How Balanced WorkLife Knew I Wasn’t In The Right Job: Assessment Series Part 5
Welcome to the next part of “How Applying Behavior and Motivator Assessments Can Improve Your Life.”
By now you’ve learned more about some of the answers our assessments deliver and why most assessments fail miserably. You’ve also taken a crash course in DISC and Motivator Assessments. If you haven’t read those, go back and review since this post refers heavily on the previous 4.
For this section I wanted to share some of the highlights from my own assessment so you can get a feel for what to expect from one of your own, as well as some of the biggest insights the Balanced WorkLife professionals pulled from it. If you want to follow along with a sample assessment download one here.
A Brief Background
To help put the DISC assessment in perspective, I took it as part of a qualification to joining Balanced WorkLife Company. After doing cold calling sales for a year I was ready to move on to a job I was more passionate about, and Balanced WorkLife looked like a great opportunity.
As I took the assessment I made sure to keep any negative feelings for my previous job to myself. The last thing a potential employer wants is someone who hates their job and could leave the new job just as fast.
However, as you will see, the power of this assessment clearly didn’t hide my feelings for the type of work I was in and how it was causing me stress.
My Descriptors
Early in the DISC assessment there is a chart that will show a list of the descriptors and where they fit in the different DISC segments. As you can see from my assessment below I am a High I, Moderate C, with Low D and Below Average S.
Copyright © 2006-2010. Target Training International, Ltd.
Natural vs Adapted Styles
This part has significant meaning to me personally. The assessments we use take two measurements. They first ask “what are you most like” and then give you some choices. Then later on, it does a twist on this and asks “what are you least like” and gives you the same choices.
What this allows us to do is to come up with your Natural Style, what you tend to do if no other influences are holding you back. We can then match that against your Adapted Style, which is what you do because of how work or other organizations you spend a majority of time with expect you to behave.
The results are fascinating.
Copyright © 2006-2010. Target Training International, Ltd.
When I took this assessment, the Balanced WorkLife Company was evaluating me as a candidate to work for them. When they saw this chart it was obvious to them that I was in the wrong work place at the time. Here’s how.
They noticed significant changes in my behavior styles, especially in regard to my D and I levels, which changed by over 20 points. Any time there is that much change, your body is experiencing incredible stress and you are more likely to burn out.
After I understood these charts it was obvious why the numbers changed the way they did. At the time I was working in a cold call sales position for an IT company. My day to day tasks consisted of calling up Presidents, CEOs and CFOs of companies to see if they would be interested in outsourcing their IT.
As you could see from the descriptor chart above, I’m a low key, easy-going person, but at work I wasn’t allowed to take no for an answer, I was chastised if I ever let someone off the phone too easily and had to speak with force and aggression in order to communicate at the power level of the CEOs and CFOs I was trying to get to buy from me. So what would you expect to see as a reflection of that? My D at work was 20 points higher than what I would normally display.
Another area that suffered was my I levels. Again, from my chart you can tell I’m a people person. I like to talk with my peers, I’m warm, and I’m enthusiastic. The company’s culture was very different. We would be called into meetings with our managers if we were talking with our peers during work time. We were to be making calls and nothing else-so as a result, my natural tendencies to be personable and engaging with others were squelched. It was hard to make up for it in the job since most people are hard to warm up on a cold call. As a result, my I levels dropped by 23 points in order to adapt to the work place.
For my change in C it was pretty clear as well. The sales job was pretty systematic and exacting. There were very high standards to meet and if you didn’t you were let go without hesitation. The high C indicator of worrying was a constant since I never knew how many more weeks I had before my head was on a chopping block.
My S adjusted accordingly as well. The stress of the job matched the descriptors of being pressure-oriented and tense.
Needless to say, I was shocked that the DISC assessment was able to pick up that amount of detail. It also gave me a better awareness of why I enjoy my current job so much more and where I will focus my career and life path in the future.
The Styles Wheel
If you read the earlier blogs in this series you’ve seen the wheel below along with a simple overview. If you look closely this time you’ll notice a circle and star along with grids numbered 1 – 60.
Copyright © 2006-2010. Target Training International, Ltd.
The circle represents my natural style where the star represents the adapted style. There is an incredible amount of insight that can be taken away from this tool especially when you see yourself in comparison to other team members.
My results show that I was noticeably adapting my behavior. The fact that I was in the middle showed that I was under a significant amount of stress. Usually when you are in the middle it means you are trying to be all things to all people and that doesn’t come without a lot of strain.
Motivators
The next chart has powerful meanings as well. It shows where you stand in the different motivators. The blue bar represents 68% of the population and the solid vertical bar represents where the national mean lies. From there, the DISC assessment can tell where you are passionate, mainstream, indifferent, or extreme based on how many standard deviations you are from the mean.
Copyright © 2006-2010. Target Training International, Ltd.
My chart shows I measured high for Theoretical and Utilitarian, meaning I like to learn-but only if it will serve some purpose in the end. I was lower in social, which sometimes gets confused with the other meaning for social. Having a high social means you work towards benefiting others and focus a large portion of time there.
This made perfect sense for where I was at the time of this assessment. I was in a job I was working hard to get out of. My number one focus was to improve my life by going into a career I was really after; Marketing. Because of that goal, putting others needs before mine wasn’t a priority.
Copyright © 2006-2010. Target Training International, Ltd.
The above chart shows the information again in a more meaningful way showing just how far above or below the line you fall.
You may notice me repeating the phrase, “at the time” when referring to the DISC assessment. That’s because these reflect where you are at a specific moment of your life. Whenever you make considerable changes that affect your life like a job, getting married, having kids, moving, etc. your behaviors and motivations will reflect on that as well. In a few more months I’ll retake my assessment to see how I compare, and use the findings to improve my life further.
I hope you have enjoyed this snapshot of the DISC assessment. It’s only a scant sampling from the 60 pages that came in my full report. The level of detail and insight throughout the DISC assessment is amazing and it’s easy to see what kinds of applications you can take away from this.
Up Next Part 6: “5 Powerful Applications of Behavior and Motivator Assessments”
3 Things to Do Next
- Comment: Does your job feel out of place? Do you feel burned out? Curious what your DISC assessment could show? Please share in the comments below.
- Share: Post a link to our Personal Assessment series on your blog or site. If you’d like to better understand your friends’ and families’ behavior and motivations this is a great way to start.
- Download a Free Sample: We have free sample DISC assessments for anyone who wants to take a closer look at our assessments.
i liked that post so much, full of useful info, thank u
Thanks Farouk, It was an interesting experience learning from this.