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The DISC approach to leadership – hone your skills

Successful leadership relies on the ability to influence others’ behaviour in order to accomplish an objective. In this article, says AREEA training and development consultant Craig Gilvarry. Here he provides insight into the DISC model as a way for leaders to assess the way their team performs and communicates.

Workplace supervisors fill an important role in the workplace as a link between company management and the employees. As such, supervisors regularly have the role of implementing and reporting on the progress of their workplace operational plan.

Most supervisors are former workers who through good technical skills or showing leadership abilities among their peers move up the leadership ladder. This move can be challenging for many new supervisors as they are rarely provided with training as they embark on their new career. Often this lack of training can lead to situations where the supervision of staff is being performed in an ineffective manner.

AREEA’s Training and Development team provides training to new and experienced supervisors/team leaders. Leadership training may include completing a nationally recognised qualification in Certificate IV Frontline Management, Diploma in Management or by completing AREEA’s Industry Resource Industry Leadership Program.

Successful leadership relies on the ability to influence others’ behaviour in order to accomplish an objective. The ability to influence others is greatly enhanced by completing AREEA’s Resource Industry Leadership Program. One of the models the Leadership program uses is DISC.

The DISC model is a very simple four-quadrant framework used to articulate the common ways that all human beings tend to act and communicate.

At a glance, the DISC acronym stands for:
• Dominance: How you approach problems and challenges.
• Influence: How you interact with and attempt to influence people.
• Steadiness: How you respond to the pace of the environment.
• Compliance: How you respond to rules and regulations set by others.

The DISC model groups four (4) common behavioural patterns found universally in all people on earth, which people can then use as a shared language (or set of terms) to better relate and communicate with each other, both at work and at home.

DISC helps to identify an individual’s behavioural style.

Key Benefits of DISC Profiling & Training for Leaders & Their Teams:

Build Trust: Trust is the most valuable resource that a leader has. While there are many factors that will build or erode trust, the leader that recognises and responds to others’ preferred method of communication and approach to work will be in a much better position to gain the cooperation and commitment of those around them.

Better Communication: Understand the best (and worst) ways to communicate with each team member.

Team Synergy: Team members will develop a better awareness of each others’ communication and work style, as well as their manager’s. By being able to predict other people’s natural responses to situations, they can learn to more quickly adapt to the situation themselves.

Self-Awareness: Help the leader understand how their behavioural tendencies might be perceived by others in the team (particularly those of the opposite style).

Assign Tasks: Understand which people are better behaviourally suited to certain types of tasks.

Prevent Conflict/Misunderstandings: The DISC model helps to reduce team conflict by providing a common language to discuss behavioural tendencies (which is particularly important to those with opposite styles).

Team is Better with Customers/Selling: Customers buy from people they like and trust. With a guiding awareness of their own tendencies and that of others, team members will be able to more effectively communicate, build rapport, and present information according to the customer’s unique buying style.

Hiring/Induction: The DISC profile can be used to highlight potential behavioural strengths and possible challenges which can then be addressed and targeted with questions in the interview stage. The DISC profile should ultimately validate or challenge the hiring manager’s impression of the candidate, and be used to determine if there is an apparent mis-match between the role and the candidate’s natural behaviour. It is also a useful on-boarding/induction tool so that the manager and the rest of the team have a clearer picture about what they can expect from the new recruit and how they prefer to go about their work.

Coaching Tool: The DISC profile serves as a platform to have non-threatening conversations about people’s behaviours (particularly non-productive behaviours).

Feedback is Validated: Team members will more readily accept negative feedback from a computerised assessment about their behaviours than they would if they were to hear the same feedback from their manager or another individual.

Improve Emotional Intelligence (EI): The ultimate goal of the DISC profile (along with all other similar professional development tools) is to improve the individual’s emotional intelligence. Because the DISC profile is very simple and practical, it is one of the best frameworks available for fast-tracking EI, particularly in the domains of Empathy and Social Skills.

This training enhances the skills of existing and new supervisors at all levels.

To learn more about the courses referred to in this article and how AREEA’s Training and Development team can assist call 1800 891 662 or email [email protected].

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