Leadership and Active Listening with DISC

Active listening is an interpersonal skill that every top professional needs. No matter whether you are a business professional, salesperson, executive coach, or business consultant, active listening is an essential part of utilizing your knowledge of human behavior. It allows you to take both verbal and non-verbal cues from others and begin to understand their every need.

Remember, DISC is all about observable behavior so here’s where active listening and observing will give you a competitive edge. Understanding DISC personality styles and acting in sync with their natural drive will let your team members continue to feel important, and you will continue to earn their loyalty through improved productivity and a genuine commitment to the long-term success of your company.

Here are 5 ways active listening helps you be a better leader:

1. Improve Communication

In teams, you can better solve problems, decide a course for corrective action, improve employee retention, and gain insight from every facet of operations. Active listening improves customer experiences and optimizes employee relations. If you are in a technical field, you can translate business needs into technical specifications. Likewise, you can lead and direct business teams based on the areas in which they operate. In the same token, understanding DISC helps you become a better listener and improve your communication with others as a whole.

2. Lead From Within

The DISC model of human behavior separates our personality traits into the four main types, including Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness. For example, have you ever heard of “leading from within?” With DISC, you can most certainly lead from within and drive more impact through operations. Leading from within allows you to minimize stigmas within the workplace, as you influence others on a more personal basis. Leadership is directly tied to your behavioral style and if you need additional insights on developing your leadership skills, try out the PeopleKeys® DISC Leadership Style Report.

3. Find Common Ground

Adopting DISC understanding into your interpersonal skills will help you better understand others, advocate on behalf of your teams, and become more approachable – no matter where you fall within the business hierarchy. Evaluating the DISC traits of others will allow you to find more common ground, and understand what makes others tick and where they fall short.

4. Improve Performance

As you find out what motivates each of your team members, you can encourage them to perform at their best and feel appreciated as a whole. Minimizing ego and encouraging communication will allow your teams to collaborate with more enthusiasm, improve the outcome of daily operations, and increase productivity overall.

5. Boost Enthusiasm

Knowing your teams will allow you to lead more effectively and more synergistically initiate action. It allows you to put yourself in that other person’s shoes and help them to better understand the reason behind your decision-making in the workplace. It creates a sense of urgency without the feeling of being stressed by creating the sentiment of “I can’t wait to get started.”

In conclusion, through DISC implementation you will be able to plan, delegate, and execute with increased efficiency, empowering your teams and strengthening them at their core. By becoming more empathetic and adjusting your own style to appeal to those of your workforce, you will find that increased trust, confidence, and the feeling of being valued will spark even the dampest of flames in an individual. You develop individual leaders and forge interdisciplinary alliances. You motivate the workforce and inspire them for a unified vision for the future.