New Dawn Business Partner Cheryl Evans Qualifies As DiSC Practitioner
We are delighted to share that New Dawn Resources business partner Cheryl Evans is now a certified DiSC practitioner, further enhancing her expertise in Human Resources.
This certification allows Cheryl to offer even deeper insights into workplace dynamics, helping clients improve communication, teamwork, and leadership. By understanding individual behaviour styles through DISC, Cheryl can tailor solutions that boost team performance and employee satisfaction. This new service adds tremendous value to New Dawn Resources’ offerings, empowering clients to build more cohesive, productive teams.
Cheryl’s certification marks an exciting step forward in providing outstanding HR solutions for clients.
We asked Cheryl to elaborate on what this new certification means for clients, herself and how it will enhance New Dawn’s offering to a broad sweep of clients.
Firstly congratulations on your new certification. How does being a certified DiSC practitioner enhance the services New Dawn Resources offers to clients, particularly in understanding workplace behavior?
I am a firm believer that communication and connectivity are key to building great teams. If you can understand how and why we work differently to others we can start to appreciate how we all contribute to the team and the values we bring.
Working as a HRBP for many (many) years I have had the opportunity to support and help organisations to develop their people in a bespoke way that is in line with their vision and goals.
Having worked with different management tools and programmes I find that DiSC is one of the best. DiSC is a tool which measures preferences and tendencies in behaviour rather than skill and ability. It most definitely is not a tool to be used to stereotype and pigeon hole people, it is to encourage discussion. DiSC is not to be used for diagnosis but for dialogue. Anyone that reads this who knows me will not be surprised to hear that I am excited to use DiSC as a base to ‘encourage discussion.’
DiSC helps us to understand that there are different styles and that not everyone thinks like us, has the same priorities as us and will achieve their objectives in the same way as us. Often it is lack of awareness and understanding of our colleagues’ styles that prevents us from working well together.
In what ways will you use your DiSC certification to improve communication and teamwork within New Dawn’s clients’ organisations?
At NDR we work with many different sized organisations across a broad range of industries. However we support them, whether it is advice on general HR related matters or management development programmes we often see that communication is key to some of the issues that they are facing. Not all of us are natural communicators. DiSC encourages discussion and examines why we sometimes miscommunicate and helps to oil the wheels of communication so to speak.
Learning about your colleagues’ styles and behaviours allows us to think about how we can adapt our style and approach situations a bit differently than we normally do. If we are willing to make changes in our own approach then we will certainly get different results. Improved communication improves connectivity and therefore improves teamwork.
Team building is not just about the occasional let’s get together event where we have fun building dens in a forest (although that can be really good fun!) Have you ever wondered why the same people always avoid joining in? That’s because they don’t feel comfortable perhaps? The world would be a boring place if we were all the same! But it would be so much easier when we are trying to engage, motivate and develop the team. As a manager it is important that you know your team.
I read somewhere ‘We are not a team because we work together, we are a team because we trust, respect and care for each other.’
How does the DiSC model help identify individual strengths and weaknesses, and how will this benefit clients when addressing challenges in employee performance or leadership?
We provide our clients with a link to an assessment for each individual, after they have completed the assessment they will receive a report which contains information about their style. There are 12 different styles and the report tells them about their style, what their priorities are and gives a detailed insight to the other styles. It can be very thought provoking and sometimes a little uncomfortable when you are reading about your own behaviours.
The assessment tells us about our motivators and stressors rather than strengths and weaknesses. Through 1:1 coaching and team development focus groups I will ‘encourage discussion’ to talk about the parts of their role, events at work, situations we find ourselves in and the people that can make us feel uncomfortable or particularly stressful.
Managing employee performance can be challenging at times and also very rewarding. It is important to reflect on our relationships with our team and ask why an individual can take on board our comments whilst others do not. It is often because of the relationship we have built with those individuals. They may be the ones that we have formed a better relationship with and have more connectivity, so we understand each other and perhaps you will find that they have a similar style to you.
Having a better understanding about the working styles of our people allows us to adapt our approach which will undoubtedly help face challenges in employee performance and leadership.
What practical applications of DiSC can clients expect in areas such as conflict resolution or enhancing team dynamics?
In our last blog we talked about conflict in the workplace and there does seem to be more and more situations where we find as a team that conflict has arisen through misunderstandings and/or a clash of working styles and personalities. Understanding the people that you work with and their motivations makes for stronger, healthier teams.
How does your DiSC certification allow for more tailored HR solutions, and what measurable impact can clients anticipate in their overall organisational effectiveness?
Personally I always feel that knowing yourself and therefore understanding what makes you respond in the way you do in certain situations always strengthens the ability to truly understand people. DiSC is one of the many tools that we use to support organistions to manage and develop and support their people.
A team of people that can understand each other and work together effectively means greater productivity, less conflict (less HR issues), a happier working environment and ultimately increased retention of staff.
Will you be hosting workshops for organisations and how can potential clients access these?
We are developing workshops and information sessions for anyone who is interested and will be launching them over the next months. We are also open to coming into organisations and doing taster sessions.
Ask yourself the question: What is the perfect team?
Do you want action, energy and results? Do you want to see a clear plan and structure? Do you want to see connectivity and collaboration where the team supports and trusts each other?
New Dawn can help you identify and appreciate what each team member brings to the dynamic. This in turn will improve and build a team and see company objectives achieved and the Company vision become reality.
If you are interested or want to learn more please contact Cheryl or any member of the NDR team.