Always having trouble communicating with people? Maybe the problem is not the other person, but that you haven't found your own style blind spot! The 2025 GWIS Global Women's Impact Forum will take you to DiSC to make communication smoother!
In the fast-paced modern society, we communicate with others every day, but we often feel misunderstandings, friction and even conflicts. What's the problem? How to make conversations smoother and interpersonal relationships more harmonious?
In the workshop "Exploring Strengths and Blind Spots, Using DiSC to Build Harmonious Relationships" at the 2025 GWIS Global Women's Impact Forum, Gwen Wu, co-founder of Tianlai Talent Management Consultants, was invited to lead participants to dismantle the patterns behind communication through Everything DiSC® behavior style analysis, and help everyone improve their interpersonal acumen in the workplace and life.
Picture: Gwen, co-founder of Tianlai Talent Management Consultants
What communication style do you have? Explore the four main types of DiSC
Everything DiSC® is a psychometric assessment tool that helps us understand our own behaviour and that of others in order to build more effective communication and cooperation. Gwen was on hand to introduce the four styles of DiSC and gave participants an insight into their own propensity to interact through an interactive experience:
- D (Dominance): Acting fast, making decisive decisions, focusing on results and efficiency, and liking to be in control.
- i (Influence): Warm, friendly, good at persuasion, valuing interpersonal relationships, and likes to be recognized.
- S (Steadiness): Patient listening, valuing teamwork, preferring a stable environment and avoiding conflict.
- C (Conscientiousness): Attention to detail, analytical thinking, the pursuit of high quality and accuracy, high standards requirements.
Picture: Gwen, co-founder of Tianlai Talent Management Consultants
Formal DiSC assessments usually take 15 to 20 minutes, and in order to allow participants to not only learn but also practice, Gwen will help you quickly find your possible style attributes through two simple questions.
Gwen invited participants to be divided into groups based on the measured style, occupying each of the four corners of the venue. As he explained the tendencies of each style one by one, the participants nodded their heads in agreement, feeling that their needs were finally seen and understood. Gwen also emphasized that all styles have their advantages and blind spots, and after seeing their own tendencies, how to use them maturely is more important.
Photo: 2025 GWIS Global Women in Impact Forum
Gwen also shared a real-life case in the workplace: a D-style supervisor who spoke directly and acted quickly always made his S-style colleagues feel pressured. However, through the DiSC assessment tool, he realized that his tone of voice and communication style were unsettling to the other party, so he began to give more time and clarity in communication, and as a result, the teamwork became smoother.
The key to relationships is our willingness to step out of our own world, into the other person's perspective, and understand the other person's needs.
Photo: 2025 GWIS Global Women in Impact Forum
Step out of your own world and learn to enter someone else's world
Gwen has many years of experience in corporate in-house training, and he shared that the use of DiSC in interpersonal relationships can help us move from "Self" to "Others", and finally be able to consciously adjust ourselves according to the needs of different "situations", so as to create more effective communication models.
In order to achieve the goal of SOS, in addition to making good use of the DiSC assessment tool, we should also consciously use the AAA learning method in our daily interactions, first from consciously seeing the differences to accepting each other's differences, and more importantly, reminding ourselves to consciously adjust ourselves.
- Aware: Be aware of your own style and the needs of the other person, and understand the source of communication barriers.
- Accept: Accept the characteristics of different styles and avoid labeling or criticism.
- Adapt: Adapt your communication style to different situations and people to create more effective conversations.
When we are able to recognize our strengths and blind spots, we are able to make adjustments in communication to reduce misunderstandings and conflicts.
Photo: 2025 GWIS Global Women in Impact Forum
In order to help participants experience different communication styles more deeply, an interesting "style matching" activity was held at the workshop. Participants are invited to role-play and improvised conversations based on their own and others' styles, and experience the impact of different styles by simulating real-life scenarios.
Gwen first invited people with the same style to communicate with the group on the "points of communication that they care about the most", and more consciously saw their own tendencies and needs. Gwen then invites everyone to imagine a person who wants to communicate better, to deduce the style attributes of the other person based on past communication experience, and then try to interpret the event from the other person's point of view.
Photo: 2025 GWIS Global Women in Impact Forum
For example, for C (rigorous) people, the content of the conversation needs to be supported by clear logic and facts, and overly emotional expression may make them feel uncomfortable; But for influencers, making emotional connections is the key to conversations, so dispassionate data analysis can turn them off.
Gwen once again emphasized that the purpose of DiSC is not to help everyone label, but to find a comfortable communication rhythm through active understanding and conscious adjustment.
Photo: 2025 GWIS Global Women in Impact Forum
From awareness to conscious adjustment, improve the maturity of interpersonal relationships
At the end of the workshop, Gwen also emphasized that "communication is not just a skill, but also a demonstration of maturity". When a person's communication style is confusing, the question is not whether the person's style attributes, but whether they have enough maturity. Because a mature person can better play their own advantages, and can also more consciously see each other's blind spots and find a balance between the two.
When we begin to have a deeper understanding of our own style with others and are willing to adjust the way we communicate, we will be able to create more harmonious relationships. These concepts and methods can be applied in the workplace, at home, or in any social setting.