Stop Guessing, Start Building: Using DISC Insights to Cultivate a High-Performing Team
A high-performing team isn’t just a collection of talented individuals; it’s a group that understands, trust and complements each other.
Whether you're leading a team or part of one, the truth is the same: your success depends on the people around you. A high-performing team turns individual strengths into collective results — and that’s where the real impact happens.
DISC is a powerful tool for building that kind of team. It helps individuals understand their own behaviour style, and the styles of their teammates, which results in better communication, stronger collaboration and a more cohesive team overall (one that gets results and that you want to work on).
Why Behaviour Styles Matter in Team Performance
Great teams are not built solely on technical skills. They need to communicate effectively to thrive (especially during high conflict times). Team members need to trust each other and to understand individual and team strengths. When teams lack this understanding, miscommunication and frustrations emerge which negatively impacts performance.
Understanding behaviour styles builds the bridge between individual differences and effective teamwork.
A Quick Overview of DISC
The four behaviours styles of DISC are:
· D (Dominance) – results-driven, competitive, direct
· I (Influence) – people-oriented, enthusiastic, persuasive
· S (Steadiness) – supportive, dependable, cooperative
· C (Conscientiousness) – detail-focused, analytical, systematic
Homogeneous teams (similar styles) often seem more harmonious because they “get” each other better, but they have large blind spots. Heterogeneous teams (different styles) can be more challenging as team members don’t always understand each other, however, they have fewer blind spots.
How DISC Insights Build High-Performing Teams
High-performing teams communicate more effectively because they truly understand one another. That deeper understanding leads to fewer conflicts, stronger collaboration, and the ability to align tasks with individual strengths and preferences.
Improved Communication
People process information differently. Consider these differences:
Some can give you immediate feedback and input and others require time to reflect and process.
Risk-adverse vs willing to take risks
High-level vs detail focused
Work alone vs work with others
Accepting of change vs change reluctant
Imagine these scenarios:
A C style colleague sends a 3 page report to their D style manager who just wants the final recommendation and a 2-3 line summary.
A S style teammate is dragging their feet making a decision which is frustrating their I style coworker who was ready to decide 2 weeks ago.
A D style employee just wants to work on the project alone and their S style teammate feels like the D is mad at them whenever they meet to work together.
An I style manager spends the first 10 minutes of a meeting talking informally with the team while their C style employee keeps checking the clock and wishing they didn’t have to participate and could just get the answer they need so they can proceed with their work
We can feel frustrated when interacting with people who are different than us.
Understanding your own style empowers you to advocate for what you want or need. Understanding the styles of your colleagues allows you to adapt to their style for more successful communication.
Imagine you are working on a project with 3 others and each person speaks a different language. You can communicate rudimentarily, however, you are most effective if you can adapt to the other languages (and they can adapt to yours). DISC is that translator and it gives you common language to ask for what you need (ie: my S style needs us to slow down a bit and explore all the possible outcomes).
Strengthen Trust and Relationships
I sat on a board with an I style leader and three D style board members. The I style would always leave time at the beginning of the meeting for a “check in” during which two of the D styles would text me asking if she was trying to make them mad on purpose and expressing their frustration that we were already behind on the agenda.
After doing a DISC session, the D styles understood that people and emotions were critical to her and they relaxed more into the activity. The I style recognized their focus on results and added the activity onto the agenda and limited it to 15 minutes.
As a result, what was acrimonious became understanding and their relationships improved greatly (as did the feeling around the board table) and our ability to have difficult conversations more successfully.
Trust is fostered when people feel seen, understood and respected. Empathy is fostered when we understand that differences aren’t personal (they aren’t trying to drive you nuts; they might just be wired differently than you).
DISC allows you to approach (and resolve) issues with understanding, rather than judgment, fostering stronger relationships and stronger teams. When each team member understands the model, you have common language to approach differences so the conversation remains productive rather than personal.
Aligning Strengths with Tasks: Match the Right People to the Right Work
We all have tasks we could do all day and others we hate and which we will procrastinate until the last minute. DISC gives us insights into our strengths and motivators (as well as situations that reduce our motivation). A team DISC report even compiles that for each person into one report, allowing us to allocate tasks to those who have strength and motivation to do them.
Additionally, knowing a team member is doing a task which falls outside their strength and motivation, helps us recognize when they will need more support which sets them up to be more successful.
Practical Ways to Implement DISC with your Team
Complete Individual Assessments
Have each person on your team complete their assessment. They receive a Personal Assessment report. Adding training onto these assessments helps them really understand themselves and the model.
Compile Team Reports and Conduct Team Training
Once people have done individual assessments, a team report can be created. The team report summarizes team members and overlays their styles onto a team map which makes it easier to visualize strengths and blind spots. Then you can do a team session where you recognize the styles of each teammate, look at team strengths and blind spots which builds stronger teams with more effective communication.
Display DISC Styles
Adding styles to their names on Zoom or hanging their DISC diamond near their workspace makes DISC more than a one-off training and helps integrate it into your organization.
Make Learning Ongoing
Ensure new employees complete an assessment as part of their onboarding process and they have opportunities to be trained on the model.
Common Pitfalls
Be careful to avoid these pitfalls as you implement DISC in your organization
Labeling
“Which style is the best” is a common question I am asked. The answer is no style is better than another. DISC does not tell you what you can or can’t do, but rather, helps you identify what is natural (what you can do with little effort and how you default under pressure) and what isn’t natural (what takes you more energy). It’s a tool for growth, not a box meant to limit people.
Ignoring Style Differences under Stress
People’s styles become more pronounced under stress. Recognizing stress (in ourselves and in others) is critical to navigating these tough times.
Not Making DISC Part of the Culture
While you can do DISC assessments and training once, failure to commit to implementing it on an ongoing basis across your organization limits its value.
What’s Next
Building a high-performing team takes more than just technical skill – trust, understanding and communication are critical too. By using DISC insights, you can create a team culture where differences are strengths, collaboration is smoother and success is easier.
Take an Individual DISC assessment (and do training)
Host a team DISC session
Read blogs on DISC (you can see all of them on my DISC page)
Listen to my radio show episodes on DISC (you can see all of them on my DISC page)
Contact me to bring DISC to your organization
Sign up for Leadership Toolbox (there is a section about DISC including a mini course)
