Myths About D.I.S.C.
Several years ago, I wrote a series of articles on myths regarding the D.I.S.C. behavioral assessment. I want to revisit just two of those myths here to help explain why some people think D.I.S.C. is not accurate.
Myth #1: There is only one D.I.S.C.
Fact: There are dozens of D.I.S.C. assessments.
Most people do not realize there are dozens of D.I.S.C. assessments. Each has its own formula to calculate D.I.S.C. It is like colas; where there is Coca-Cola, Pepsi Cola, Diet Rite Cola, and many other brands all saying they are colas. They all have different tastes and different levels of quality.
Like colas, D.I.S.C. behavioral style assessments are NOT the same. Each has its own way of calculating the level
of D.I.S.C. and to present the results of that calculation. Some have extensive boilerplate explanations of what D.I.S.C. means, with little custom description of the individual person taking the assessment. Some are mostly narratives where you have to pick out the behaviors from paragraph descriptions. Many are not accurate. Some, like the ones that use 3 graphs to explain D.I.S.C., can be confusing when describing why they are using 3 graphs instead of the most often used 2 graphs approach. Some even say they are a personality assessment. Ridiculous! A D.I.S.C. describes behaviors, which are a subset of our personality. Our personalities are much more complicated and comprehensive than just behaviors. If you are using a company selling D.I.S.C. that says it is a personality profile, you may want to think again about the knowledge base of the company and the D.I.S.C. they are selling you. The D.I.S.C. you purchase from us is:
• highly accurate as demonstrated above
• mostly a customized description of that person’s behaviors
• mostly descriptive bulleted data points that are easy to read and use
• easy to understand and uses 2 graphs in the reports
We have assessments that measure behaviors, motives, emotional intelligence, leadership qualities, stressors, and more aspects of personality; so we have no need to say our D.I.S.C. measures personality. We tell you the truth about what it does measure: behaviors.
Myth #5: D.I.S.C. is not accurate.
Fact: Our D.I.S.C., at least, is VERY accurate.
We can’t speak to the accuracy of the other several dozen D.I.S.C.s, other than to say we hear people tell us all the time that our D.I.S.C. is much more accurate, easy to read and use than other D.I.S.C.s they have used in the past or seen. The data regarding our D.I.S.C.’s accuracy speaks for itself; 74.6% say it is 95% to 100% accurate, 93.6% say it is 90% to 100% accurate, and over 21%
say it’s 100% accurate. Truly outstanding results for an assessment measuring characteristics of people.
Bottom Line
How much valuable time are you and other staff spending on using an assessment of people? How accurate and useful is the assessment you are using? For example, in addition to its accuracy, our assessment’s usefulness spans over a dozen people-related needs (interviewing, hiring, internal transfers, team assignment & building, onboarding, performance evaluation, etc.). Is the assessment you are currently using as useful?
Final thought
How much is using an assessment, that is less accurate than
ours costing you in wrong hiring decisions, wrong interpersonal communication decisions, and in wrong management or leadership decisions?
Whatever it is, it is much more than the cost of our assessment(s). If you are already using our D.I.S.C. or our other assessments, THANK YOU! If not, and you would like to have a free sample report on yourself, contact us at www.abelson.net or [email protected]. We will
be delighted to show you the quality of what we have for you.
