If you’ve been in the HR or leadership development space for very long at all, you’re probably quite familiar with the DISC assessment.
As one of the most popular workplace behavior assessment tools in the world, millions of people have used or taken DISC assessments. Over the last 30+ years, it’s become one of the most popular tools for understanding personal potential, guiding hiring decisions, building teams and optimizing leadership development.
While DISC is separate from the AQai Adaptability Intelligence model, the two pair extremely well to get a comprehensive assessment of individual tendencies.
“DISC helps us understand how people naturally behave and communicate, while the AQai Adaptability Assessment shows how they respond when circumstances change,” said Competitive Edge CEO Krista Sheets, and a leading expert in DISC and Adaptability. “When you combine the two, you get a complete picture—not just of a person’s tendencies in steady-state conditions, but also their capacity to flex and thrive in disruption. That’s incredibly powerful for building resilient, high-performing teams.”
But before we dig into the details on how the two can work together, let’s start with a DISC primer (or perhaps a refresher), to set the stage.
What Is DISC?
Built on Dr. William Moulton Marston’s 1928 framework, DISC measures behavioral tendencies across four factors—Dominance (D), Influence (I), Steadiness (S), and Compliance (C). Unlike personality tests, DISC focuses strictly on observable behaviors and how they vary across contexts. As with an Adaptability Assessment, there are no right or wrong answers here, just data. DISC gives us a baseline to understand your natural tendencies.
So what do each of these mean?
1. Dominance (D) describes how a person handles problems or challenges.
High D individuals are typically decisive, assertive, goal-oriented and sometimes daring or demanding. One might expect a hard-driving CEO or sales executive to be a high D individual.
On the other hand, a low D person appears more tentative, reserved, and may find asserting themselves to be energetically taxing. While this may sound like meekness on the surface, it’s actually more akin to methodical.
2. Influence (I) describes how a person interacts with other people.
A high I individual is typically charismatic, outgoing, animated and even gregarious. A high I is energized by networking, interacting, even lobbying or persuading. Political candidates are often high I, along with people who work in sales, marketing or public relations.
On the other hand, a low I person doesn’t seek the spotlight and may appear more introspective, reflective and maybe even skeptical: picture the researcher or analyst who prefers quiet focus and one-on-one interactions. Too much attention or interaction drains their energy.
3. Steadiness (S) characterizes how a person handles the pace of the environment and changes.
Someone who is a high S is typically patient, calm, dependable and deliberate. They don’t get easily rattled under pressure. This might be the project manager who keeps everyone on the same page, ensuring consistency and team cohesion during a software development sprint, for example. Constant ambiguity and unpredictability saps their energy.
A low S individual appears more impulsive, hurried and dynamic. They need a high-energy pace to avoid feeling restless. A product developer who thrives on rapid iteration and the “move fast and break things” mentality is a good example of a low S personality. They need variety and can feel bored or even trapped by inertia.
4. Compliance (C) describes a person’s approach to third-party rules and standards.
As you might expect, this describes whether someone is a rebel or follows the rules. A high C individual is precise, systematic, and focused on accuracy and order. Being a high C is a strong advantage for a trusted tax accountant or quality assurance specialist: your default is a prudent and cautious approach.
A low C is just as you might expect: a rule bender, unconventional and an independent thinker. They don’t intentionally break rules–they’re not purposefully rebellious–they simply don’t take the rules into account when acting. Creative types and innovators are often low-C individuals with original ideas, not content with the status quo. Low C individuals feel stifled by rigid frameworks that don’t allow for autonomy.
“While DISC categorizes behaviors into these four factors, it’s important to remember that none of these exist in a vacuum,” Sheets said. “You can be a high Influence individual who thrives on interaction but also high Compliance who values sticking to the rules, or a low Steadiness who tends to be impulsive and dynamic with low Dominance so you often acquiesce to others.”
And remember: these are observable behaviors–they tell us nothing about intent. DISC doesn’t tell us what the person is thinking or feeling but how they behave.
Why Use DISC—And How It Dovetails with Adaptability
“The mix of behaviors as quantified by DISC is truly unlimited, which is what makes people so interesting—even when we have similar tendencies, we’re never exactly alike,” Sheets says. “Having an empirical determination for these behaviors is important because it helps to create empathy and understanding. Whether you intend to change your behavior is irrelevant. It can be empowering to simply raise awareness.”
Just like an Adaptability Assessment doesn’t show you how to adapt–it provides a baseline measurement for your Adaptability Intelligence (AQ)–DISC doesn’t show you how to change your behavior. It gives you self-awareness and a baseline to understand your natural and adapted behaviors. The insights are powerful, but what you do with that information is up to you.
Here’s how a DISC assessment helps:
- Establish a common language. Like an Adaptability Assessment, DISC gives teams a shared vocabulary for discussing how people behave under pressure. It removes ego and judgment from the discussion by presenting quantifiable, standardized traits using clear terminology that reduces the chances of misinterpretation and miscommunication.
- Create a baseline. Self-awareness is foundational for effectiveness and growth. For example, multiple studies have shown that leaders with higher self-awareness “are more effective, empathetic, and capable of inspiring their teams to achieve more significant results.”(Source: Forbes). DISC encourages awareness of natural vs. adapted styles, creating a lens into self-understanding. It creates a set point by which you can measure improvement over time.
- Encourage “flexing” in context. Just as an AQai Assessment highlights opportunities to flex your adaptability muscle (like knowing when it’s OK to take risks, for example), DISC highlights opportunities to flex behavior. For instance, if you are aware that your default behavior as a high Dominance individual is to be assertive and push boundaries, you now have the insight to choose to practice backing off a bit when dealing with high-Steadiness or low-Influence colleagues, which can lead to smoother interactions and less ruffled feathers.
- Optimize team design and role fit. DISC helps leaders align roles to strengths—e.g., placing high-Steadiness individuals in roles requiring consistency, or high-Influence people in outward-facing capacities. Similarly, knowing someone’s Adaptability Intelligence (AQ) helps explain who thrives in dynamic vs. stable conditions to guide team composition.
- Support diversity. We know that diverse teams are more innovative and make better decisions, and that includes behavioral diversity (Source: Niagara Institute). You need the perspective, approach and behavior of all types to make a solid, well-rounded team. DISC provides an empirical way to assess behavior to complement broader diversity efforts.
- Adapt communications. When you know your team’s behavioral styles, you can fine-tune communications to make sure they resonate, “land” appropriately and reduce misunderstandings. You know to give the high-Compliance individuals all the data and analytics to support your statement, or that you may have to slow down and have in-depth conversations with the high-steadiness individuals to guide them through changes in routine.
- Manage energy and stress: Knowing natural tendencies can help individuals and team leaders manage stress. Chronically being asked to stretch outside your natural style can quickly lead to burnout. With empirical data as a baseline, team leads can check in with intelligent questions to assess whether they’re asking too much of their team members to avoid stretching them too thin.
For an individual, the power of DISC awareness is that it gives you the tools to take an informed pause in the moment before you react in a situation – a moment to recognize your default behavior and decide if that’s the right approach for the given situation.
For managers, knowing your team’s default behaviors allows you to build more effective teams, improve communication and protect your team’s mental health by not pushing them beyond their natural style too much or too often.
The bottom line is that DISC isn’t about changing your default behavior across the board. It’s about recognizing when that’s the best option.
The DISC Difference
A DISC assessment does more than categorize or put people into one of four boxes. It empowers individuals and organizations to understand how they behave and how they might flex effectively to optimize outcomes in different circumstances.
Ready to learn more? Start with our DISC Quickie Self Assessment quiz. And when you’re ready, contact us about a DISC Assessment for your whole team!