Each of the 4 DISC behavioural preferences are valid – there is no hierarchy or ‘right’ one to be.

Over the weekend, my 4 year old son was keen to build a city or 'sitee’ if we’re using his phonetic spelling.  He was keen for us each to draw out our individual city on paper and then build it with ‘Duplo’ blocks.  So, armed with paper and a plethora of glittery coloured pencils, we started.

After a couple of minutes, I glanced over at his drawing and was immediately struck by how different they were, and how they reflected the diverse way our brains had approached this task.

 As a whole-person coach, I support people - including myself - to develop an enhanced sense of self.  Key to this is self-awareness and learning more about what our individual personality and behavioural preferences are - what makes us tick!

As a certified DISC practitioner, I use a contextual psychometric test called DISC within my coaching practise to support individuals to:

• Identify what their personality and behavioural preferences are.

• Understand more about how they interact with others.

• Understand more about how they approach tasks and situations, including challenging or stressful situations, and what supports them.

• Understand more about the behavioural preferences of others.

• Improve their communication skills - and their relationships with others - to reduce conflict.
  

Within DISC, there are four broad categories of behavioural and personality styles; each of us are a blend of all four, but different environments may stimulate certain preferences more or less.  For example, our behavioural preferences may differ at home to at work.

The four styles are:

D: Dominance

I: Influence

S: Steadiness.

C: Compliance

Image source: 'What is DISC Psychometric Profiling' | OPC Oxford 

My son is too young to complete a DISC assessment, but I would make an educated guess that he has a high ‘I’ (Influencer) behavioural and personality preference. He approaches tasks (and play) with such creativity and imagination; he has lots of ideas and is so enthusiastic and free! You can see Noah’s city has lots of ‘bells and whistles’: a train track, a racing car track, aeroplanes, helicopters…it leaves lots of space for creative licence during the build.

In contrast, my city is more methodical, concise and directional.  There’s a splash of creativity there (magic rain that turns the skyscrapers in to rainbow skyscrapers), but there’s a definite structure there too. It’s less fluid and open to interpretation. I know from my own DISC assessment results that I am high on the ‘C’ (Compliance) preference, which shows up in many areas of my life.  ‘C’ people are all about the finer details, the data and the process and, typically, less spontaneous.

It's important to note that each of the four behavioural preferences are valid – yes, there are positives and negatives to each style, but there is no hierarchy or ‘right’ one to be. 

The key to all of this is an increased sense of awareness – as the saying goes, knowledge is power and I am a firm believer that the more knowledge we have about ourselves, our preferences, and what makes us tick, the more empowered we feel  to trust ourselves and our decisions.  We can start to cultivate the inner-confidence needed to take the action we need to feel good, to feel valued, to feel seen.

If you’re keen on learning more about yourself, or about DISC, let’s talk.  I offer free, no-obligation discovery calls to chat through how I may be able to support you.

Contact me via my socials: @laurahuntercoaching or by email: laurahuntercoaching@gmail.com

Laura x