If you’ve been interacting with DISC personalities, you may have come across the term “High C.”
What is DISC?
First and foremost, if you’re not fully sure what DISC is, let’s start with the basics. DISC is a personality assessment tool used to assess how a person may communicate and respond behaviorally to situations. The individual answers 25 questions and receives a result based on their responses. Founded in 1928 by psychologist William Moulton Marston DISC is a straightforward and effective way to gain self-awareness and increase emotional intelligence by learning to understand others better and communicate with them effectively.
Many companies utilize DISC Personalities to place individuals in suitable roles within organizations. It can also be employed by individuals to gain insight into their strengths and challenges, allowing them to flex their styles to understand others and become better leaders.
What is a ‘C’ in DISC personalities?
There are 4 quadrants to the DISC Personalities Assessment.
- D = Dominant
- I = Inspiring
- S = Supportive
- C = Conscientious
The High C is short for a High Conscientious.
What makes someone a High C?
Within the assessment, there are what we call “buckets,” as shown in the photo below. Everyone possesses a bit of each personality style (D, I, S, C), and the assessment indicates the percentage a person scores in each bucket based on their responses.
The lowest score a person can have is 25%, and the highest is 100%.
- 25-44% is considered weak.
- 45%-59% is considered moderate.
- 60-74% is considered strong.
- 75-100% is considered very strong.
Based on that, someone is considered a ‘High C’ in DISC Personalities if they score 75-100% in the Conscientious category on their assessment.
What Difference does being a High C make?
Practically speaking, a High C DISC Personality is going to show up stronger in both the strengths and challenges of the personality. While other people who score lower in each personality dimension may present differently depending on the situation, a High C is more likely to exhibit consistent behavior with the traits of a C than someone who scored lower and flexes more into other styles.
Characteristics of a High Conscientious Include:
- High attention to detail
- Need for clarity
- Cautious
- Focused on task vs people
- Emphasis on quality control
- Uncomfortable with emotional ways of operating
- Verbal around tasks and deficiencies (won’t talk about funny stories but will talk about lot about facts)
- High standards for themselves and others
- Expect perfection
- Enjoy operating with rules
- Irritated by jobs that are not done to perfection
- Worry about the future
How a High Conscientious Operates Under Stress
As is the case with any style, when under stress, they are more likely to show the challenging side of their style. Some of these include:
- Becoming overly controlling of those around them. This can look like trying to impose unnecessary process into everything and criticizing others when they don’t follow the steps.
- Becoming picky over every detail and verbalizing deficiencies to a team. This can look like finding holes in ideas that the team is excited about and taking the enthusiasm out of fresh goals.
- Becoming exhausted. I often think of Eeyore when describing a stressed out High C. They will become melancholic and hard to motivate.
- Being slow. They will halt progress for perfection which can slow down a team. This looks like not releasing a minimum viable product until all of the details are perfected.
What is a High C in Leadership
You may have guessed by now that this style type in leadership is going to be extremely methodical, detailed, and focused on perfect results. High C’s do a great job of building high-quality products and services and providing consistency to a business.
How to be Effective
- Never withhold information- more is always better
- Do the task or project right the first time. If something is unfinished or sloppy, it’s better to tell the high C that you need more time than to show them the unfinished or sloppy version.
- Set the standards before a project is completed so that they don’t put unnecessary expectations on their work.
- Show them the plan. Give them predictable milestones to hit!
What is a High C like in Conflict
- A Conscientious is going to become confrontational when their competency is questioned. If you’d like to be effective in communicating with them in conflict, be sure to acknowledge their work, accuracy and the time they put into ensuring everything is running smoothly.
- They will become frustrated when you do not follow their process or when you don’t follow their rules. Be aware of their preferences and be sure to respect them.
- If you’re working with a high C, be respectful of facts and data and ensure you know with certainty that there is a mistake that they’ve made.
- If you’d like to question their opinion on a topic, ensure you’ve researched it and know the facts. Often, once they have made up their mind it is because they have spent hours pouring over the information and have come to their own conclusion.
What is it like Working with a High C as a Dominant, Inspiring or Supportive
Dominant:
Dominants and Conscientious styles are task-focused on the DISC wheel, which means they are often aligned. A high C may get stressed out by a Dominant’s lack of planning and attention to detail. A Dominant may be too risk-focused for a high C. However, the Dominant’s focus on the future can be beneficial for a High C so that they keep moving forward instead of getting bogged down in planning.
Inspiring:
A high Conscientious will find working with the spontaneity and ideas of an Inspiring (opposite to them on the DISC wheel) to sometimes be draining and unpredictable. This can make them agitated. High Inspiring’s love to talk verbally through ideas, where a high C may become bogged down and need time away to process. With that being said, Inspiring’s are good for high C’s because they bring them into a world of new possibilities.
Supportive:
High C’s can be confused by a Supportive’s people-focused method of communicating. Often, a high C will focus on facts, tasks, and not on feelings. The supportive will be more focused on learning more about the high C and will be sensitive to their feelings and the feelings of the group. The high C does not operate based on feeling and may be agitated by the Supportive’s emotion and may not communicate well with them when they are not self-aware. On the other hand, both the high C and Supportive are content in the present and will connect on keeping the environment predictable with little change.
Possible Job Roles for a High Conscientious
- Accountant
- Administrator
- Analyst
- Architect
- Auditor
- Biomedical Engineer
- Bookkeeper
- Clinical Psychologist
- Cybersecurity Specialist
- Developer
- Editor
- Encoder
- Environmental Scientist
- Event Planner
- Financial Analyst
- Forensic Accountant
- GIS Analyst (Geographic Information Systems)
- HR Manager
- Inspector
- Interior Designer
- Lawyer
- Medical Illustrator
- Pharmacist
- Pharmaceutical Researcher
- Pilot
- Proofreader
- Project Manager
- Programmer
- Public Relations Specialist
- Quality Assurance
- Scientist
- Social Media Manager
- Surgeon
- Supply Chain Manager
- Technical Writer
- UX/UI Designer
Take the FREE DISC assessment today to see what your personality style is!
FAQ’s
Is type C Personality Good?
There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, ‘good’ or ‘bad’ style type! Being a high C means you have more of the attributes of a Conscientious than someone that scores lower. It’s important to note, that every style is important and valuable to teams and relationships. One style is not preferred over the other, however there are personalities better suited for jobs within organizations. For example, a high C would be great in a detailed role, like an accountant, within an organization. That same person may or may not be a great fit in a design role.
What are the disadvantages of a High C Personality?
The main disadvantages show up in the challenges of the personality style. If the personality is not managed and does not flex into other styles when communicating, the High C can become controlling, perfectionistic and cold. The key to any personality style is building self-awareness, managing stress and understanding the other styles to become better at communicating and working with others.
What is the hardest personality type to be?
The most challenging personality type is when a person scores opposite on the DISC wheel, ie. I/C or D/S because the styles can come in conflict with one another. For example, someone that scores as an Inspiring/Conscientious will be both ideas oriented but also needing detail and structure. They will be people focused and then task focused. Often this can feel like an internal struggle. Another challenging personality type is when all 4 DISC styles are present equally, called “Synergistic”. In a way, it can be an advantage because the person can understand all styles. However, it can leave the person feeling uncertain of decisions depending on the situation. This style can feel like a chameleon.
What is the rarest DISC profile?
The rarest DISC Personality Profile is Dominant. Dominants make up 5-10% of the population.
What is the darkest personality type?
Each personality type has a dark, or shadow side to them. This means that they have aspects that are challenging and can be difficult to deal with. No style type is darker than the other, when any style is unmanaged they become difficult to work with.
