Reflection on Extended DISC Individual Assessment Questionnaire

 Results of the DISC personality profile indicate I am S-type. Specifically, my profile indicates I am 70% Steadiness, 25% Conscientiousness and 5% Dominance. Essentially the higher the rating indicates a greater comfort or affinity to those personality styles or traits. The lower the number, the less comfort and more energy required to express these traits. Personalities are like finger prints. No two are exactly alike. Learning how to best intertwine our own personality with others is important in our personal and professional lives.

The Extended DISC Interpretation Guide describes the S-type as a calm, helpful and patient type. Often eager to help, S-types are strong team players. They are good listeners, and provide a nice balance between tasks and people, yet they are also very persistent. Often S-types jump in and help instead of delegate when appropriate. This may lead to them getting taken advantage of.

Motivators

Motivators are things that keep one in their comfort zone. Two motivators that keep me happy in my job are being an individual able to support my team and having the opportunity to help my patients.

I could increase my performance with both motivators in a similar way. By meeting with the individuals, both employees and patients, on a regular basis, assessing what they need and making a follow up plan would be beneficial for both myself and those individuals I’m working with.

Demotivators

Situations also exist that decrease motivation. In my profession, the greatest demotivator would be working with unreliable people. In pharmacy, everyone plays a critical role in the day-to-day operations. While the job can still be completed without everyone’s involvement, having a solid network of people in place creates an efficient system.

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Another situation that often leads to a reduction in motivation is excessive or unnecessary talking. While “shooting the breeze” and having conversations among the team can boost overall morale, it can sometimes be distracting. In the field of pharmacy there are many times when focus and concentration are required to ensure safety and accuracy for our patients.

Methods that can be used to decrease the effect these demotivators have on performance include coaching and corrective action to get unreliable people to step up and get with the program. Also, a more defined yet simplified training plan could also be implemented to ensure workers can provide exceptional performance.

In order to stop excessive or unnecessary talking, it is important that everyone understands the value and importance of their role. Explaining that there is a time and place for chit chat can help reduce the sporadic small talk. This will help everyone stay more focused to do better in their role.

Strengths

Strengths that better myself and my team are my ability to build functioning daily routines and my ability to keep up with the present situation. In pharmacy, the process of entering, filling, and checking a prescription is called workflow. The workflow model is an essential part of keeping everything as efficient and accurate as possible. Systems are in place to aid in these routines and to provide efficient time management. While it may seem counterintuitive to have flexibility in a system designed to be efficient and streamlined, it could become necessary at any given moment.

At any given point we may be presented with some new prescriptions that need to get completed immediately, a problem with an insurance claim that needs to be handled right away, or even a question or concern that warrants a call to the doctor for clarification. Any of these situations can derail us from our very organized and structured workflow. My ability to keep up the present situation and get things back on track is a strength I practice multiple times per day. Typically the pharmacist wears a variety of hats.

How others view your communication style

Being very systematic and staying focused on a goal helps me direct my employees to get their tasks completed and helps me provide clear explanations to patients about their medications. This is usually a very effective method of communication, but other times it may require modification to the situation or audience. Often by assessing the other person’s ability to understand helps me formulate my conversation better.

Areas that I often struggle with are being empathetic, positive or understanding to a person’s situation. I’ve been described as indifferent to the situation. I could improve in this area and believe what needs to be done is to approach the situation from the other person’s point of view.

How others view your decision-making style

In my profession, I am required to make well thought out decisions. These processes are often clear and to the point with proper evidence to support them. When a decision needs to be made that is not clearly scientific, but rather more social in nature, I may delay making a decision or simply jump in and work through the situation rather than making a decision and telling others what to do.

I am not quick to make decisions. My career is such that I can take time to research questions when I am unsure of the answers. The luxury behind that is I can provide very thoughtful and accurate responses. The downfall to this decision-making style is that is leads to delays or hesitancy. These delays unfortunately make me less confident pursuing different areas of pharmacy. Some areas of pharmacy require quick decision making such as working in a hospital and being part of the crash (code blue) team.

How your team members perceive your style

I could become more effective in team settings by motivating and moving team members towards a specific and outlined goal. Speeding up others and ensuring everyone stays on task would also aid in team performance. One method to ensure the team is working quickly and effectively is assigning specific roles to the team members and having a system in place so that each team member is made accountable for their actions.

Becoming a better team member

A way for me to become a better team member and to motivate others to be their best is to provide different kinds of people a chance to be different. Essentially, give everyone a chance to learn or do everything. Not everyone will excel in all areas, but if everyone understands the core concepts of all aspects of a process, it is more likely that all those processes will be carried out correctly. In fact, it may help others provide better support to their co-workers by having a basic understanding of what their role is.

Conclusion

The Extended DISC Individual Assessment Questionnaire is an interesting approach into looking how one interacts with others and approaches situations in their own way. Taking data from multiple peoples’ DISC Assessments is a good method for creating teams. In looking at my own personality assessment I’ve found areas that I excel at and other areas that I need to work on to become a better leader. Knowing myself better and having a better understanding of who is on my team can also lead to becoming more successful in my profession.

References

• DISC classic 2.0 online series. (2003). Minneapolis, MN: Inscape.
• Extended DISC interpretation guide for team and build analysis. (n.d.). Retrieved April 29, 2019, from http://hrprofiling.worldsecuresystems.com/LiteratureRetrieve.aspx?ID=174638