Tips For Using A DiSC® Assessment To Improve Your Personal Communication

Overview

Communication is the foundation of building personal and business relationships. Whether you are at work, at home or simply on the street, if you have poor personal communication skills, you will alienate people and convey messages in the wrong way. This can lead to conflict and other problems, causing tense situations in places where you should be able to relax, enjoy and focus on the things that really matter. Luckily, there are a number of ways for you to improve your personal communication. The use of DiSC Assessments will provide insights into building effective communication skills. It provides non-judgmental results that help people communicate to a greater degree as they discover and discuss their behavioral differences.

What Is Effective Communication?

In order to understand how to improve your communication skills, you must first know what it means to be effective in how you communicate. Being aware of this is becoming increasingly important. We deal with telephone, email, blog, forum, text and face to face messages each and every day, sending and receiving them. However, being effective in communicating doesn’t mean you simply exchange information. It is about understanding emotions and improving relationships, decision making, team work and even problem solving. Sometimes, you have to convey a message that is negative at the core, and it must be communicated appropriately. Besides that, you have to think about attentive listening, nonverbal communication and understand your and your audience’s emotions.

The online DiSC Assessment uses an easy to understand methodology for better understanding behavior, temperament, and more specifically personalities by providing a report with an overview of the way individuals think, act, and interact with each other. The DiSC Assessment results will give you insights into yourself that can be used to improve personal effectiveness.

“While effective communication is a learned skill, it is more effective when it’s spontaneous rather than formulaic. A speech that is read, for example, rarely has the same impact as a speech that’s delivered (or appears to be delivered) spontaneously. Of course, it takes time and effort to develop these skills and become an effective communicator. The more effort and practice you put in, the more instinctive and spontaneous your communication skills will become.”
Effective Communication – Improving Communication Skills in Business and Relationships

Honesty

The first skill that you must learn is to always be honest. They say honesty is the best policy and this is very true. It is by being honest that you build trust in people. They know your message may not always be what they want to hear, but it is how they want to hear it that is vital. Essentially, the relationship you build by being honest is more on point and long lasting.

Honesty begins with a better understanding of who you really are.  Personality is the foundation of how we see ourselves, how others see us, and a clear picture of the way we tend to react to our environment. The completed online DiSC Assessment Report will give you a comprehensive view of your particular DiSC Style and how you can apply it to your personal and business and business lives to improve your communication and develop more honest relationships with everyone in your life.

“Being honest is a people skill that true friends recognize as a trait that should be cherished. It does no good to tell lies as this type of interpersonal communication is insincere and disrespectful to the other person. Honesty is the key to friendships and relationships and without it the relationship is nothing more than a sham.”
5 Tips for Improving Interpersonal Communication Skills to Gain More Friends by Mary Lamphere

This is particularly true in social relationships, but don’t forget that you are actually in a social situation when you are speaking to other people.

Listening

Listening is a skill that too many people lack. We all know some person who appears to listen to what we say, but then starts talking about something completely different, if they even let you finish. When this happens, we feel ignored and disrespected, which is no way to build any kind of relationship. It also matters that you think about what people are really saying when you listen to them. Sometimes you have to read between the lines when people talk to you.

“This may seem simple enough, but a considerable majority of people often struggle with active listening. Instead of formulating a response and awaiting your turn to talk in a conversation, give the speaker your undivided, non-judgmental attention.”
7 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Personal Communication Skills

As easy as this sounds, it is something that we really need to work on. We are often too quick to come up with solutions when sometimes people just want to vent out something, or sometimes we do not listen to the full story. Being non-judgmental is equally hard, because we tend to form an opinion even if we don’t want to.

Empathy

Empathy is also very important. This is where you will learn how to be non-judgmental. Being empathic is about understanding how other people feel, even if you wouldn’t feel the same way yourself.

“Empathy is trying to see things from the point-of-view of others. When communicating with others, try not to be judgmental or biased by preconceived ideas or beliefs – instead view situations and responses from the other person’s perspective. Stay in tune with your own emotions to help enable you to understand the emotions of others. If appropriate, offer your personal viewpoint clearly and honestly to avoid confusion. Bear in mind that some subjects might be taboo or too emotionally stressful for others to discuss.”
Developing Effective Communication Skills

Body Language

A study was conducted some decades ago, which concluded that only 8% of our communication is verbal. This stuck in popular culture, although very few people actually know what the study is about. The reality is that it involved just a handful of people who all had communication problems and disabilities. This does not make the study invalid, but it does show that we shouldn’t hang on to that percentage too much. The object of the study was more to show us how important our body language and tone are, and how many messages can be put across without even using actual words.

“Appropriate body language can reinforce your verbal message or reflect your mood. There are some conscious methods you can utilize to show the listener you are actively listening. When someone is speaking to you, be aware of your facial expressions. Smiling, for instance, will reveal to your listener that you are pleased. Avoid showing unconscious signs of disapproval, such as crossing your arms in front of you. A simple nod of the head shows approval.”
The Best Ways to Improve Interpersonal Communication by Beth Lee

Practical Skills

In terms of practical skills – the moment when you actually start to speak – try to use the word “I” as much as possible. For instance, if you say “you missed a deadline,” you are accusing someone who will immediately go into defensive mode. If, instead, you say “I feel frustrated when a deadline is missed,” you show that your emotions are being affected by the behavior of the other, but you are basically giving the other person the opportunity to change in order to help you, rather than because you are under attack.

About Steve Giles

Co-owner/Co-founder of Intesi! Resources. Educated as an architect I transitioned to technology during my career in architecture. Intesi! Resources was founded in 2004 and my focus is everything Web/eCommerce related from the design and development of our site to all the marketing activities involved. I also provide significant support for our clients on all our products and how they are used to deliver assessment-driven learning solutions that develop self-awareness and interpersonal skills.