The best team building tool is a four-letter word…

One of the questions I am asked most often is in regard to the most important skillsets for an entrepreneur. And without question one of the most important is leadership, specifically in regard to building teams. The reality is that anyone who has ever achieved anything of magnitude has done so with a team. As the saying goes, if you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far, go together. 

Frankly, this was something that I began my entrepreneurial career over fifteen years ago, was one of the biggest challenges I faced constantly. It was a recurring struggle to discern who was the best fit for the role we were hiring for. The biggest obstacle was trying to figure out who someone really was and how they would perform under pressure. Many of the candidates interviewed well, sported impressive resumes, and even had glowing recommendations from references, yet failed to live up to the reputation they claimed. I struggled with this dilemma for a couple of years until I discovered a powerful tool that eliminated 80% or more of my challenges and made hiring a breeze. That tool is the DiSC profile which describes human behavior in various situations—for example, how you respond to challenges, how you influence others, your preferred pace, and how you respond to rules and procedures.

This discovery led to the creation of a new standard operating procedure which I have carried into every business since. Whenever I would post a job ad, I would include instructions for candidates to go and take a DiSC assessment and email the results in with their resume. And wow, what an incredible difference this one strategy made.  

Two major objectives were accomplished with this protocol:

1. It let me know straight away if a candidate could and would follow instructions and not just submit their resume willy nilly. If they didn’t send in their DiSC results I didn’t even open their resume.
2. Before having the first phone interview it let me know if a candidate was even a potentially good fit for the role, thus eliminating much wasted time of year past, interviewing people who would never have been a good fit.

Then when you go to review a resume, you can evaluate not just what the candidate says about themselves, but what they will actually do and how they perform under pressure. Which is essential when hiring and building a team as pressure situations often arise in business and how each individual responds will significantly impact the success of a team.

There are a bunch of websites that offer a DiSC assessment at no charge, just do a search and you will find plenty. If you haven’t taken one for yourself, start there because it will greatly elevate your awareness. Then take what you learn and roll it out within your team. If you really want to geek out on this stuff, there are all sorts of training programs and certifications to become a DiSC expert and know how to best apply this tool within any team and organization.

I strongly encourage you, as an entrepreneur or leader, to begin utilizing this process in your own teams.  

If you have experience using a DiSC profile, what is the most important discovery you experienced and how has it impacted your team?

Leave a comment below and let me know!