In UHNW environments, teams must function well together to execute operations at the highest level of service possible. As managers, it is our job to ensure the team communicates cohesively. There are various tools readily available in business coaching circles to assess personality styles in a workplace. Through the analysis of diverse learning and personality styles, a manager can coach their group to higher levels of success using these communication methods. I use various assessment tools and strategies when evaluating a team’s overall health as a part of my estate management consulting practice. I encourage estate managers to find a tool to use on their estates to aid them in developing their team members. One of these evaluating and coaching tools that I recommend is called the DiSC Model of Behavior, which requires a trained facilitator, and is owned by Everything DiSC.
The DiSC Model of Behavior was first proposed in 1928 by William Moulton Marston and is an acronym for an expressions model of four behavioral types, which are Dominance (D), Influence (i), Steadiness (S), and Conscientiousness (C). Mr. Martin was a psychologist and wrote a book entitled Emotions of Normal People, in which he theorized that these various dimensions could be viewed in relationship to a person’s environment and how the individual reacted and interacted with the world around them could be predicted using these behavior traits. In 1940 Walter V. Clarke created the formal assessment from Mr. Martin’s work by setting up these four critical predictors of behavior on a two-axis space. He displayed how to pattern individual personality styles and describe people’s behavioral types compared to the other quadrants of the personality model in relation to the general population. This way, the graph could establish patterns to better articulate personality and behavior in groups and help understand social psychology settings. This is a helpful personality analysis tool to communicate behavior patterns and how individuals interact in a social or business environment.
The DiSC analysis asks the participant to choose two words from a group of four descriptive terms, selecting one that they feel is most closely aligned with their personality and the one they think is the least like their personal characteristics. These adjectives are then grouped together to form clusters that summarize the person’s personality style. The intensity of each category is how strongly they align with those terms, which then categorizes them into classical patterns of personality trait groupings, all with specific titles from the DiSC assessment test. This quick analysis is a valuable tool for self-reflection as it helps a person be more aware of how they interact with the world around them with a simple assessment that pinpoints areas of strength and weakness in social situations. Those in a position of authority in an organization need to understand why people behave the way they do and how they, as leaders or managers, interact when working with people to motivate themselves better to achieve success.
The study of Organizational Behavior is primarily based on various disciplines of social psychology, so to better understand people’s behavior is to manage people more accurately with multiple personality styles to improve operational function within the organization and better manage oneself. Being sensitive to people’s behavioral techniques also requires high emotional intelligence. Although not classically considered part of Organizational Behavior, it is a social science widely referenced in today’s business management philosophies, so it is a valuable social shorthand of what is referenced in Organizational Behavior. These theories of personality can assist with conflict avoidance and conflict resolution, as people operate within their differences in a group setting to work towards a common goal. By studying behavior and personality as a tool to align with workers’ strengths, the organization can better understand the individuals that make up their group and achieve the organization’s goals more harmoniously.
Once you and your team use the DiSC profile tool to find each person’s behavioral style, there are five steps to using this tool to enhance learning and communication in the service environment. These steps are as follows:
- Understanding Personalities- To coach someone well, it is essential to understand their personality and behavior under stress. This will help guide the manager to create a roadmap for progress.
- Discover Natural Team Roles- revealing the strengths and weaknesses of everyone will help the manager effectively assign tasks and tailor job descriptions to maximize skills and expertise where needed. This is especially helpful in estates where aligning each person’s strengths will help to align the workplace objectives in a demanding work environment.
- Creating an Awareness of Values- Knowing what guides each member’s actions, choices, and behaviors will help the manager build a healthy workplace culture that supports each individual and the principals they serve.
- Highlighting Internal Passions- Encouraging the personal passions of your staff can bring motivation to their work endeavor, and foster natural confidence and excellent performance when a manager plays to these strengths. Aligning a coaching strategy that is tailored to each employee will help develop a targeted, realistic, and fulfilling professional development outcome.
- Following an action plan for growth- Once you have uncovered an individual’s strengths, weaknesses, and reasons behind personal motivation, you can create a solid action plan for professional development within the estate and customize this process to meet job performance goals. This is often a moving target in an estate because of the fluid nature of the service environment, so having a concrete action plan for growth is essential for proper performance evaluations.
To evaluate a person pre-employment with any personality or behavior analysis testing, please speak with the placement agencies in your area for laws concerning hiring practices in your state. If your state allows pre-employment testing of this nature, I find the DiSC assessment or something similar is a great tool to understand how someone thinks prior to making a job offer to that candidate. Suppose your estate organization feels this process is best completed after securing employment. In that case, I encourage you to incorporate individual assessments like this for team growth and development with employees after they are already on the team. Using familiar tools like this eases the pressure, provides shared language when approaching a difficult conversation with team members, and allows for a neutral platform to speak about complex interpersonal topics. Consider assessment tools such as the DiSC profile on your estate to foster collaborative communication and professional development of workplace culture as a part of managerial best practices.
There are approximately two dozen scientific, highly respected, and useful personality testing platforms used in today’s workplace. They vary in length, depth, application, facilitation, and price. Many experts insist that no one test meets every need. Managers are encouraged to employ a few different personality tests to assemble the most comprehensive assessment of individuals, to aid them in building a cohesive and effective team.
Individuals looking to understand themselves better and get an idea as to what the expensive and facilitated tests will find a variety of legitimate free personality tests online. Two reputable and moderately priced tests individuals can take without facilitation and use in their career planning include Career Code and CliftonStrengths (formerly called StrengthsFinders).
