DISC-based Email Etiquette Tips That Might Just Change Your Work Life

Shouldn’t work emails be one-size-fits-all, distributed to everyone with exactly the same wording? Well, that may seem simpler. But if you have employees, clients or recipients that fit into all four DISC assessment types – and you do – you risk at least a 75 percent chance that your words will be received with offense, confusion or other negative responses. 

Your emails will be less effective if they aren’t written in language that makes sense to and appeals to the recipient, which means more room for misunderstanding and lower likelihood of effective results.

People are definitely not one-size-fits-all, in the workplace or anywhere else. And that’s a good thing, because every workplace needs a variety of skills, styles and temperaments to accomplish everything well. But if you send out emails – or other written communications – as if everyone were the same, you miss out on an opportunity to use your knowledge of personality to increase good feelings and good results.

On the other hand, if you use the information you gain from the DISC assessment to better understand the people you’re communicating with, you’ll be able to customize your communication so it lands well, and keep everyone happy and functioning at their best.

Let’s look at some things to keep in mind when writing to each of the four main DISC types.

Drive: Keep it Short and To the Point

Drive types in the DISC assessment are direct, energetic, competitive and yes, driven. They care less about emotion and more about getting impressive results, so you can be direct and to the point in your language. But, since they prefer to lead rather than being led, your email might be received better by them if your language approaches the task at hand as a mission to accomplish rather than an order to comply with.

You can also outline your objectives in a way that will help them provide direction to their team, in a sense writing as a leader to another leader. 

Example subject lines and phrases: 

• Can you exceed last month’s sales numbers by 20 percent?
• Strategy for achieving Q4 goals - your thoughts?
• Opportunity to pioneer our next project
• I need just 5 minutes of your time.

Influence: Be Warm and Engaging

Influence types are all about relationships and rapport, and the satisfaction they get from positive human interactions. You’ll want to use language that focuses on human connection and how your Influence type can energize and collaborate with their co-workers to achieve the goal outlined in the email.

They’ll be less interested in numbers, procedures and impersonal policy, so when conveying information, don’t forget to add in the human and motivational element. You can also show that you appreciate and depend on their ability to work with and motivate others toward a common goal.

Example subject lines and phrases: 

• Let’s work together to make this our best month ever
• Bringing your creativity to our next campaign
• Can we chat about this over coffee?
• Let’s brainstorm together

Support: Respectful, Encouraging and Clear Emails

Support types prefer to be in the background, providing support for others. They shine by quietly contributing while helping and empowering others. Empathy is one of their driving qualities, so you can appeal to their good will, asking for their support in meeting a goal, overcoming a challenge, or helping everyone cooperate harmoniously.

Though they don’t like too much attention, they are more motivated by you appealing to their positive qualities rather than making them feel coerced or criticized, and they’ll appreciate feeling like their talents and efforts, however quiet, are valued. They also appreciate having plenty of detail and specifics so there's no room for doubt or misunderstanding.

Example subject lines and phrases: 

• Can I count on your help?
• Let’s work together to make this process as smooth as possible
• I appreciate all of your hard work and dedication to our team
• Our success depends on everyone cooperating harmoniously – can you help us out? 

Clarity: Lead with Facts and Evidence

Clarity types are detail oriented, perfectionist and like to know exactly what’s expected of them. They want to be clear on procedures and policies to follow for successful outcomes, and they pride themselves on delivering above and beyond.

They’re self-directed and work well alone, without much supervision needed. It’s best to give them the guidelines they need, with enough detail so they’ll know exactly how to proceed, then step back and trust them to get it done right.

Example subject lines and phrases:

• Info and best practices for this month’s department goals
• Attached is a detailed plan and timeline for the upcoming project
• Thorough review needed for the final report
• Comprehensive instructions for the new policy implementation

But what if you can't customize that much?

While customizing emails to best fit the recipient is ideal – and often worth the extra effort – there will be times when that just isn’t possible.

Maybe the company is large and everyone needs to get the same message, or it just isn’t feasible to tailor each communication for each DISC type. And you can’t exactly ask your customers to take a DISC assessment! So, how can you still benefit from knowing the DISC assessment types in your workplace when that’s the case?

Some things you can do to make even a generic email work better for each DISC assessment type:

• Target the team leaders or others who will be the most affected by the email, using the language most effective for their type.

• Suggest that team or department leaders break the email down into messages that will be a better fit for their team members by DISC type.

• Include a little something for everyone. Try to fit in a few words to appeal to the competitiveness of Drive types; provide enough factual and procedural detail for Clarity types; give the Influence types something that will help them motivate others and use some language that appeals to the Support types’ empathy and desire to be helpful.

• Combine two types in one email. 

For example, both Drive and Clarity types like to stick with the facts and know what the expected outcomes will look like, while being given some autonomy to achieve the outlined goals, and pride themselves on excellence in their own way. 

Both Influence and Support types are oriented toward people, feelings, and cooperation, so with those types you can focus on their role in motivating and encouraging their coworkers and on making them feel appreciated.

The principle that if you try to please everyone you'll end up pleasing no one applies here. If, instead of a one-size-fits-all approach you use the knowledge and insight the DISC assessment provides to help you write effectively worded emails targeted to the strengths and needs of each DISC type, you’ll help bring out the best in each individual.