disc helps remote team work together effectively.
by jody grunden
building the virtual cfo firm in the cloud
working in a remote environment can be great, and it can also have its challenges. communication is one of the biggest hurdles distributed companies have to overcome. to tackle this issue head on, summit cpa has implemented many initiatives.
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one of our favorites is the disc profiles. let me start off by telling you a little bit of the background on the disc profiles.
disc profiles were first introduced by dr. william marston, a physiological psychologist, in his book “emotions of normal people” (1928). these profiles have become well known among psychologists and business leaders as a way to understand people’s behavioral differences within an organization. although marston did not create an assessment to go along with his model, others have created assessments that can be used along with it.
disc styles include:
- dominance (d)
- influence (i)
- steadiness (s)
- conscientiousness (c)
to give you a very brief overview:
- dominance – people who fall in this quadrant tend to be commanding. they are confident, direct and motivated by power and success. they fear vulnerability.
- influence – people who fall in this quadrant tend to be pioneering. they are sociable and enthusiastic and motivated by group activities. they fear disapproval.
- steadiness – people who fall in this quadrant tend to be affirming. they are patient team players who are motivated by appreciation and cooperation. they fear loss of stability.
- conscientiousness – people who fall in this quadrant tend to be deliberate. they are precise and analytical and motivated by attention to quality. they fear criticism.
while each of us has aspects of all of these personality styles within us on some level, we each have a place where we lean the most. most accountants fall in the “conscientiousness” quadrant, but we believe that great accounting teams have people in all of the different quadrants. we actively pursue diversity when it comes to disc styles and hire people in all quadrants. here is how our team falls within the four areas: 20% (d), 17% (i), 11% (s) and 51% (c).
at summit cpa we are continually striving to become better – individually and professionally. we know that we don’t know everything, so we hire experts who do. in 2017, we brought in an outside company, navigate the journey, to work with us on leadership and team development. they introduced us to the disc styles and conducted assessments on each of our team members. by using the disc assessment, we’ve learned a lot about ourselves and one another, and we’ve learned how to lean into our individual strengths in order to work together more effectively.
we now conduct a disc assessment on all new employees to help us understand ourselves and our team members better. the disc assessment helps us understand one another’s strengths and weaknesses, which results in better team communication and collaboration. we believe this type of personal development is crucial to the health of our team as we grow.
good communication is important in any company, but for remote teams it is especially critical. the disc assessment has helped us tremendously improve the communication on our team. here’s what one of our employees had to say about disc:
“when i first joined summit cpa, there were times when i would think, ‘why is jody bringing these other people in on this discussion? doesn’t he think i’m competent?!’
“it wasn’t clear to me until i read through the disc assessment. i am a ‘c’ on the disc assessment – i am very analytical and like to think through things independently. jody, on the other hand, is an ‘i’ – he is very collaborative and likes to discuss things in groups. i realized that what jody was doing didn’t have anything to do with not trusting me; he was doing what came natural to him.
“i’ve learned that the things we do, and the ways we approach communication and collaboration are deeply connected to our personalities. the more aware we are of each other’s personality differences, the more able we are to accept and work with them.”
the disc assessment is not something you do once, and then you’re done. it’s a constant topic of conversation in our company, and we believe that initiatives like this have helped tremendously in the growth of our company. to our knowledge, we are the largest fully distributed cpa firm in the nation. we’ve grown extremely fast and have been recognized by inc. 5000. our growth doesn’t appear to be slowing down any time soon. using initiatives like disc has helped us manage our growth with a high emphasis on communication.