“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”
Hiring the right people for the job is crucial to the success of your kitchen and bath firm, but excellent staffing goes much further than the right hire. You want everyone on your team in the roles they were born to be in.
Imagine that your firm’s revenue has skyrocketed to a level you’ve only dreamed of maintaining. Business is flowing strong and steady. Your staff is happily closing deals faster with innovative technology like DesignAlign Selling System and all the signs are pointing to even more expansion. As the owner, you are content, satisfied, and challenged. It sounds like a business operating at its ideal state, doesn’t it?
A company that takes steps toward reaching that height today is on its way to scaling its operations. Issuing a DiSC assessment for your staff is a leap in the direction of optimizing communication among your team members, and ultimately, their productivity.
What is a DISC assessment and how would my firm benefit from taking one?
A DiSC assessment is a behavioral model that categorizes people into one of four learning styles.
It’s an excellent tool for the workplace because it anticipates people’s responses. When you know how staff members learn, you can expect the type of response individuals will have in any given situation. A team that anticipates each other’s next move will naturally improve its productivity.
Knowing more about ourselves not only contributes to our productivity, but to the conviction that each staff member is operating in their ideal role. Much has been written on how employee experience influences a company’s profit. A happy team is a signifier of a healthy business.
That’s because prospects want to do business with companies that are doing well for themselves. Happy personnel are the calling card of a great business. This concept notably appears in Simon Sinek‘s excellent book: Start With Why, which details Continental Airline’s legendary turn from an abysmal failure, to one of the most admired corporations in the world.
DiSC categorizes the way people behave in four participatory styles called: dominant, influencer, steady relater, and compliant. DiSC assessments do not measure intelligence, mental health, aptitude, or values.
Knowing your operational preferences
Starting to get to know your learning style comes down to knowing how you like to operate. It’s one thing to be yourself and operate intuitively, it’s quite another thing to understand why you operate the way you do. To get an idea of the DiSC assessment, begin by asking yourself a couple of questions:
Are you introverted or extroverted?
DiSC assessments offer a comprehensive guide to the hierarchy of an individual’s behavior. While the extrovert wants to be the focus of attention and lead discussions, the introvert participates by observing. It doesn’t mean extroverts are born leaders, or that introverts are shy, and don’t want to participate. Both of these qualities are potentially valuable to a firm.
Are you more people-oriented or task-oriented?
Those who are people-oriented look at the way others communicate verbally. They focus on macro levels of execution and are interested in whether what’s being said resonates with them, and if ideas are conveyed well and convincingly. People-oriented learners want to collaborate with other people-oriented learners and want more of a say on how things that affect other people are done.
Task-oriented people are concerned with hitting milestones and meeting deadlines. They tend to be concerned with micro levels of execution and focus on quality, perfection, and completion.
A task-oriented person is less interested in the way information is conveyed because they are concerned with having the time and space to complete the job on their own.
Regardless of how they are inclined to work, people seek to operate in their ideal role to do the best job that they can.
Breakdown of the participatory styles in the workplace
The four learning styles of the DiSC assessment range from outgoing and people-oriented, to reserved and task-oriented. Knowing your profile will lead you to understand what motivates you and how you like to learn. In the workplace, it shows us where each of us fits into the team we are a part of. It’s all about playing into an individual’s strengths, so teams are at their happiest and most productive.
Dominant — D styles — are extroverted people who love to express their opinion. They are most effective when they take action. They like to “win” and “get ahead.” Competition motivates them. They are not natural team players and may try to solve problems and achieve goals on their own. They are organized, direct, and to the point.
Dominant styles tend to be bored if they are not challenged. They require a friendly, sociable approach where they are not rushed or controlled, in order to do their best work.
Influencers — I styles — are personal and trusting. They like to interact by sharing ideas and planning, but leave the action to others. Influencers are creative and humorous, but also disorganized. They like talking in terms of ideas, feelings, and people, not facts and figures. Their optimism might lead them to presume, rather than plan, for successful outcomes.
Steady Relators — S styles — are amiable, patient people who know how to keep the peace and avoid conflict. Since they practice and prefer consistency and constancy, S styles don’t like changes or surprises. They are deliberate and can appear slow to make decisions. High S’s are loyal, with long-term commitments. S styles are not complainers, but their natural peacekeeping tendencies keep them from being completely honest.
Compliant — C styles — are conscientious, detail-oriented, and precise. They work best autonomously in a structured environment. With the information and tools they need to do their job, and the time to do it well, they will be happy, high-functioning employees. C styles don’t do well in direct sales. Their lack of people-orientation makes bonding and rapport difficult. They are better working behind the scenes than showroom floors.
Each one of these styles is a potential leader, with their own strengths and weaknesses.
Foster better communication by issuing a DISC assessment to your team
Although there is a trend in the business world to use personality testing in the hiring process, it’s not crucial to issue them during hiring! In fact, the Myers-Briggs Company does not recommend using personality testing during the hiring process.
Personality tests become a factor when you already have your team at your disposal. Hopefully, you have the right personnel already hired. Though, even with the right team in place, there are two big reasons to issue DiSC assessments:
- You may have personnel who are not in their ideal role, or unhappy at their post for an unclear reason and are not operating at their highest level of efficiency.
- A DISC assessment will improve communication between your personnel, thereby optimizing your team in their working environment.
The way to foster teamwork is by nourishing understanding among your team members. Not everyone can work to the same degree of efficiency doing the same task, in the same environment, and in the same way. When you know how a person learns, you’ll be able to conduct more meaningful exchanges with them.
Imagine how important it is to your team to have a firm understanding of how each other works best. Since they depend on each other’s performance to reach goals, a team that knows each other’s learning styles and preferred ways of working will consistently deliver excellent results. This is a bankable way to operate in order to generate higher revenue and profitability. As a business owner, be sure you have set yourself, your team, and your business up for the best opportunities for success. Continuous business education will benefit you and the whole team.
Set the pace for optimal performance by attending the next SEN Business School
SEN Executive Business School will return from November 8-11, at theMART in Chicago.
Join us for an exclusive, four-day education program where you’ll learn:
- How to price projects to secure a 10% company year-end net profit
- Where to invest your business to earn the biggest returns
- Multiple strategies for earning up to 40% higher prices for your projects
SEN Design Group is the only industry-specific resource that teaches how finance, marketing, and sales are integrated and mastered. Mastery of these key areas will amplify positive results for your business many times over.
You should also know:
- The full spectrum of this exclusive core knowledge is taught only during this four-day event
- Our curriculum is designed for business owners, partners, and general managers in the kitchen and bath industry
If you are truly serious about scaling your kitchen and bath design operations, visit our events calendar, where you’ll find all the information about what’s coming up at SEN. Contact Shannon Blair or Skyler Ille to register for SEN Executive Business School this November.
—The SEN Leadership Team
