Why do you need to imagine yourself at work when answering the DISC questions? I’m sure you’ll recognize the most obvious reason; DISC assessments are most often workplace based.
However, does taking DISC Assessments while focused on your workplace directly impact your results? For example, what if I’m a college student taking the DISC assessment? Do I have to think of an imaginary workplace or can I think of how I am at school? What happens if I imagine myself in my personal life instead? What about if I think of myself in more than one situation?
Our DISC questionnaire asks you to imagine yourselves at work because it’s important for you to focus on something when answering. The worst option for a valid DISC profile outcome is that you imagine yourself in multiple settings. For example, you are answering the first question based on how you are at work, then the next at home, then next when you’re with friends, etc. Your lack of a focused setting will diminish the possibility of establishing a systematic answering pattern.
The DISC assessment is purely a statistical analysis until it is applied to the environment. Hence, DISC does not judge or place values on your results, but individuals interpreting the results do. The system uses a statistical algorithm to determine how consistently you identify with one DISC style over the others.
Why Compare DISC Assessments with MRI Scans?
Think of yourself when you go to the doctor’s office and having a MRI scan. Your MRI scan creates images of the human body that a doctor can use for diagnoses. So when you are having the MRI scan done, you are directed to hold very still. Your stillness allows the MRI machine to get the clearest image for your doctor to use. The same concept applies to DISC assessments. You can avoid distractions by not multi-tasking when answering the brief set of DISC questions. You can then focus on the questions and answer as honestly and re-actively as possible. If you are able to eliminate as many distractions as possible and follow the simple instructions, you are likely to get clearer DISC profile results.
Other Reasons for Imagining Ourselves in our Work Environment
Creating a setting with minimal distractions is one way to get the best DISC profile results. Another reason for focusing on your work setting is to see how you feel you need to adjust your style in the current environment. We tend not to show our true selves at work because we need to conform to the work environment. You’re more likely to make adjustments in your work setting. On the other hand, you’re less likely to do the same in your more familiar home setting. The contrast between settings forces you to think and analyze yourself more. The same theory would hold true for the student who has the school setting and the home setting. Therefore, the system can better establish your answering pattern.
In the end, regardless of what setting or settings you imagine yourself in; our DISC assessments focus primarily on your stable and natural behavioral style. Your natural hard-wired style is simply how you prefer to do things and largely independent of your environment.
Adam Cravens with Liberty Mutual! Adam guessed the correct Extended DISC original money jar amount of $796 at HRSouthwest 2017!
