DiSC Personality Assessment for Nonprofit Team Building

Editor’s Note: This article on the DiSC assessment was first written in 2018. Given the changing needs of the workforce, we’ve revised it.

Build Your Winning Team

Even before Covid and remote work, several talent trends were changing work in the nonprofit sector. First, talent management models shifted as more people traded full-time employment with one organization for contractual, project-based work on their own terms. A 2018 Deloitte study, “The Fourth Industrial Revolution is here – are you ready?“, reported that 95 percent of new employment in the United States between 2005 and 2015 consisted of alternative work arrangements. The number of workers engaged in alternative work during that timeframe grew from 10 to 16 percent. Remote and hybrid work have added new challenges.

In addition, nonprofit leadership is increasing its commitment to hiring a more diverse and inclusive workforce. As the blend of individual differences multiplies and more employees feel empowered to contribute to their agency’s mission, organizations are gaining a competitive people edge.

With this growing gig and hybrid economy and a cornucopia of skills and competencies, the workplace today can feel messy. Developing teams in which individuals understand how to work together toward common goals is imperative for healthy interpersonal relationships and peak organizational performance.

Team growth powered by DiSC

The DiSC personality assessment is one tool specifically designed to help nonprofit leaders build effective teams. DiSC identifies and clarifies strengths and opportunities around team interactions. This profile centers on four different behavioral traits: dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness.

• Dominance describes the way you deal with problems, assert yourself, and control situations. In a team environment, someone who is a strong D will be direct, decisive, and a doer. In a conflict situation, this trait exhibits as domineering and demanding.
• Influence describes the way you deal with people and the way you communicate and relate to others. In a team environment, someone who is a strong I will be inspirational, interactive, and interesting. In a conflict situation, this trait exhibits as compulsive and irritating.
• Steadiness describes your temperament – patience, persistence, and thoughtfulness. In a team environment, someone who is a strong S will be stable, supportive, and sincere. In a conflict situation, this trait exhibits as slow and sensitive.
• Conscientiousness describes how you approach and organize your activity, procedures, and responsibilities. In a team environment, someone who is a strong C will be cautious, careful, and conscientious. In a conflict situation, this trait exhibits as calculating and condescending.

Benefits of DiSC for your team

The following DiSC benefits can increase the collaboration factor of your creative – and sometimes chaotic – workforce.

• Improve team dynamics. By learning individuals’ leading behaviors, you will understand how these various personality traits come together in a team environment. With the unique ability to identify and measure such traits, DiSC makes intangible behaviors tangible, and helps to bridge communication gaps.
• Manage group conflict. Individuals not only will learn their dominant traits, but also how these traits show up among interpersonal relationships. For conflict-laden teams, DiSC provides insights on how various personalities naturally interact with one another, including how to improve these interactions.
• Empower high-performing individuals and teams. Achievement-oriented individuals want to know how to play to their strengths. The DiSC assessment is a road map toward high performance for individual players and a cohesive team.

Team assessments are not a cure-all for workplace problems. But our ever-changing work environments do require spending more time thinking about the individuals involved in your organization.