The DISC assessment was founded by William Moulton Marston, who published about the four behavior types in 1928. After years of refinement and debate, currently most have settled on dominance, influence, steadiness and conscientious.

If you want to know which combination of types describe you best, you could take one of the many tests around. Because DISC is a registered system, this is often quite expensive. DISC is still useful without a test though, because the differences are pretty clear. Using this information, you’ll be able to better understand your own behavior, and at the same time you could use your knowledge to adjust your behavior towards others.

Let me give you a really short intro into the four types:

• Dominance: You feel comfortable in a leadership position, take charge and you’re able to make tough decisions. You are focussed on results, problem-solving and the bottom-line.
• Influence: You’re focussed on interactions with people, inspiring, spreading positive attitude and you create excitement.
• Steadiness: You preserve relationships, you value peace and harmony. You’re a great team player, empathetic and easy to get along with.
• Conscientious: You value rules, you’re thorough, you follow standards, you value accuracy and fairness.

This does not always mean you're just one out of the four, but you could very well be both a “strong D” and “strong I”.

There is a ton of material out there to learn more about each type. I’ll be looking at each of the types individually somewhere in the future of this newsletter, as I think this is a really valuable tool that will help you to be a better leader. This PDF created by the guys from Manager Tools is a great summary to use as well.