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 Can anyone tell me what the ideal DISC profile would be for a Personal Assistant?

naraa's picture
Training Badge

To me it was an S.  Best PA I have had has been an S.  Really take pleasure at making sure they do anything they can to make your life easier, and also take pleasure at seeing your team perform well and the team getting recognition.

But that might be generalising it too much.  Perhaps I was lucky to have an S with these characteristics.  

It is also good to have somebody that is very organised and careful (I think that will be more like a C?).  But on the other hand you do want him/her to smile and not just for you and for people you report to, but for people that work for and with you.  I have had one for a while who had some D characteristics.  She worked well for me, being a D myself our communication was pretty straight forward and with very little input she would do a lot.  But she didn´t get along well with others.  People cannot tolerate a PA sounding bossy and much less a PA that does not greet them properly (she didn´t because she was busy working, but....).

I think it does help to make the extra effort on communicating with the PA but have a PA that somehow complements your own style and can help you with your weaknesses.  I am a high D, high I, I tend to be too accelerated.  My S assistant would actually call my attention when I was too accelerated.

But perhaps more than the communication style really look for someone with really high ethical standards.  Someone you know that whatever information she/he has access to stays and dies with her/him.  If you find somebody like this, someone you can really trust, they you will be able to rely quite a bit on him/her.

Look at what specific tasks you will be assigning to him/her and which ones are the most important to you, which ones you don´t really want her to fail.  And find someone with talents (for example loves to serve, naturally smiles at people, is outgoing, won´t exitate to pick up a phone and make an appointment, remembers peoples names, takes pleasure at organising things,...) that fit it. 

I never thought I would give an answer like this but I guess the answer is... that depends... what does it depend on?... that also depends...(on your style and what tasks you want from her).

 

wendii's picture
Admin Role Badge

There is no 'best' DISC profile. First ask, can the person do the job you want them to do?

I'll be back with more later, but don't want you to get off track while I'm on a plane for 10 hours!

Wendii

mfculbert's picture

It really does depend on what the job is and what your personality type is. I hope to be hiring a person to help me carry out a number of support initiatives. I will most likely be looking for more of an I or D personality to balance my flaming S tendencies and carry me through the last minute crunches at work.