Five Ways to Irritate People Using the DISC

Today’s Guest Creator is Guy Harris, co-author of the new book From Bud to Boss. Guy and Kevin Eikenberry’s book is a helpful guide for newly promoted supervisors who have to navigate the challenging but exciting path of moving from colleague to boss. Connect with him on LinkedIn or on Twitter.

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Here are five sure-fire ways to irritate other people using the DISC model of human behavior:

1. Tell them how they’re feeling or what they’re thinking.
2. Explain to them why they did what they did or said what they said.
3. Decide for them what they will want from a given situation.
4. Analyze them and their behaviors.
5. Help them to be more like you.

I could continue with the list, but I’m sure you see the point. Any time we do any of the above using the DISC model, we are using the model as a weapon against the other person rather than as a tool to understand them more completely.

I teach the DISC model. I use the DISC model. I like the understanding it gives me of people with other viewpoints and perspectives. And, I recognize that it only reveals general patterns of behavior that apply to populations of people rather than absolutes that apply to individuals.

The model and the terms used as descriptors in the model come from statistical averages of population behaviors and perspectives. Using it to define, label, or box-in another person violates one of the first things I learned in my college statistics class: Never use a population statistic to describe an individual observation.

I encourage you to learn how to understand other people. I even encourage you to study the DISC model as a simple way to learn how to see the world from another person’s perspective. I strongly discourage anyone from using the model as a weapon to harm, judge, or manipulate others.