A few weeks ago everyone in my
office filled out a DISC assessment questionnaire, the answers to which would
determine what sort of behavioral profile we fall into, particularly in our
work. The idea being if we understood ourselves and our coworkers better, we
would be a stronger team.
There are four profile categories: Dominance,
Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness. You can be predominantly one area
or a combination of two.
We had a workshop last week where
the woman who conducted the assessment gave us our individualized reports and
discussed what the categories meant. I thought I would end up in the category
where the warm, charming, accepting, thoughtful people ended up.
Not so much.
Apparently, I am a DC, so I have
some of the C characteristics, like wanting to make sure work is accurate,
taking time to look at data before making a decision, that sort of thing, and I
have aspects of the other categories, but the personalized report I got back
emphasized characteristics like strong-willed, fast, blunt, results-driven,
impatient, skeptical, and willing to take on a challenge.
Now, I knew I had these qualities to
some degree, but I never gave them a whole lot of thought. I mean, I’m actually
a pretty warm person--if you’re not incompetent or wasting my time.
Basically, I’m just like my
mother.
My mother can be a little much, but
she’s also pretty kick-ass, and she had high-powered jobs and was great at
them. So there are worse people to take after. And now that I’m clued into
these tendencies, I can temper them when appropriate. Also, using this sort of behavioral profiling will be a great tool for character development.
As for my husband, he didn’t seem
all that shocked when I told him I was a D for Dominant. Then again, he can handle it.
