have fun and they love parties. Due to their persuasive nature, they make excellent sales representatives.

Steadiness (the 's' trait)

's' people are steady paced, stable and extremely loyal. 'S' people are more passive as compared to the 'D' and 'i' people. They may also appear to be more reserved. more often than not, they will tend to listen as opposed to speak, they are understanding and also friendly. 'S' people tend to have a small group of very closed friends and in times of need, a friend who is of the 's' trait will very likely lend a helping hand.

compliance (the 'c' trait)

"correct", "compliant" &"controlled" are often used to describe people with the 'c' personality. They are your compliance people, your quality control people and your analysts. 'c' people are detailed, accurate and they are also systematic and often neat in appearance. It is easy to spot 'c' people in the office, just take a walk and look at neat and clean work desks, these often belong to people who have the 'c' trait. 'c' people often base their decisions on facts and figures.

What trait am I?

Most of us will have one or two 'main' traits (e.g. D, I or D, C or I,c, or C,s) some of us may even have three 'main' traits. this does not mean that we have schizophrenia, it is perfectly normal. It merely means that we behave in a certain manner under a different circumstance. Also we will likely display a different profile at home and at work. to find out your personality trait, you will need to fill up a personality profile.

the disc profile

the DISC profile is an instrument that helps us ascertain the personality traits of a person. at singapore team building, we only use the original 32-paged DISC Personality System to profile our participants. It is a highly accurate profile instrument that is published by The Institute For The Motivational Living, Inc, USA, the worlds largest publisher of DISC materials. the personality system has be applied worldwide in leadership training, team building, job interviews and event conflict resolutions.

The DISC profile only takes 7 minutes to be completed and it gives participants an indepth analysis of their strengths and possible weaknesses and it also contains write ups on 30 different profile combinations.

disclaimer

While profiling instruments are useful for greater understanding of oneself and other around, there are a few things we must bear in mind with regards to such profiles.

Firstly, no one or set of personality types is superior to the others. It’s all about placing the right people in the right environments.

Secondly, personalities do evolve with time and environment or a conscious decision to change. Any profiling system can only serve as a guide to predict a person’s behavior. We all possess the God-given ability to choose how we want to react in any given circumstance. A change in personality can take place in as little as 3 weeks! We can also manage our behavior by teaming up with the right people, and by adjusting our behavior to suit the people we are dealing with.

Thirdly, most profiling instruments available in the market are based on self-assessment, i.e. getting the subject to fill up a self-perception questionnaire, therefore, the instruments delivered in this way measure the self-perception of the subject, and there is a possibility for the participant to answer the questionnaire according to the personality that he/she wishes to exhibit.

Lastly, profiling instruments in the market, which are not delivered by trained psychologists and doctors, are intended for people under normal circumstances. To measure behavior of people under special or extreme circumstances, we may need to seek professional help from psychologists or doctors.

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disc applications
teambuilding and disc
multiple intelligence and teambuilding
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