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DISC: A Layman's Guide
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DISC profiling since 1994
29
years
/
(214) 613-3983
Flag
Features
Reports
Branding
Software
Pricing
Training
Languages
Individual Reports
Agency Opportunities
DISC: A Layman's Guide
What is DISC?
Video: Introduction to DISC
DISC Profile Interpretations
DISC Factors
Team Building with DISC
History and Development of DISC
Personality Types
Applications: Putting DISC to Work
Validity and Reliability of DISC
Knowledge Base
(214) 613-3983
E-mail us
Skype us
Contact Details
Common questions about Discus and DISC
What does Discus profiling cost?
How do I get started with Discus?
Can I send questionnaires to my candidates online?
Can a person completing a questionnaire read their own report?
Do I have access to all my profile reports?
How can I recover a lost or forgotten Discus password?
Is training available?
I received a test invitation, but I'm not able to use it.
I completed an invited questionnaire, but I didn't receive a copy of my report.
Can I try Discus for free?
What does Discus profiling cost?

Discus profiles start at just $35 each, with discounts available for more substantial purchases.

For new accounts, we offer a whole range of useful extras. Find out more on our pricing page.

How do I get started with Discus?

Getting started with Discus is easy. You'll just need to take a few minutes to sign up for an account, and then you'll be ready to start creating profiles right away.

Can I send questionnaires to my candidates online?

Discus provides an entire suite of features to make this process easy and automatic. At the simplest level, you can simply enter a person's e-mail address, and Discus will send them an invitation and then display and manage the questionnaire. Once the questionnaire is complete, a report will immediately be compiled and added to your accounts.

Discus also provides lots of options for your to customise this process to meet your exact requirements. For example, you can arrange to be automatically notified and sent a copy of the report as soon as it is available.

Can a person completing a questionnaire read their own report?

This is a decision you can make as you set up an invitation. There's no requirement to share the report, but you have the option of doing so if you wish.

Discus can also provide an intermediate solution through the 'Feedback' report, which is an alternative version of the report specifically designed for this purpose, providing a readable and accessible summary of the results.

Do I have access to all my profile reports?

Every DISC profile produced on your account is held in your own secure Discus database. You can access, review and manage those reports at any time. Discus even provides extra features to assess the results in combination, such as comparing candidates against the needs of a role, or assessing how individuals would work together in a team.

How can I recover a lost or forgotten Discus password?

It's easy to reset your Discus access details. You can start the process from the Discus sign-in page, or by following the link below. Discus will handle resetting your access through your registered e-mail address.

Is training available?

We offer a comprehensive online video training course introducing the DISC system and its workings. The course is free if you sign up for an account with fifty credits or more.

Discus itself offers an interactive guide to get your started, and extensive help resources throughout the system.

I received a test invitation, but I'm not able to use it.

There can be various reasons for this. The invitation code might already have been used, or it might simply have expired, or been cancelled by the user who originally set up the invitation.

Your best course of action in a situation like this is to get in touch with your invitation provider and ask them to set up another invitation for you.

I completed an invited questionnaire, but I didn't receive a copy of my report.

When a Discus user sends out an invitation, they can choose whether to give you access to your report or not, so it may simply be that this option isn't active.

If you think you should have received a report, your best course of action is to contact the person who sent you your invitation; they will have the option of sending you a copy.

Can I try Discus for free?

Sorry, we aren't able to offer free trial profiles, but if you want to try the service, remember that you can set up a Discus account with just a single credit.

If you want to see what Discus can produce, take a look at our extensive library of sample reports.

The Discus software introduces a new illustrative concept for representing behavioural traits - the Trait Grid. This article explains how to interpret the Grid display.

The Trait Grid maps a series of distinct personal traits, showing not only how strongly those traits are represented in an individual's behaviour, but also how they compare between a person's natural and work styles. To see the Trait Grid, open a set of DISC results in Discus and choose 'Traits'.

The Grid displays sixteen different factors within the candidate's behaviour, including all twelve sub-traits. Discus calculates values for all of these from the candidate's Internal Profile, and from their External Profile. The Trait Grid is the result of plotting these two values against each other.

Values from the External Profile are plotted across the Grid, so that higher trait values are shown further to the right. Similarly, values from the Internal Profile are plotted on the vertical axis, so that higher trait values from this Profile appear nearer the top of the Grid. By calculating these two values for a trait, we can plot it in the appropriate place on the Trait Grid chart.

Trait Grid
Fig 1 A typical Trait Grid

Figure 1 illustrates a fairly typical result of this process. This is the kind of outcome we would expect to see where the DISC graph shapes on the Internal and External Profiles are relatively similar to one another. As a result, the traits form an orderly line across the Grid.

Because the underlying DISC profiles are similar, it's no surprise that the traits shown on the Grid have similar values. Some, like Independence and Self-motivation, are high on both the Internal and External Profiles, and appear towards the top right of the Grid. Others, like Patience and Cooperativeness, are low on both the profiles, and so they fall in the bottom left-hand part of the Grid.

The Grid is divided into four quadrants, and each of these relate to a different classification of traits. As we've observed, in the case of figure 1, the traits are confined almost exclusively to the top-right and bottom-left quadrants.

Permanent traits are those that appear in the top-right quadrant of the Grid. These are the traits that show strongly in both the Internal and External Profiles, meaning that they can be expected to form a regular part of the candidate's behaviour. They're referred to as 'Permanent' because they will tend to be seen in different situations, and can be expected to persist over time.

The opposite quadrant, to the bottom-left, is labelled Inactive, and contains those traits that have low values on both the Internal and External Profiles. This means that the traits will only rarely be seen in the candidate's behaviour, and the closer to the bottom-right corner the trait appears, the less likely it will be to emerge.

Traits that appear in the central part of the Grid are neither Permanent nor Inactive - that is, the candidate is perfectly capable of displaying them when a situation seems to require them, but they cannot be said to form a significant part of that candidate's behaviour.

Trait Grid
Fig 2 A more diverse Trait Grid

Where DISC Profile Series shown greater divergence between the Internal and External Profiles, the orderly pattern seen in Figure 1 quickly breaks down. Figure 2 shows the more diverse pattern that appears when a Profile Series shows more emphatic Shifts between its profiles.

The variation between the underlying DISC profiles is mirrored in the variation in the traits shown, which are now broadly distributed around the Grid. In particular, the quadrants to the top-left and bottom-right, which were hardly used in the Grid shown in Figure 1, now each contain their own selection of traits.

Traits that appear to the bottom right of the Grid are Transient traits. These are traits that score highly when assessed on the External Profile, are have much less representative of the Internal Profile. In other words, they represent aspects of the candidate's behaviour that they're adopting as a response to their current environment. The fact that these traits aren't mirrored in the Internal Profile shows that they don't represent a significant element of the candidate's longer-term style, and they're therefore 'transient' in the sense that they will tend to be seen only as long as the candidate's situation remains as it is.

In the opposite, top right, quadrant are traits that score highly on the Internal Profile, but show a far lower value on the External. These are Potential traits, features of the behaviour that the candidate sees as important, but is not presently demonstrating in their behaviour, at least in their working life. These traits are potential in that they can be expected to emerge in different situations, for example where the candidate feels particularly at ease, or - conversely - where they are placed under pressure.

The traits shown on the Trait Grid are colour-coded according to the DISC factors that make them up. So, for example, the Dominance-based sub-traits (Efficiency, Self-motivation and Independence) are all shown in red.

With a little practice and experience, the Discus Trait Grid can become a powerful tool in understanding the dynamics of a candidate's behaviour.

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