Why your colleagues communicate so differently, and what DISC says about it

You send the same project update to three colleagues. One replies "so what is the decision?", one asks for the spreadsheet behind it, and one suggests a quick call to talk it through. None of them is being difficult: they simply work in different styles. DISC is one of the most popular frameworks for making sense of this, for a simple reason: it is practical. Instead of trying to describe your whole personality, it describes how you tend to behave, especially at work and under pressure.

Where DISC comes from

DISC is based on the work of psychologist William Moulton Marston, who described four types of behaviour in his 1928 book Emotions of Normal People. Marston did not build a questionnaire himself. Workplace assessments based on his ideas came later, from the 1950s onward, and today many organisations publish their own DISC-based versions. The four letters stand for Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Conscientiousness.

Two questions behind the four styles

A simple way to understand DISC is through two questions about how someone tends to work:

• Pace: are they more outgoing and fast-moving, or more reserved and measured?
• Focus: do they pay more attention to tasks and results, or to people and relationships?

These two questions also let you make an educated guess about a colleague's style without asking them to take a test: notice how quickly they tend to move and decide, and whether their first questions are about the work or about the people involved. Treat it as a guess to test, not a label to stick on someone.

The four styles

D: Dominance

Direct, decisive and focused on results. People with a strong D style like challenges, move quickly and are comfortable making the hard call.

• At their best: they cut through indecision and get things moving.
• Under pressure: they can become impatient or blunt, and may steamroll quieter colleagues.
• Working with them: get to the point, bring options with a recommendation, and talk about outcomes rather than process.

I: Influence

Enthusiastic, persuasive and people-oriented. Strong I styles build relationships quickly and bring energy to a group.

• At their best: they rally people around an idea and keep morale up.
• Under pressure: they may over-promise or lose track of details.
• Working with them: leave room for discussion and ideas, then follow up in writing with clear next steps and owners.

S: Steadiness

Patient, reliable and supportive. Strong S styles value cooperation, consistency and doing right by the people around them.

• At their best: they are the calm, dependable centre of a team.
• Under pressure: they may avoid conflict, keep disagreement to themselves or resist sudden change.
• Working with them: explain the reasons behind a change, give them time to adjust, and ask for their opinion directly, ideally one to one.

C: Conscientiousness

Accurate, analytical and focused on quality. Strong C styles want to get things right, and like clear standards and good data.

• At their best: they catch the mistakes everyone else missed.
• Under pressure: they may over-analyse, slow decisions down or come across as critical.
• Working with them: share details and data in advance, give them time to prepare, and agree on what "good enough" looks like.

The same update, written four ways

Back to the project update from the start. Here is how you might adjust the same message for each style:

• For a D: "Decision needed: we can launch on the 14th if the export feature moves to the next release. I recommend we do that. Can you confirm by Friday?"
• For an I: "Good news first: the pilot team loved the new dashboard. We have one decision to make together about the launch date. Do you have ten minutes for a quick call?"
• For an S: "Here is where things stand and what changes for your team. The launch plan stays as agreed, apart from one feature that moves to the next release. Nothing is needed from you this week."
• For a C: "The status by workstream is attached. Testing found three issues and two are fixed; details are in the sheet. To keep the 14th, the export feature moves to the next release. Assumptions and risks are listed at the end."

The facts are identical in all four versions. What changes is the order, the level of detail and the tone. You do not need to write four versions of everything: knowing who you are writing to, and leading with what they care about, is usually enough.

Giving feedback across styles

• D: be brief and direct, focus on the result, and do not soften the message so much that it gets lost.
• I: keep it warm and personal, give it in conversation rather than only in writing, and agree on one clear next step.
• S: give it privately, explain why it matters, and recognise what is going well.
• C: be specific, bring examples, and give them time to consider it before you expect a response.

Running a meeting that works for every style

One meeting can work for all four styles. Send a short agenda that names the decision to be made, which helps the Ds, and attach anything worth reading beforehand, which helps the Cs. In the meeting, give everyone a turn to speak, which draws out the Ss and gives the Is the discussion they want. Close with a summary of decisions, owners and dates, so nobody leaves unsure what was agreed.

When you are the odd one out

Sometimes your style is the minority on a team: the one steady S in a room full of fast-moving Ds, or the detail-focused C among enthusiastic Is. That can feel like being permanently out of step. A few things help:

• Name your style. Telling the team how you work best ("I give better answers if I can think about it overnight") turns a hidden difference into an agreed one.
• Treat it as a contribution. A team of Ds needs someone who asks how a change will land with people. A team of Is needs someone who checks the numbers. Your difference is often exactly what the team is missing.

Most people are a blend

Very few people are a single pure style. Most have one style they fall back on first, often blended with a neighbouring one, such as a D with a strong I, or an S with a strong C. Your style can also shift with context: someone may be strongly D in a crisis and much more S with their own team.

Adapting without pretending

Adjusting to someone else's style is not about becoming someone you are not. Think of it as speaking the other person's language for the length of a conversation: a strong C can still lead with the decision when writing to a D, and a strong I can still bring the spreadsheet to a meeting with a C. Small adjustments like these remove a lot of everyday friction.

Using DISC in a team

1. Share styles openly. When everyone knows each other's style, behaviour that used to feel personal ("why is she always so blunt?") becomes easier to read.
2. Watch the classic clashes. D and S often clash on pace; I and C on detail and structure. Naming the difference is often enough to take the heat out of it.

What DISC is not

DISC describes behavioural preferences, not ability or intelligence. No style is better than another, and every team benefits from a mix. DISC has also received far less independent academic research than models like the Big Five, and its validity as a measurement has not been well established, so treat it as a practical conversation tool rather than a precise measurement, and never as the sole basis for hiring decisions. For how DISC compares with other frameworks, see Big Five or personality types: which test should you take?