How Does Emotional Intelligence Affect Your DISC Profile

Let's pretend for a second that you are a sales manager, and you're about to hire a new sales rep. You're looking at their DISC profile, and their dominant characteristic is I (Influence).

Yippee!

That's wonderful news. They're just like you. And you're awesome. You're good with people. You have charm, charisma and the gift of the gab.

But here comes the part were you drive that train of thought off the tracks and straight into a brick wall killing all onboard, and you do it the moment you say: "This person is going to be great at sales because all high I's are charming, charismatic, persuasive and great at dealing with people!"

*Gasp*

I can't believe you just said that. How could you? After everything we talked about in the DISC Accreditation about how the DISC profile is not a measure of skills — only behavioural tendencies. Remember? Having a natural preference for interacting with people (high I) does not necessarily mean that the person has learned how to be skilled at interacting with people.

Many high I's are good at dealing with people. They can be friendly, sociable, warm and enthusiastic. But others aren't. Some High I's suck. They can be selfish, shallow, disruptive, unruly, impulsive and noisy.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is important to understand because it forms the basis of social effectiveness and has the power to bring out the best (and worst) traits in our DISC profile.

As the table below illustrates, a person who is highly emotionally intelligent will tend to exhibit more of the strengths commonly associated with that DISC style, whereas as person low in emotional intelligence will tend to exhibit more of the shortcomings.

More on Emotional Intelligence:

Check out the EQ profile page and request a free sample at the bottom of the page — or one of our combination profiles like Behavioural Intelligence (DISC and EQ) or TriMetrix. The EQ profile involves taking a 15-minute questionnaire online. Once complete, you will receive a 10-page report on your emotional intelligence with tips on how to be more effective when working with others.