Personality tests for employees can reveal insights into unique traits and work styles that can be invaluable for building culture and collaboration. Some critics argue that these tests may oversimplify complex human behavior, lack reliability, and validity, and suffer from self-report bias.They also raise concerns about potential stereotyping, pigeonholing, and limited growth opportunities that might arise from assigning individuals to personality types.
At Cloverleaf, we believe personality tests can be tremendous sources of data and learning that can be used to significantly improve workplace performance. The way organizations use these assessments is evolving; dynamic data usage and continuous refinement make personality tests more actionable and insightful than ever before.Ever since their inception, assessments have been a static, one-time experience. Meaning users complete a list of predefined questions that translate into a final score that lives on in perpetuity… Thanks to automation, asking additional assessment questions over time is becoming feasible. Assessments can be refined as users engage in additional contexts, such as interactions with specific colleagues or while dealing with certain challenges. – Scott Dust, Forbes Council Member
A balanced approach to tests, while considering their limitations, considers the valuable insights into employees’ strengths, motivations, and preferences. Understanding an employee’s personality inventory can help ensure they are in roles that are an ideal job fit. For example, a more introverted person who doesn’t like speaking in public will most likely not get a job that requires them to do so. Having the right personality for the job or organization will result in a better job fit and bring many benefits—including reduced turnover. – peopledynamics.co
By tapping into the power of behavioral and strength assessments, managers and coworkers can develop more understanding about each other, strengthen collaboration, and reduce conflicts. Embracing assessment tools in the workplace can ultimately lead to a more successful organization and unlock your team’s full potential.
Key Takeaways:
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Assessment tools can provide profound insight to build understanding, strengthen collaboration, reduce conflicts, and unlock team potential for a more successful organization.
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When selecting assessment tools for employees, leaders must consider relevance, validity, ease of use, and ways to make the insights actionable.
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Leaders can use personality assessment to identify employees’ strengths, motivations, and preferences to strengthen organizational performance.
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The basic practice of “treat others how they want to be treated” can help team members to feel heard, seen, and valued.
5 Personality Tests For Employees That Improve Teamwork
Teamwork can make work fun, but to get there, team members truly need to understand each other. Personality tests can bridge the gap that often exists between different personality types. People are complicated, each with their own unique ways of thinking and doing. Think of these assessments as the roadmap to navigating the diverse landscape of your team, highlighting the best paths for collaboration and identifying potential roadblocks.
We’re often asked which personality tests are best for the workplace, and we like to start with these five because of the unique insights each one provides. When combined, these layered insights create a comprehensive understanding of each individual and the dynamics that exist within a team.
The five we recommend starting with are:
16 Types
DISC
Enneagram
CliftonStrengths®
VIA
16 Types (MBTI)
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) categorizes individuals into 16 distinct personality types based on preferences in four areas: Introversion/Extraversion, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling, and Judging/Perceiving. Developed by Isabel Briggs Myers and Katharine Cook Briggs, this assessment draws from Carl Jung’s theory of psychological types. It’s invaluable for understanding how individuals consume information, learn, and reach conclusions.
Learn About The 16-Types Assessment
Key Benefits
The MBTI reveals how team members prefer to process information and make decisions. It highlights their mental habits and decision-making engines, offering a deeper understanding of their intrinsic motivations. By recognizing these habits, leaders can create buy-in, minimize miscommunication, and build trust within their teams.
Use Cases
Individual Growth: Helps individuals uncover their unique cognitive preferences, empowering them to understand how they best process information and make decisions. This self-awareness allows them to leverage their strengths, develop more effective strategies for personal growth, and increase their job satisfaction.
Team Dynamics: Enhances team dynamics by revealing the diverse thinking and communication styles within the group. By understanding these differences, teams can reduce friction, foster mutual respect, and collaborate more effectively, leading to a more cohesive and harmonious working environment.
Leadership Development: Enables leaders to tailor their management style to align with each team member’s natural preferences. By adapting their approach, leaders can boost engagement and productivity, creating an environment where everyone feels valued and understood. This empathetic leadership fosters a motivated and high-performing team.
Disc
DISC is a quick and easy-to-remember assessment that measures four traits: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness. By observing your team’s communication styles and level of activity in conversations, you can better understand their needs and motivations. Adjusting your approach based on their DISC profile can improve collaboration and productivity.
Key Benefits
DISC helps teams quickly recognize how each member communicates, responds to challenges, and influences others. By observing these traits, leaders can better grasp the underlying motivations and needs of their team members.
Use Cases
Individual Growth: Provides individuals with insights into their behavioral tendencies, helping them understand how they interact with others and respond to various situations. This awareness allows them to improve their interpersonal skills and adapt their behavior to different contexts, enhancing their overall effectiveness.
Team Dynamics: Improves team communication by identifying the different behavioral styles within the group. By understanding these styles, teams can tailor their interactions to be more effective, reducing misunderstandings and strengthen collaboration.
Leadership Development: Helps leaders manage their teams more effectively by understanding each member’s behavioral style. Leaders can use this insight to tailor their communication and management strategies, ensuring they meet each individual’s needs. This leads to a more engaged and productive team, with members who feel understood and supported.
enneagram
The Enneagram is a versatile assessment that identifies nine distinct personality types, each with unique emotional drives and perspectives. It serves as a lens for understanding socio-emotional motivators, providing deep insights into why individuals behave differently when pursuing the same goals or facing the same challenges.
Key Benefits
The Enneagram helps teams understand the core motivations driving each member’s behavior, promoting empathy and reducing conflicts. It reveals why individuals behave differently under similar circumstances and offers valuable insights into group dynamics, decision-making environments, and conflict resolution.
Use Cases
Individual Growth: Provides deep insights into an individual’s core motivations and emotional drivers. This understanding allows individuals to recognize their strengths and areas for growth, fostering greater self-awareness and personal development. It helps them navigate their behaviors and relationships more effectively.
Team Dynamics: Enhances team dynamics by promoting empathy and understanding among team members. By recognizing the different motivations and perspectives within the team, members can better appreciate each other’s contributions and work together more harmoniously.
Leadership Development: Equips leaders with a profound understanding of their team members’ core motivations. This insight allows leaders to address conflicts and challenges with empathy and precision, creating a more harmonious and productive workplace. Leaders can tailor their approach to meet the emotional needs of their team, fostering a more engaged and committed workforce.
Cliftonstrengths®
Strengths-based assessments, such as CliftonStrengths®, Strengthscope, or VIA, help individuals tap into their innate talents and abilities. Unlike traditional personality assessments, strength-based assessments focus on what people naturally do best, helping them to understand and develop their innate abilities. By leveraging these strengths, individuals can enhance their performance, engagement, and overall satisfaction at work.
Key Benefits
CliftonStrengths® reveals individuals’ natural talents, providing a roadmap for personal and professional growth. It helps employees recognize what energizes them and how to apply their strengths to achieve their goals. Understanding these talents allows for more effective teamwork and leadership.
Use Cases
Individual Growth: Helps individuals identify and develop their innate talents, turning them into strengths. This focus on what they naturally do best can boost their confidence and engagement, leading to higher job satisfaction and personal growth.
Team Dynamics: Enhances team dynamics by helping members understand and appreciate each other’s unique strengths. By leveraging these strengths, teams can collaborate more effectively, fill gaps, and achieve better results.
Leadership Development: Empower leaders to build a strengths-based culture within their teams. By focusing on each team member’s strengths, leaders can enhance engagement and performance, creating a motivated and high-performing team. This approach helps leaders bring out the best in their team, driving success and satisfaction.
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The VIA (Values in Action) Strengths assessment is a tool that measures an individual’s character strengths, focusing on 24 unique qualities organized under six core virtues: wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence. By identifying these strengths, the VIA assessment helps individuals recognize and utilize their innate qualities to contribute effectively to their personal and professional lives.
Key Benefits
The VIA assessment enhances personal fulfillment and well-being by helping individuals understand and leverage their core character strengths. This deeper self-awareness not only boosts individual confidence but also promotes a collaborative and supportive team environment where everyone’s unique qualities are valued and utilized.
Use Cases
Individual Growth: Empower individuals by providing deep insights into their core character strengths, such as wisdom, courage, and humanity. This self-awareness can increase confidence and well-being to enable employees to align their actions with their values and achieve greater personal fulfillment. By focusing on their unique strengths, individuals can navigate their career paths more effectively and find greater satisfaction in their roles.
Team Dynamics: When team members recognize and value each other’s unique character strengths, they build stronger, more supportive relationships. This positive environment encourages collaboration and mutual respect, which can improve team performance and support a cohesive working atmosphere.
Leadership Development: Providing leaders with understanding can help them create a healthy culture. By aligning team roles with individual strengths, leaders can boost morale and productivity to build a more engaged and committed team. Leaders can leverage these strengths to address challenges effectively and inspire their teams to achieve common goals.
Overview: Different Personality Assessments Reveal Different Things About Employees
Selecting personality tests for employees is a powerful way to unlock your team’s full potential and create a thriving culture. By understanding each team member’s unique strengths, motivations, and work preferences, you can inspire collaboration, minimize conflicts, and ensure that tasks are assigned in a way that maximizes performance and job satisfaction.
16 Types (MBTI) offer insight into how employees process information, learn, and make decisions. By understanding how an individual’s brain works, managers can effectively assign tasks and optimize workplace dynamics.
DISC Assessment: Focused on observable behavior, DISC identifies distinct work styles, making it invaluable for managers to understand and support their employees. It’s beneficial when time is limited and a quick evaluation is needed.
Enneagram: This assessment delves into the underlying motivations that drive an individual’s behavior. By comprehending these driving forces, managers can tap into their employees’ strengths and provide tailored support, leading to improved performance and job satisfaction.
Strengths Assessments: These identify employees’ unique talents that, when developed, result in exceptional performance. Recognizing and leveraging these strengths can help employees excel with less effort, ultimately benefiting the entire team.
Cloverleaf offers a range of assessments, including free options. We recommend starting with 16 types, DISC, Enneagram, and strengths assessments. These can provide valuable insights into team strengths and opportunities for growth. Click here to start a free trial or take a test.
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How To Use Behavior Assessments To Coach People At Work
Using personality assessments with employees can provide invaluable insights into individual strengths, communication styles, and areas for growth. Learn how Cloverleaf integrates the insight and learning from behavioral and strengths assessments into your daily workflow to deliver personalized and actionable coaching tips in real-time.
How To Increase The Value Of Your Assessment Strategy With Automated Coaching
When deciding which personality tests to use with your team, consider the following factors to ensure you maximize their value:
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Relevance to the workplace: Choose assessments focusing on traits directly impacting work performance and collaboration. With Cloverleaf, these insights are integrated into daily workflows, making the relevance even more apparent.
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Validity and reliability: Opt for tests with strong scientific backing to ensure accurate and consistent results. Cloverleaf uses behavioral and strength-based assessments with reliable data that drive meaningful development.
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Ease of use and interpretation: A good test should be easy to administer and understand. This helps individuals quickly apply the insights they gain to their everyday work interactions. Cloverleaf’s Automated Coaching™ simplifies this process, offering intuitive dashboards and personalized feedback that helps individuals quickly apply insights to their everyday work interactions.
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Actionable insights: The best test results provide practical recommendations for improving communication, collaboration, and team performance. With Cloverleaf, these insights don’t just sit in a report—they come to life through ongoing, contextual coaching tips delivered directly within your team’s workflow tools.
Assessments
Validated behavioral and strength-based assessments you’re probably already using.
Insight search
Ask questions about yourself and teammates to get strategies specific to your context.
Coaching Tips
Effortlessly receive timely, actionable coaching nudged into your tools every day.
Reflections
Personalized prompts to spark introspection for application and growth.
Side-by-Side Comparisons
Reveal similarities and differences among team members to improve collaboration.
Team Dashboard
A comprehensive view of your team’s behaviors, strengths, and areas to develop.
Why Use Personality Tests Within The Workplace?
The Purpose of Personality Tests For Employees
Ideally, personality tests help organizations provide a common language, improve communication, reduce tension, reveal strengths and weaknesses, and identify growth opportunities. With Cloverleaf’s Automated Coaching™, these benefits are not just theoretical—they become a dynamic part of your team’s everyday interactions.
When employees understand their personality traits and those of their teammates, they can approach each other more effectively. This can transform potentially tense situations into constructive conversations. Cloverleaf brings these insights to life by delivering personalized coaching tips that guide employees on how to interact based on real-time contexts and the people they will interact with that day.
Assessments are tools for personal and professional development. They help individuals understand themselves, manage their behavior, and learn how to adjust their communication style according to their teammates’ preferences. Cloverleaf ensures these insights are continuously reinforced through ongoing coaching, making personal and professional growth a daily practice.
8 Benefits of Personality Assessments in the Workplace
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Increase Communication: Personality assessments can build self and other awareness. This understanding helps people express their needs more clearly and work more effectively towards shared goals. Improved communication leads to fewer misunderstandings and smoother interactions, creating a more cohesive team environment.
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Encourage Collaboration: Teams can more easily collaborate by understanding each team member’s unique strengths, motivations, and communication styles. When team members appreciate each other’s contributions, they can work together more effectively, leveraging diverse perspectives to achieve common goals.
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Personal and professional development: Self-awareness gained from personality assessments can be a catalyst for personal and professional growth. Individuals can identify their strengths and areas for improvement and set goals that align with their natural talents and preferences.
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Psychological safety: When team members feel understood and can communicate in their most natural state, they experience a higher level of psychological safety. This safe environment encourages open dialogue, innovation, and risk-taking, which are essential for a thriving workplace.
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Strengthen Trust: Understanding each other’s personalities and motivations helps build stronger relationships and trust within the team. When team members know what drives their colleagues, they can empathize with different perspectives and build a more supportive and cohesive environment.
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Boost Productivity: Teams can enhance productivity and performance by leveraging each person’s strengths and adapting communication styles to their needs. When individuals work in ways that align with their natural abilities, they are more efficient and effective, driving better results for the organization.
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Employee Satisfaction: Encouraging individuals to utilize their strengths and align their work with their passions leads to higher job satisfaction and engagement. When employees feel valued for their unique contributions, they are more likely to be motivated and committed to their work, resulting in increased retention and a more positive workplace atmosphere.
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Team Building: Understanding each person’s motivations and strengths helps create more balanced and effective teams. Managers can assign tasks that align with each member’s skills, recognizing and leveraging individual talents to optimize team performance. This ongoing process ensures that teams remain dynamic and adaptable to changing needs.
Automated Coaching™ ensures your team experiences these benefits to the fullest by turning static assessment data into dynamic, ongoing development tools. Automated Coaching™ integrates personality insights into daily workflows, providing real-time, personalized coaching tips that help individuals and teams continuously grow and adapt. By layering insights from multiple assessments, Cloverleaf offers a comprehensive view of each team member, enhancing communication, collaboration, and productivity. This continuous support ensures that the benefits of personality assessments are not just realized once but are reinforced and expanded over time, creating a more engaged, effective, and satisfied workforce.
It turns out the golden rule of “treat others how you want to be treated” can be taken a step further in the workplace. Instead, strive to “treat others how they want to be treated” to improve communication, strengthen relationships, and increase team effectiveness.
Personality Tests Help You Take The Golden Rule A Step Further
It turns out the golden rule of “treat others how you want to be treated” can be taken a step further in the workplace. Instead, strive to “treat others how they want to be treated” to improve communication, strengthen relationships, and increase team effectiveness.
Understanding your team members and the dynamics of your work environment is crucial for moving from self-awareness to successful collaboration. By recognizing that different situations may require you to adapt your natural tendencies—whether it’s being more urgent in communication, asking more questions, or carefully choosing your words when giving feedback—you can significantly enhance team collaboration.
Making these minor adjustments, where you invest extra energy to adapt to your teammates’ needs or the context of the situation, is part of personal development and self-management. The ultimate goal of providing personality tests for employees is to help them better understand themselves, their team, and their environment and manage their behaviors, expectations, and actions accordingly. This approach ensures the most positive and productive outcomes for both their team and themselves.
Recognizing your unique strengths and choosing to act differently out of kindness, generosity, collaboration, and the desire to achieve more can make you more effective and help you thrive both at work and in your personal life. Personality assessments are powerful tools that provide insight into these strengths and areas for growth, enabling you to make informed decisions and achieve desired outcomes.
Assessments are tools for understanding all your options, enabling you to make the best choices and achieve the desired outcomes. By increasing emotional intelligence, you can unlock your full potential and become a more effective leader, teammate, and individual. Cloverleaf’s Automated Coaching™ enhances these insights, transforming them from static data into dynamic, ongoing development tools. Integrated into your daily workflow, Cloverleaf’s coaching tips and personalized advice help you and your team continuously grow and adapt to become more engaged, collaborative, and high-performing.
Want To Use Personality Tests To Scale Development?
Find Out How To Quickly:
- Close the gap between learning and on-the-job application
- Personalize growth to individual strengths and needs
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Have you ever wondered why some colleagues seem to have a different approach to work than others? Or why do certain team members communicate differently or prioritize tasks in a particular way? Using DISC in the workplace can help teams understand one another’s behaviors and actions.
The DISC profile can help you understand yourself and your teammates because it identifies common patterns of behavior and motivation. The assessment is easy to comprehend, with only four parts: D, I, S, and C. Each letter represents a specific work style and describes the interests of each quadrant.
This post will explore using the DISC in the workplace to improve your team’s communication, collaboration, and productivity. You’ll also discover practical tips and strategies for working effectively with each type.
How Does The DISC Assessment Differ From Other Assessments?
The DISC assessment is unique in that it provides a simple, accessible way to understand and categorize behavioral tendencies, which can improve communication, teamwork, and leadership in various contexts. Other assessments may focus on different aspects of an individual’s personality or behavior, such as emotional intelligence, cognitive abilities, values, and motivating factors.
The DISC profile differs from other assessments in focusing specifically on an individual’s response to favorable and unfavorable situations. It measures their tendency toward four behavioral traits: dominance, influence, steadiness, and compliance. DISC provides insight into individual interactions and responses to stress and conflict.
Why Is DISC Important In The Workplace?
Incorporating DISC into the workplace can improve communication, giving and receiving feedback, and conflict resolution to enhance team performance. Managers can create a more cohesive and effective team by understanding each person’s motivational tendencies, communication styles, and cognitive diversity.
Understanding Motivational Tendencies
One of the primary benefits of using DISC in the workplace is its ability to provide information about the motivational tendencies of individuals. For example, individuals with high Steadiness scores may value cooperation and sincerity, while those with higher Dominance scores may prioritize pushing towards goals and outcomes. Understanding these tendencies can help managers better motivate and engage members of the team.
Enhancing Communication
DISC scores can also provide insights into effectively communicating with others. For instance, a team with a disproportionate number of high Dominance scores may create an environment where those with higher Steadiness or Compliance scores do not feel comfortable contributing ideas. Managers can create a more inclusive and productive environment by understanding different communication styles.
Depersonalizing Conflict
DISC can also help depersonalize conflict by providing a common communication language for a team. For example, using a team dashboard to display aggregate DISC results can help team members better understand each other’s conflict management styles and triggers. This can lead to developing a “conflict contract” that establishes group norms for dealing with conflict and helps generate team buy-in.
Capitalizing on Cognitive Diversity
Studies have shown that teams with higher cognitive diversity produce better outcomes. DISC can help teams understand their level of cognitive diversity and how to harness it to improve outcomes. Using the team DISC wheel, managers can see where the team lacks certain styles or where a member may play a critical role in achieving team goals.
Defining the Right Roles
DISC can help managers better understand how team members fit into their roles. Managers can create a more productive and engaged team using DISC to match individuals with roles that align with their behavioral patterns. Assigning tasks that conflict with their natural style may lead to burnout or turnover.
HUMAN SKILL PROGRAMS KEEP HITTING The SAME LIMITATIONS...
Find Out How To Easily:
- Apply DISC results to real work tasks
- Tailor learning to who your people are, where they are
- Integrate learning so it is actually in the flow of work
- Scale human skills development
- Prove the ROI of your talent development programs
The D Type Personality In The Workplace
Dominance: Balancing Drive with Team Dynamics
The D in DISC stands for Dominance, which characterizes driven, goal-oriented, and assertive individuals. They are natural leaders who seek control and authority, viewing them as positive qualities. However, in their quest for success, D types may prioritize tasks and outcomes over the well-being and contributions of their co-workers.
High-D individuals must balance their drive for achievement with understanding how their actions affect their team dynamics. Overly focusing on tasks can dismiss the importance of building relationships and collaborating. This can ultimately hinder team success and create a hostile work environment.
Leaders with high-D traits can motivate their team towards a shared goal while creating a culture of openness, respect, and trust. By balancing their dominant nature with empathy and consideration for others, they can harness their strengths to achieve success for the team.
The I Type Personality In The Workplace
Influence: Harnessing Energy for Collaborative Success
“I” stands for Influence in the DISC model, representing individuals prioritizing social interaction and relationship-building. I types are energized by being around people and are drawn to change, seeing it as a positive force that can bring about new opportunities. They excel at connecting with others, using their charisma and personal skills to generate enthusiasm and excitement.
One potential downside of the I style is that their enthusiasm and love of variety can sometimes lead to impulsiveness and distractibility. They may lose sight of the end goal or become disorganized in pursuing new experiences. As a result, it can be helpful for Is to work with someone who can provide structure and help keep them focused on the task at hand.
Influencing types bring a valuable perspective to teams, and their ability to build relationships and generate excitement can help keep teams motivated and engaged. By understanding their strengths and potential pitfalls, Is can use their skills to benefit their team and the organization.
The S Type Personality In The Workplace
Steadiness: Fostering Team Harmony and Collaboration
These individuals are team players who prioritize a harmonious and inclusive team culture. They value stability and seek to create that for their team.
Others often consider them to be great listeners and have supportive teammates. They don’t like change or conflict and rarely initiate it, even if it costs them. It’s also essential to include them in any team decisions, give them ample notice if any changes need to be made, and seek their opinions.
S-Types like to ensure everyone is heard and foster a strong sense of connection among teammates. By understanding and leveraging the strengths of the S style, you can create a positive and supportive team environment.
The C Type Personality In The Workplace
Conscientiousness: Leveraging Attention to Detail for Team Success
The letter C represents traits that value a high focus on details and a desire for excellence. Individuals with this personality type are motivated to deliver quality work and are experts in their area of work. They hold themselves and their team to high standards and seek feedback to ensure their work meets expectations.
While conscientious individuals bring value to a team, they can find it stressful when faced with last-minute changes or rushed schedules. It’s important to give them adequate notice and allow them to work independently. They appreciate regular feedback but must be presented with kindness, as they can be sensitive to criticism.
These individuals thrive when given tasks that require attention to detail and expertise. They don’t need much collaboration or social interaction and may prefer to work from a private office or home. You can maximize their contribution to the team’s success by recognizing and leveraging their strengths.
How To Use The DISC Assessment With Teams?
The DISC circle illustrates how individuals with different personality types respond to change differently.
Responses to Change Based on DISC Types
The top of the circle represents the Ds and Is, who are drawn to change and view it as a positive force that can help them achieve their goals. In contrast, the Ss and Cs at the bottom of the circle are change-averse and can perceive change as an opposing force that may impede their effectiveness. They fear that chaos may arise in the team due to change.
People vs. Task Orientation
The DISC model further categorizes individuals into two groups based on their preference for people or task-oriented work. Those on the I and S side are drawn to people, collaboration, and service, and those on the D and C sides are attracted to tasks, execution, and accomplishment.
Effective Communication Strategies For Each DISC Type
The way people communicate also varies based on their place in the circle. Ds prioritize clarity over diplomacy and may come across as blunt, while Is focus on building relationships and connection.
Ss prioritize harmony and use soft-spoken, affirming communication, making direct communication difficult. Cs prioritize clear communication based on data and have a black-and-white approach to good and bad.
It’s helpful to slow down and use a measured approach when speaking to Ss and Cs, especially when giving feedback or asking for information. Providing notice and time to synthesize information is crucial for Ss and Cs.
Providing advanced notice about impending changes or project deadlines can help gain buy-in from Cs and Ss. Communicating how changes will benefit the organization or team can help achieve their support.
D and I personality types respond well to direct, confident, and energetic communication. They appreciate clear goals, objectives, and deadlines. When communicating with a D, it’s essential to be clear and concise, avoiding too much detail or ambiguity.
When communicating with an I, it’s important to be enthusiastic and engaging, using stories and anecdotes to keep their attention. They appreciate a more conversational tone and love to be recognized for their contributions.
D and I personality types appreciate a sense of urgency and enthusiasm in communication, and giving them space to express their ideas and opinions is important. They also respond well to visual aids and are more likely to be motivated by positive feedback and recognition than criticism.
Using DISC To Improve Communication During Team Meetings
During meetings, it’s important to be aware of communication patterns that can reveal someone’s DISC style. The Ds and Is tend to speak up first and express their opinions, while the Ss and Cs may reserve their comments. To ensure all members contribute, set aside time for Ss and Cs to provide feedback and opinions. For example, dedicating the last 15 minutes of the meeting can be effective. Creating a cadence for participation can also encourage involvement.
When Ds and Is lead meetings, ensuring everyone’s voice is heard is essential. They may assume that others will speak up if they have an idea, but encouraging participation is important. Awareness of each DISC type can help create routines that allow for informed decisions and ensure everyone’s voice is heard.
Using Cloverleaf's DISC Personality Test To Nuance Unique Personality Characteristics In The Workplace
DISC results often include a spectrum that reflects where individuals fall on each of the four quadrants. It’s possible for individuals to strongly prefer one quadrant or be more balanced, meaning they won’t have a dominant trait.
One of the unique features of the Cloverleaf DISC test is that it reveals some conflicting values that individuals may possess. For instance, individuals with a strong I and C may experience conflicting values because they enjoy a fast-paced environment with people and frequent changes from the I. Still, from the C, they also desire consistency.
Some characteristics may present less in individuals because they are self-regulating, which is a superpower. Balancing opposing values is a unique strength, as it allows one to see both sides of an issue.
Those with strengths in opposing quadrants, like IC and DS, have complementary strengths that can benefit a team without a partner or collaborator. This ability to see both sides of the picture can drive external collaboration and build consensus while maintaining attention to detail and striving for excellence.
In contrast, a traditional influence strength may become exhausted with detailed work. Still, someone with a balanced profile can have the energy to dig into the data and make new discoveries.
The rare combination of a high S and D result is present in only 2% of Cloverleaf users. These individuals possess a strong pioneering driver while valuing connection and being highly supportive of their team. They love change, power, and authority but also desire stability and harmony with others.
While some people with this combination may focus their drive inward rather than solely on achieving goals, it’s important to note that there is still a strong desire to move forward.
Conclusion
Each quadrant in the DISC profile is driven by particular questions that they find most important.
Ds are goal-oriented and prioritize understanding where they’re going and how to get there.
Influencers prioritize collaboration, resourcefulness, and the enjoyment of the task.
Steadiness drivers want to know how they will execute a task and how it will impact the team’s well-being.
Conscientious individuals want to understand the task, including its standards, expectations, and boundaries (such as time, resources, and commitments).
By using DISC in the workplace, you can tailor your communication and approach to meet their unique needs and preferences.
Understanding DISC results and the communication styles of each quadrant can significantly improve your team’s dynamics and productivity. By knowing the questions that each quadrant is interested in, you can communicate more effectively, meet everyone’s needs, and gain their buy-in faster.
Taking the DISC assessment and inviting your team to do the same can help you leverage everyone’s talents and gifts to achieve better results. Visit cloverleaf.me to start your profile and begin your journey towards better teamwork.
The Big 5 personality traits include conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience, and extroversion. The goal of the Big 5 was lofty—to distill all the possible personality traits into a cohesive, manageable set of factors.
The research signaled that five was ideal, although it could have been more (and some less popular models do have more than five). The selection of five was to ensure that the factors were distinct and comprehensive, such that the factors covered the vast majority of “variance” across all possible personality traits.
The Big 5 has undergone plentiful and robust construct validity analyses and has been included in all sorts of models, making it a solid approach to evaluating how personality traits relate to different types of organizational behavior. More specifically, if the goal is to understand the degree to which a personality trait (e.g., openness to experience) correlates with an outcome of interest (e.g., creativity), the Big 5 is a wise choice.
The challenge with the Big 5, however, is that’s it’s not inherently “practical,” which is the goal in applied settings. The Big 5 is built for research, where the goal is to incrementally advance theory. In applied settings, however, the goal is to facilitate behavior change. This requires a slightly different approach. The factors of interest are still grounded in evidence and have also undergone construct validity analyses. However, the selection of factors (also called dimensions) is based on user utility. Further, the way the assessments are constructed, scored, and reported is more appropriate for those interested in making day-to-day behavior changes. Below, I offer more detailed explanations of these differences.
The first difference is variability. For example, even though conscientiousness is one of the strongest predictors of performance, the mean-level across populations is relatively high. Without variation, it doesn’t add much value to applied settings. Applied, trait-based assessments, such as the dimensions of DISC, 16 types, Enneagram, and Instinctive drives, are built for ensuring that variability exists so that we can glean more specific insights on how the factors show up in work settings.
The second difference is neutrality. The applied, trait-based assessments, for the most part (if done correctly), are purposefully neutral (i.e., they are not “good” or “bad”). Several of the Big 5 have negative connotations—neuroticism in particular. Low levels of agreeableness (i.e., disagreeableness) and low levels of openness to experience (i.e., being close-minded) do as well. Again, although these are clearly universal and important traits, they don’t work well in applied settings. Participants don’t want to be told they are innately flawed. Further, negatively worded assessment questions introduce social desirability bias (i.e., we want to present ourselves to colleagues and supervisors as better than what we really are) and/or inflation bias (i.e., we are biased to think we are better than we really are).
The third difference entails the approach to assessing behavior. The Big five looks at one trait at a time and asks whether you are low to high on that trait through a series of questions. This is the best approach for research settings when you want to evaluate one trait at a time (and statistically “control” for all other traits). This is ideal for incremental science, but not for applied conversations.
Applied assessments look at a factor of interest and then evaluate the poles of that factor. The extroversion trait of the Big 5 does this, with its opposite being introversion, but the others don’t have the same degree of polarity. Being low on neuroticism doesn’t inherently suggest that you are emotionally intelligent, for example (although some have tried to prove that this is the case).
With DISC there is a two-by-two of factors that look at how you view your environment (factor 1 = favorable or unfavorable) and how you approach your environment (factor 2 = aggressive or passive). With 16 Types, the factors cover categories such as “perception” (either sensing or intuition) and “judgment” (either thinking or feeling). Overall, these pole-based approaches ensure that the insights are neutral (not good or bad, just different), people self-rate without bias (no one likes to admit they are neurotic or disagreeable, for example), and those insights can be delivered regardless of where one falls on the factor of interest.
Also important, the personality trait assessments on the Cloverleaf platform do overlap with some of the Big 5 dimensions. In particular, extroversion-introversion is covered in 16 types, and agreeableness is covered, to some degree, in the D vs. I scores of DISC. In my opinion, those are the two most practical factors of the Big 5 in applied work settings.
I’ve heard several academics suggest that using anything except the Big 5 to assess personality is incorrect. This is oversimplified. If the goal is to advance science with respect to personality, the Big 5 is the most suitable. But this is because that is what the Big 5 was built for.
If the goal is to change behavior in applied settings, Cloverleaf’s personality trait assessments—DISC, 16 types, Enneagram, Instinctive Drives—are not only suitable, they are ideal. Academics assume that these practitioner-focused alternatives haven’t undergone construct validity analyses. This is untrue—they just don’t have the data to conduct these analyses. The assessment providers offer some analyses, independent academics have conducted analyses and published the findings in peer-reviewed outlets, and I have conducted our own analyses on our user database. The findings are sound.
In summary, the Big 5 is amazing, especially if you’re conducting research. But as of today, we are focusing on incorporating personality trait assessments that offer as much practical utility as possible.
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