Strengthening Leadership and Teamwork at OAR through DiSC

Over the last several months, the team at the Office of Admissions and Recruitment (OAR) has been working to develop leadership capacity and learn about ways to strengthen their ability to work effectively together through engaging with DiSC 363 for Leaders and Everything DiSC Catalyst. They did this work in collaboration with International Coaches Federation Certified Coaches Nisha Gupta, Associate Certified Coach, and Chariti Gent, Master Certified Coach. Activities included assessments, professional coaching, and group workshops. For DiSC 363, twenty leaders (supervisors and project leads) from across OAR focused on better understanding how they saw themselves as leaders, how others saw their strengths and opportunities for growth, and then compared/contrasted where responses were similar or different. OAR chose Everything DiSC 363 for Leaders because it’s more approachable, actionable, and personalized than traditional 360 tools. In addition to providing a self-assessment, team members from across the office and campus colleagues engaged with this process as raters. Results were anonymous except for the supervisor’s feedback; they were compiled for each leader in a comprehensive DiSC 363 report that also included personalized strategies for greater leadership effectiveness. After receiving their DiSC 363 For Leaders Profile summary report, each leader had a two-hour, one-on-one confidential professional coaching session to walk through their results. Several members of OAR’s Interim Leadership also participated in subsequent coaching sessions where they set goals, developed an action plan, gained self-awareness, and held themselves accountable for their leadership development progress. After the DiSC 363 summary reports were completed, the DiSC consultants facilitated two workshops (one for Interim Leadership and one for managers) where they reviewed OAR’s aggregated leadership strengths and growth areas and facilitated discussion for the group to generate ideas for charting a path forward for OAR’s leadership, informing some aspects of OAR’s future planning and organizational assessment. The final segment was the Everything DiSC Catalyst Workplace Assessment, which is an on-demand, personalized, learning platform that empowers learners to explore their own and others’ workstyles and communication preferences. Through engaging with this tool, team members learned ways to strengthen their skills and have more effective workplace interactions. The process included a self-assessment and two interactive workshops where team members learned about their own style and the styles of other team members. Each team member developed an action plan for building more effective relationships. Team engagement with DiSC was facilitated by OAR’s Administration & Engagement Team with special thanks to Cari Anderson and Mallory Oller for their administrative and logistical support. If you have questions about DiSC, please reach out to either of them or Nancy Hoffman.