Daniel Nesbitt | Marketing and Administrative Specialist | People Factor, LLC
Wiley DiSC as we know it today was first developed in the 1940’s, but that doesn’t mean that it is dated technology. Wiley DiSC isn’t “just another personality test” or like any personality test that you may have seen on Facebook or in magazines. Wiley started with Everything DiSC, which is a simple and helpful model made up of four basic styles: D (dominance), i (influence), S (steadiness), and C (conscientiousness), but it doesn’t stop there. Wiley took their already successful Everything DiSC, and DiSC 360 to combine them, creating DiSC 363 for leaders. DiSC 363 takes their previously proven methods and adds in a confidential peer rating system that allows colleagues to rate their leader and share information with them about their leadership style, along with their personality to help them better understand how they can most effectively lead those around them. The biggest addition to DiSC 363, and the reason for the new name, is because after the assessment has been completed, the report provides the leader with 3 specific recommendations on how to improve their leadership style.
DiSC 363 starts by sending two different online assessments to both the leader and the raters. First, the leader will complete their two-part assessment by taking a standard Everything DiSC assessment as well as a specific leadership behavior section about how they prefer to lead. While this is being completed, a group of people under the management of the leader being assessed is identified and is asked to complete the same leadership behavior section that the leader takes, plus a leadership requests section that asks which leadership practices they’d like to see the leader do more often. Throughout the entire process the identities of the raters is kept confidential to ensure that they can provide accurate and honest feedback for the leader without any fear of repercussions. All responses from the raters use Wiley’s “Comment Smart” system which gives the raters selectable comments, keeping criticism positive and removing the distraction of distasteful or confusing open-ended comments.
After all of the online assessments have been completed, Wiley DiSC produces a 26 page report that can seem intimidating at first, but it’s filled with information that is all designed to help you become a better leader according to what those around you see. Most importantly, this report provides you with three different leadership strategies that Wiley suggests to give the leader greater information on how to actually use the results in their report.
We believe that just reading the report and thinking about some of the suggestions isn’t enough. To truly get the most out of a DiSC 363 assessment after it has been completed, it is important to sit down with someone like an executive coach and develop a plan to adopt and implement some of the suggestions that the report offers.
