Deciphering Disc and Piav Research shows behavioral characteristics can be grouped into four major personality styles: Dominance (or Drive), Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness (or Compliance). People with similar styles exhibit specific characteristics common to that style.
Mazmanian says sales, administration, and production should ideally be a dysfunctional family, meaning they should all have different communication styles. Salespeople and owners tend to be high “Ds.” Administrative staff or bookkeepers tend to be high on the “I” or “S” scale. Production people tend toward the “S” and “C” side.
Yet all people share these styles in varying intensities. And, while they communicate differently, in an ideal situation the PIAV can tell if they all value the same things. Mazmanian says that because remodeling contractors are service businesses, each person is a crucial link in a small chain, so understanding others’ behavioral styles and values is critical.
Over the years, he has developed profiles for 48 job titles within remodeling. For long-term clients like Thomas Capizzi Jr. of Capizzi Home provement, Cotuit, Mass., and Charles Gindele of Dial One Window Re placement Specialists, Santa Ana, Calif., Mazmanian can benchmark the behavioral attitudes and values of top performers. So nine times out of 10, he knows what personality will work in key positions. The DiSC, he says, is not enough, and that’s where the PIAV comes in — telling him what drives and moti vates people.
“DiSC is like an X ray; the PIAV is like the genetic pattern of a person,” he says. “We call it the DNA. What moves and motivates is tremendously important. But you have to have both. And then, we have a database to match them to, with the results of 15,000 people in contracting companies.”
Mazmanian insists he doesn’t provide services to contractors who want to “fix” people. He works with accountable and responsible business owners who want to “polish the polish,” who want to make their office manager or production manager, for instance, more effective. More often than not, self-realization helps budding leaders realize they’re not right for the job.
Gindele recalls an employee who had been with him 17 years. Gindele promoted him to production manager, and the employee completed a DiSC questionnaire after his promotion. “He was a good guy, but certain things were not getting done,” Gindele recalls. When Mazmanian reviewed his profile, he called him “The Human Doer.”
“He comes to work, gets there early, stays late, is always busy, flapping his arms, always has a crisis, but gets a lot done,” Gindele says. “His downfall was, although he was self-assured, he didn’t delegate or manage people well, or hold them accountable.”
Mazmanian gave Gindele tips on coaching his production manager. But six months ago, the employee left the company. Gindele believes he scared him because he shared his growth plan, showing 25% more volume each year. “In his mind, all he saw was himself, doing more work,” Gindele says.
Benefits for All Mazmanian says assessment tools are powerful, so much so that he is able to tell small business owners whether the second generation will go into business with them, even if the second generation is just 8 years old. He claims 80% accuracy, with 1,800 families in his database.
He also helps contractors better communicate with customers. For one client, he developed a customer style identification chart (see “ Mapping Customer Styles”).
Scott of Mark IV does this too. He tries to learn customer styles to interact better and to make the remodeling process go more smoothly. He assigns field superintendents that best fit the client’s estimated profile on the DiSC scale.
Besides customers benefiting, however, owners open to change may be the ones to most benefit from assessments, once they realize the tools’ inherent power for self-improvement.
“I couldn’t see how these questions asked related to the conclusions,” says Paul Zuch, of Capital Improvements in Allen, Texas. “It was eerie how accurate it was. This thing nailed me to a “T” — traits, personality, my characteristics, values. It was pretty scary.” But when he assessed his staff, it also showed him he had the right people in the right positions.
Gindele says he first had himself profiled five years ago. Having never met Mazmanian, he was floored when the consultant nailed his behavior and why he behaved that way. “This is scary,” Gindele thought. “This guy has been in the back seat of my car for six months following me around!”
Since then, Gindele has hired and promoted dozens of people using the DiSC and PIAV tools.
Scott says he took page 10 of his 18-page assessment, which contrasts how he sees himself with how others see him, and also how others may see him under stress, pressure, or fatigue, and taped it to his desk by the telephone for a year. He slowly began to see that while he was pioneering and competitive and positive and assertive, he also could be seen as demanding, egotistical, abrasive, and arbitrary. It has made him a better leader and manager.
“I’m aware that in my dealings with one employee, my estimator, I can’t go ‘blue sky,’” he says. “I have to slow down and be more deliberate.”
Based on the profiling, Scott moved his estimator to that position from field superintendent, where he didn’t have the commandeering personality the job required. “The change in his attitude and job satisfaction was a night-and-day change,” Scott says. Through estimating, he can be more collaborative than confrontational, and he can prove points through numbers, not by being loud and in-your-face. “He’s becoming a powerhouse at it,” Scott says. “And he kicks my production manager’s ability to win by confrontation by using this. It’s fun to watch, to see them grow in their positions, using this information.”
Expert Sources There are many assessment tools and providers, and many assessments are offered online. Cost for the DiSC and PIAV together is about $375, and that usually includes interpretation of the results with a behavioral expert.
- Direct Insight LLC, King of Prussia, Pa., www.directinsight.com
- Pinnacle Group International, Media, Pa., www.pinnaclegroupusa.com
- Remodelers Advantage, Fulton, Md., www.remodelersadvantage.com
- Ruhmann Associates, Raleigh, N.C., www.ruhmannassociates.com