The DISC Personality tool is a really useful self-assessment that helps you understand your natural areas of strengths and weakness, and those of others around you.
I recommend it to everyone, and it’s especially useful when it’s done in a team setting. That team might be a work team, a sports team, or a family unit.
The DISC is there to help you be a better communicator, and to help others understand what makes you tick.
If you haven’t yet completed your DISC assessment, you can take it for free in under 10 minutes here:
https://www.professionalleadershipinstitute.com/disc-personalities-assessment/
However, there are certain things that the DISC personality tool can never measure, and doesn’t take into account when giving a description of you. Here is what the DISC personality tool can’t measure:
- The DISC Personality tool can’t measure your intelligence
- The DISC Personality tool can’t measure your character
- The DISC Personality tool can’t measure your upbringing
- The DISC Personality tool can’t measure your self esteem
- The DISC Personality tool can’t measure your emotional anchors
The DISC Personality tool can’t measure your intelligence
One person will be Mensa-smart, while another has a low IQ, and yet they may score the same on the DISC assessment. How can this be?
The reason for this is that the DISC Personality assessment isn’t an IQ test. The purpose of the assessment isn’t to find out your level of intelligence, but to discover the basic emotional building blocks that make you into you.
Two people who share the same DISC scores may end up in very different places in terms of life and career, but will still approach life in similar ways. For instance:
Dominant people will always value time and speed.
Inspiring people will always value ideas and communication.
Supportive people will always value trust and personal relationships.
Conscientious people will always value detail and structure.
It’s not about intellect. It’s about how you ‘show up’ in your day-to-day life.
The DISC Personality tool can’t measure your character
One person may be a criminal, and another a saint, yet share DISC personality scores. How can this be?
Again, apart from assuming you’re answering the DISC questions truthfully, the DISC doesn’t measure your view of morality, or make any comment about it. That isn’t the purpose of the DISC tool.
There are other tools that attempt to measure your character, but not this one. DISC restricts itself to assessing how you approach time, tasks, people, and other life situations as you go about your day.
The DISC Personality tool can’t measure your upbringing
We would all agree that your family of origin and your culture of origin have an effect on how you view life and the world around you. A child born and raised in North Korea will have different expectations and differences in world view from a child born and raised in San Francisco, or in Chile, or in Mali, or in Estonia.
All of these people come from different cultures, and from different families and the DISC tool doesn’t measure or celebrate, or make any comment on these differences.
The DISC Personality tool can’t measure your self esteem
Self-esteem can affect how you live. If you believe you aren’t worth very much, or if you believe you deserve bad treatment, you’re going to make different life choices that affect others around you.
People with low self-esteem will be very careful before presenting a new idea of venturing into a new relationship. They don’t want to risk rejection, and are more cautious in their approach to life.
While your view of yourself is really important, the DISC tool doesn’t measure it.
The DISC Personality tool can’t measure your emotional anchors
An emotional anchor is a past experience that affects how you feel or behave in the present. Emotional anchors may be positive or negative.
Positive emotional anchors include:
- Winning awards
- Having a happy relationship
- Receiving an inheritance
- Being a hero
Negative emotional anchors include:
- Going through a divorce
- Losing a loved one
- Enduring a traumatic abusive event
- Witnessing a gruesome incident
Emotional anchors may be the hidden cause of behaviors that you don’t understand about yourself, and that others don’t understand either.
While these are an important part of what makes you into you, they aren’t measured by DISC assessment either.
In summary:
The DISC personality tool is a really valuable self-assessment that helps you communicate better with others, and helps you understand yourself too. But there are some things that it can never measure, such as:
- The DISC Personality tool can’t measure your intelligence
- The DISC Personality tool can’t measure your character
- The DISC Personality tool can’t measure your upbringing
- The DISC Personality tool can’t measure your self esteem
- The DISC Personality tool can’t measure your emotional anchors
Additional resources
Thanks for reading this article on ‘Don’t kid yourself, the DISC personality tool can never measure this.’ Below are additional resources from Professional Leadership Institute, the global provider of online human resources and leadership tools:
- The guaranteed method to change group behavior in under 10 minutes https://www.professionalleadershipinstitute.com/tips/the-guaranteed-method-to-change-group-behavior-in-under-10-minutes/
- Without these 5 principles, the DISC personality tool is useless https://www.professionalleadershipinstitute.com/resources/without-these-5-principles-the-disc-personality-tool-is-useless/
- What is the ideal job fit for my DISC personality type? https://www.professionalleadershipinstitute.com/resources/what-is-the-ideal-job-fit-for-my-disc-personality-type/
- How to spot someone’s DISC personality type in under 60 seconds https://www.professionalleadershipinstitute.com/resources/how-to-spot-someones-disc-personality-type-in-under-60-seconds/
Trevor Throness is a speaker, consultant, and author of “The Power of People Skills.” He is also co-founder and senior instructor at www.professionalleadershipinstitute.com https://www.professionalleadershipinstitute.com/
Find more about “The Power of People Skills” here: https://www.amazon.com/Power-People-Skills-Dramatically-Performance/dp/1632651068
