RESPECT Coaching Styles™ vs. DiSC and Other Assessments
With 2500 different personality tests commercially available, there’s no doubt – personality tests are popular. Unfortunately, most of them are poor imitations of one another. They’re also based on theories from 100 years ago.
But with RESPECT Coaching Styles™, there’s a reason we hear again and again: “I’ve never seen anything like this!” and “Wow, this is the most powerful, straightforward tool I’ve come across!” The research is rigorous based on modern-day methodologies. It is peer-reviewed and was created after studying the world’s best coaches. In my doctoral work, I discovered the patterns of style for how coaches interact to get outstanding results!
It’s a breakthrough and technological shift that will make personality tests an artifact of history.
The History of DiSC
For instance, DiSC – one of the most popular personality tests and its history, is based on William Marston’s book Emotions of Normal People published in 1928. Twenty years later, Walter Clare builds a personality test with Marston’s research, then in the 1970s, Personal Profile System and DISC were created. Today, lots of people sell this tool and others. But there’s no denying, it’s old technology that’s dated, and a dramatic change is coming.
Think of DiSC as landline phones in people’s homes. Useful, but outdated. And what happened to the trusty landline that existed in virtually every home?
DiSC assessments are like landlines
In 1876, 50 years prior to Marston’s DiSC book, Alexander Graham Bell was awarded with the U.S. patent for the telephone. According to the telephone’s history, the infrastructure for the phone lines were built with switchboard exchanges. People owned clunky boxes with a corded earpiece attached. Then rotary dial was introduced in the 1930s, just after Marston’s book. They let you make calls without an operator.
For the next 40 years, rotary phone didn’t change much, but a lot of people started making their own versions of the rotary phones. Then push-button technology came out in the 1970s. Push-button phones used the same landline infrastructure, and even more companies started making them. So many phone makers, so many landlines!
Where is your home landline phone today?
Even though landlines could be considered useful, why don’t you have one today? It’s because you, and the rest of the world, made a step-function change to adopt a better technology. Everyone switched! Sure, perhaps you can find a few people who grip to the past like those clunky handsets, but they’re few and far between – like relics of the past. Out of curiosity, are you reading this on a landline? Didn’t think so!
RESPECT Coaching Styles™ is the step-function change in technology for understanding how to lead and coach others. It’s highly accurate and immediately actionable. The assessment gives leaders and coaches clear instructions about literally what to say and how to say it. It is being rapidly adopted by the most respected companies in the world.
Discarding DiSC and others won’t be that memorable
Do you remember the day you threw out your final landline phone at home? Probably not. It wasn’t memorable because you’d already started adopting a better technology. However, do you remember the day you got your first mobile phone? Yes, you probably do, because it was worth remembering!
The day you and your company stop using DiSC or other personality assessments won’t be memorable. They’ll be phased out because they’re old. Only a few will be attached to them – primarily for nostalgic reasons. But the first day you make the huge technological leap forward with the RESPECT Coaching Styles™ will be memorable. You’ll feel the immediate impact of having more power and freedom – and insight that matters!
The technology has shifted. By the way, now that you know the power and freedom of the mobile phone, would you ever actually give it up to go back to the landline days? It’s not practical, and neither would I!
The future with RESPECT Coaching Styles™
RESPECT Coaching Styles™ were first developed from my doctoral research of studying some of the world’s best coaches. After 20 years in executive coaching and leadership development, I embarked on this research. Why? For the last decade and a half, researcher after researcher kept calling out for help in trying to understand how coaching actually works! Sure, they had plenty of research saying that coaching worked. But nothing pointed to the exact how coaching worked.
That’s when I realized that leadership research had a breakthrough when the concept of styles was introduced. That was also about the time I realized the concept of styles didn’t exist in coaching.
Leadership styles are the #1 topic of management literature – transformational leadership, authentic leadership, servant leadership, etc. So, why didn’t coaching have research on styles?
I decided to take on that topic. I asked: “Are there styles in coaching? If so, what are they?” Through the rigorous research process, I was given my Ph.D. for my breakthrough findings. But more than that, I discovered the foundation for the RESPECT Coaching Styles™ and the cutting-edge assessment I subsequently created. But how would the world receive it?
At the first conference I presented the RESPECT Coaching Styles™, hosted by the International Coach Federation (ICF), we won the Most Innovative award by a landslide.
Then within the first year of RESPECT Coaching Styles™ assessment launching to the public, it’s being rapidly adopted and integrated by several Fortune 500 companies, including one of the top 3 on the list.
Today, companies are infusing this assessment into the leadership programs, executive team retreats, and are being given to every single employee, including onboarding, in order to create true coaching cultures.
What DiSC and others aren’t giving you
Personality tests assess psychology and are overly general. Personality tests, like DiSC and others, aren’t assessing how you interact when coaching. They don’t tell show you your strengths and weaknesses when coaching. They don’t show you exactly how to phrase your questions to create harness your full potential when coaching.
Personality tests are interesting, sure. But that’s where most of the value stops. I understand that sounds bold, but know this – I’m certified in a number of personality assessments myself. It’s why I’m clear about how significant the differences are.
Said another way, personality tests are about the self – not the other. In Greek mythology, Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection. He stared at his own reflection until he died. That’s what personality tests do. They show us our reflection, often without ever moving beyond that.
We stare at that reflection personality tests give us and spend a ton of money, again and again. Our reflections shown to us in personality assessments are interesting because it’s all about ourselves. (And yes, this the Narcissus story is where the personality disorder narcissism originates.)
But coaching isn’t about you – it’s about them! It’s about how you help others! RESPECT Coaching Styles™ give you the tools to help others become their best selves. They give you what you say and how you say it, for their benefit.
The RESPECT Coaching Styles™ assessment is the most powerful coaching tool available today, so isn’t it about time you got your first one?! Once you see the technological leap you can make, you won’t want your landline back!
David Morelli, PhD
David is the CEO and co-founder of OwlHub and the creator of the RESPECT Coaching Styles™. He has 25 years of executive coaching and leadership development experience. When he's not inspiring people to grow, you can find him making a fool of himself onstage as an improviser.
