Any instrument that is attempting to measure the thought processes of humans has a messy job. We are not computers and our answers can vary, even if we were to take an assessment and then immediately re-take it. So no assessment is sophisticated enough to be 100% accurate and there may be a few things in the results that feel like they don’t apply. That’s normal and most of the results will be applicable–and sometimes amazingly so!
But there are occasions where someone really doesn’t agree with their DiSC results. In our experience, there are three reasons why this can happen:
Reason 1: “Gaming” the assessment
People sometimes try to game the assessment, meaning they answer the way they think they are “supposed to”. This usually happens when they think they are being judged on the outcome. Naturally, the results don’t seem very accurate because the person didn’t answer the questions accurately.
If the person will own up to the fact that they didn’t answer the questions as their true selves, this is the one case where a retake will probably produce a better result.
Incidentally, this is one reason why DiSC isn’t very reliable–or recommended–as a hiring tool. It is too tempting for the applicant to try and answer the questions in a way that they think would make them look better as a candidate.
Can They Retake it?
Once an assessment has been completed, it cannot be restarted. If a respondent wants to retake an assessment, a new one must be provided.
But consider that the Everything DiSC assessments score very high on reliability during validation testing. That means that when someone retakes the assessment, their outcome isn’t likely to change much, unless something has changed (drastically) between takes.
Reason #2: Lack of self-awarenes
Sometimes a respondent has a perfectly accurate set of DiSC results, but they just don’t recognize it. Here is a quote from a client who had this exact situation:
“My guy, who said his profile didn’t fit, brought it to his wife. She said it was spot on. I’m glad too, because I had guessed him to fit that personality myself.”
It might seem counterintuitive: How can a person answer the questions but then not recognize the results? That’s where the DiSC model comes into play. When we take the assessment, we are answering how we feel about little individual aspects of how we think. The model takes all of these preferences and produces a narrative of what we might value, how we perceive others and how we present ourselves to the outside world.
When someone doesn’t agree with their results, see if they are open to having someone who knows them well review the results. If the other person agrees with the narrative in the report, that could open a dialog that leads to significant personal growth for the respondent.
How can I share my Catalyst results with someone else?
Catalyst provides an interactive, web-based way to explore your results. But what if you wanted to share the results with someone else?
If the other person is on Catalyst, they can find you in the “Your colleagues” section and see comparisons between you and themselves.
A traditional-style, PDF report can be downloaded and shared. Find the “hamburger” menu (three horizontal lines) at the top-right of any Catalyst screen and choose “Download reports”.
Reason #3: Relatively poor model match
Sometimes an individual’s personality style is difficult to represent within the model. This is expected, since humans are a complex lot. There are bound to be “edge cases” (don’t call them that!) that are difficult to represent with the DiSC model.
While this is rare, it does happen. Typically the results will show a slight inclination, meaning their dot is fairly close to the center of the circumplex. That indicates that they are more of a mix of styles than most other people.
Here we refer to the Facilitator Supplement report, available to those with an EPIC Account. This report shows the respondent’s responses in an umbrella graph for their style and a bar chart for the measurement of their priorities.
While interpreting that report is beyond the scope of this article, the raw data often sheds light on why the respondent is struggling with their results.
And this is where our expertise comes into play. We are more than happy to take a look at the supplemental data and weigh in. Just reach out to us and we’ll help as best we can.
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