The 4 DiSC® Assessment Leadership Styles, and Why Knowing Yours Isn’t Enough

Consider this scenario: You’re leading a team you’ve built and guided for months. You know your strengths, your go-to leadership style, the way you get results. With your team, it works.

Then you walk into a meeting with a new group. Suddenly, what usually sparks energy falls flat. Instead of leaning into your confidence, you start second-guessing. You leave wondering: Why didn’t that connect? What did I miss?

This is a challenge we see often in the leaders we work with at The New Standard (TNS). Many leaders know their default style, either through DiSC® or Myers-Briggs®, but self-awareness is only the first step. The real differentiator is flexibility: adjusting your approach based on the audience, the stakes, and the context. Leaders who can adapt create impact. Those who can’t often see their influence stall.

Research shows that leaders who adapt to team needs significantly improve engagement and performance. Yet most development programs stop at self-awareness, leaving leaders with insight but not the tools to act differently when it matters most.

At TNS, we help leaders bridge that gap. Understanding your style isn’t enough. You have to know how to leverage your strengths and how to adapt your approach when others need something different from you. This article will explore default tendencies, when flexing or adapting is essential, and concrete ways to shift your style so your message lands with any audience.

Why DiSC®?

At TNS, we focus on the DiSC® assessment because it offers more than just a personality snapshot. It’s a practical, research-backed framework that connects directly to leadership behaviors. Unlike other assessments that describe traits in broad strokes, DiSC® highlights how leaders actually show up: how they communicate, make decisions, and influence others.

The real value of DiSC® lies in its actionability. It helps leaders identify their natural tendencies, recognize blind spots, and most importantly, adapt their behaviors to meet the needs of different teams and stakeholders. That’s where impact is made. It’s why we’ve integrated DiSC® into our coaching, programs, and tools we share, like the Leadership Flexibility Guide. It’s important that leaders don’t just understand themselves. They need to know how to lead differently when the situation demands it.

Leadership Flexibility Guide

Don’t just know your DiSC® style—learn how to use it strategically. Download our free guide to start leading with greater confidence, adaptability, and impact.

Leadership Flexibility Guide

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Understanding the 4 DiSC® Leadership Styles

The DiSC® framework identifies four primary leadership styles: Dominance (D), Influence (I), Steadiness (S), and Conscientiousness (C). Each style comes with strengths, tendencies, and blind spots that shape how a leader is perceived.

Dominance (D): Direct, results-oriented, and decisive. D leaders are comfortable taking risks and making tough calls, but may come across as impatient or overly critical.
Influence (I): Enthusiastic, persuasive, and people-focused. I leaders energize teams and build strong networks but can struggle with follow-through or detail orientation.
Steadiness (S): Supportive, consistent, and reliable. S leaders excel at creating cohesion and stability but may resist change or avoid conflict.
Conscientiousness (C): Analytical, precise, and systematic. C leaders prioritize quality and accuracy but can be overly cautious or slow to act.

Knowing your default style is certainly valuable. It helps you lean into your strengths and be mindful of your blind spots. But leadership impact doesn’t come from staying in your comfort zone. It comes from flexing: intentionally shifting your style to match the needs of your audience, your team, and the moment.

Here’s Why Knowing Your Style Isn’t Enough

At TNS, we’ve seen countless leaders with strong default styles struggle when the situation demands a different approach. For example:

A “D” style executive leading a high-performing team may push for rapid decisions. But when presenting to a cautious board that prioritizes risk assessment, that same assertiveness can backfire.
An “I” style leader can inspire and motivate a team effectively, but when interfacing with detail-oriented stakeholders, relying solely on enthusiasm may undermine credibility.
A “S” style manager who excels at building stability and harmony may avoid tough conversations. But in moments of organizational change, that reluctance to challenge or disrupt can stall progress.
A “C” style leader known for precision and analysis may provide thorough reports. But in a fast-moving crisis, overemphasis on details can delay decision-making and erode confidence.

These scenarios illustrate a common gap: leaders know their style, but they don’t consistently adapt it when the situation requires. Closing this gap is where adaptive leadership comes in.

Adaptive Leadership: The Power of Flexing Your Style

Adaptive leadership is the practice of adjusting your behavior to meet the needs of your team, stakeholders, or organizational context. It requires:

Self-awareness: Recognizing your default style, strengths, and blind spots.
Situational insight: Understanding the context, audience, and desired outcomes.
Behavioral flexibility: Knowing how to modify your approach without losing authenticity.

For example, one of the leaders we’ve been working with in our Accelerate program, a senior VP at a large banking firm, is naturally an “S” in DiSC®. She’s fantastic at supporting her team and keeping things steady, but when she presented to executives who were looking for bold, strategic ideas, her usual approach didn’t have the impact she hoped for. Through coaching, she started leaning into her “D” side, showing decisiveness and confidence when it mattered. That small, intentional shift changed how her ideas were received and really boosted her influence across the organization.

Flexing Across the 4 DiSC® Styles

Here’s a practical guide for adapting each style:

Infographic showing When and How to Flex Across the 4 DiSC® Leadership Styles

Key Takeaways

Your style is your starting point, not your ceiling. Knowing your DiSC® profile highlights strengths and blind spots.
Flexibility drives impact. Leadership effectiveness comes from adjusting behaviors to meet the situation. The effort is worth it. You’ll get better outcomes and be seen as more influential.
Adaptive leadership is learnable. With practice, coaching, and reflection, leaders can flex consistently without sacrificing authenticity.
Tools and frameworks help. Resources like the Leadership Flexibility Guide provide a practical roadmap for bridging the gap between awareness and action.

Understanding the 4 DiSC® leadership styles gives leaders clarity about their natural tendencies. But, clarity alone isn’t enough. The leaders who make the biggest impact are those who can step outside their default style, read the room, and flex effectively. At TNS, we help leaders move from insight to action, from knowing their style to using it strategically to influence, engage, and achieve results across any context.

Curious how this could look inside your organization?

Let’s talk about how TNS can help your leaders flex with confidence and impact.