One of our major challenges is explaining to prospective clients that Extended DISC® is not just another traditional, simple DISC system.
Recently, we met with the Human Resources Manager of a large prospective client. The meeting wasn’t easy. The HR Manager was clearly suspicious of our system and had already made up his mind that Extended DISC® was “just another DISC system”.
A sceptical HR Manager
He spent the first few minutes of the meeting explaining how he had previously used a DISC-based system that had caused him a great deal of frustration. As a result, he really didn’t want to know about Extended DISC®.
One of his main arguments was that DISC was simply too simple. There are, after all, more than four different types of people on the planet!
It wasn’t that he didn’t believe in the four-quadrant model. He was familiar with Jungian theory and the associated research. His concern was that he had not yet found a DISC-based system that could provide the depth of behavioural insight and reporting he needed.
160 behavioural styles, not just four
We eventually convinced him to “test drive” Extended DISC® when we explained that the system recognises and reports on 160 different behavioural styles.
He completed the online Extended DISC® questionnaire about a week later.
The report we received is shown here.
What his Extended DISC® profile revealed
While we could identify many of his behavioural traits from our initial meeting, as shown in Profile II, we were very surprised to see that his Profile I was very tight.
This indicated a significant degree of uncertainty around his current role.
That created a problem for us. We had agreed to meet with him and take him through his Extended DISC® report in a debriefing session, and it was something we weren’t particularly looking forward to!
As it turned out, we need not have worried.
When we asked whether he had been in his current role for very long, he immediately asked why we wanted to know.
We explained that his profile indicated uncertainty of role, which is not unusual for someone who is new to a position.
His reaction was one of complete surprise.
He explained that he had been in the role for less than a week when we first met, and had completed the questionnaire within two weeks of being appointed.
There was another important piece of context.
The position he had been appointed to was newly created, and his job description was still being finalised by the organisation’s CEO.
The value of behavioural insight in a new role
This was not the only thing that impressed him.
He told us that he found the report extremely accurate. However, the identification of his uncertainty of role was clearly a major factor in his decision to use Extended DISC® going forward.
The experience demonstrated something important: a behavioural assessment can provide much more than a simple description of whether someone is a “D, I, S or C”.
With Extended DISC®, the combination of behavioural profiles and deeper reporting can provide valuable insight into what may be happening for a person in their current work environment.
For this HR Manager, the difference between “just another DISC system” and Extended DISC® became clear when the assessment reflected something about his situation that he had not expected the system to identify.
