DiSC® and True Colors®
Over the years, other personal profiling systems have cropped up, two of the most well known, DiSC and True Colors. Where the MBTI® profiles core personality traits and how people approach the environment intellectually and attitudinally and how they process information, DiSC describes behavior based on how people view themselves in their various environments.
The DiSC® assessment, first created and published in 1972, is based on William Moulton Marston’s model that divides behavior into four dimensions: dominance, influence, steadiness and conscientiousness, the four kinds of responses that people have to their environments. The assessment tool measures individual perceptions: does the individual have a positive or negative perception of the environment, and does the individual feel more powerful or less powerful than the environment.
Based on the individual’s scores in each of the four dimensions, one falls within one of 16 “behavior patterns.” Achiever. Agent. Appraiser. Counselor. Creative. Developer. Inspirational. Investigator. Objective Thinker. Overshift. Perfectionist. Persuader. Practitioner. Promoter. Result-Oriented. Specialist.
Results from DiSC and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator do not necessarily correlate as they were designed for different purposes, however, they could provide a very comprehensive picture if an individual completed both assessments.
True Colors® is a personality assessment tool based on the work of Myers-Briggs and Keirsey that was created to translate the somewhat complicated personality and learning theory into a simpler format. The four colors correspond to the four temperment types of the MBTI: SP (sensible playful), SJ (sensible judicious), NT (intuitive thinking) and NF (intuitive feeling), respectively.
- Those with Blue as a Primary Color value balance and harmony. They prefer lives free from tension … settled, united, and secure.
- Gold represents a need to be responsible, to fulfill duties and obligations, to organize and structure our life and that of others.
- Green expresses itself psychologically as human will in operation: as persistence and determination. Green is an expression of firmness and consistency.
- Those with Orange as a Primary Color feel the will to achieve results, to win, to be successful. They desire all things that offer intense living and full experience.
Many individuals are highly visual, so this assessment is relatively simple to understand and apply to real-world applications. However, because it is a generalization of the MBTI, the results are a little more vague and open to interpretation.
Organizations would do well to recognize the need for tools like True Colors or MBTI, asking not “whether” but “which one.” A team with a greater understanding of their attributes can take ownership for them, and a team that is confident and in full possession of their strengths can overcome most weaknesses.
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