As renowned American Engineer and Statistician, W. Edward Dennings said, “Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.”
And, when it comes to choosing a reporting-based assessment for yourself, your team, or your organization, this couldn’t ring truer.
But, the results are in and we’re proud to share that an independent statistical analysis by the Assessment Standards Institute (ASI), the industry’s peak ratification body, has found that Athlete Assessments’ DISC Profiles meet or exceed accepted standards for Data Reliability and Construct Validity.
We requested this rigorous testing and analysis earlier this year, at the same time as we refreshed the appearance of our suite of DISC Profile assessments including the CoachDISC, AthleteDISC, and Sports ManagerDISC. The ASI’s testing was conducted in accordance with standards set jointly by the American Educational Research Association (AERA), American Psychological Association (APA), and the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME).
While we routinely examine our profiles as part of our continued compliance with industry standards, in truth, the resulting certification means more to us than that. Everything we do is about high-performance, it’s a value we live every day, and by extension we expect the tools we create, the same tools you rely on to help you be your best, are of the highest possible standard. And, the only way to test any assessment’s quality and effectiveness is to transparently subject it to independent third party analysis.
The process of the independent analysis required us to submit a large data sample of more than 30,000 depersonalized surveys and profiles to the ASI to undergo the stringent review. For one critical element of their testing, the ASI used Cronbach’s alpha, a technique regarded as one of the most robust measures of reliability for multiple-question surveys. Then, in terms of the actual assessment profile, the ASI asked the data sample, “Does the profile actually measure what it proports to measure?” In technical terms, we’re talking about assessing construct validity, one of the most central concepts in psychology.
In today’s marketplace there is a proliferation of assessments since the dawn of the internet saw the ability to create, sell, and market assessments become significantly easier and less expensive. Elements that are commonly measured include personality, behavior, emotional intelligence, leadership, critical thinking, reliability, and the list goes on! This also means that choosing an effective assessment from this abundance grows increasingly difficult.
But as a result of the ASI’s analysis, when you, your athletes, coaches, students, or administration take an Athlete Assessments DISC Profile, you are ensured that the profile you generate accurately builds a picture directly corresponding to the way you have answered the survey. You are welcome to download the independent reports about our profiles provided by the Assessment Standard Institute here.
Athlete Assessments CEO, Liz Masen, elaborated on the unregulated, ever-expanding nature of the industry and assessments on offer, particularly in relation to developing sporting performance,
“I regularly hear about a new type of assessment or someone else promoting their way of distinguishing something they deem important to athletic performance. But you would be horrified by how few have actually been independently reviewed, or had any quality analysis completed. Disappointingly, not all assessment companies open themselves up to the same level of scrutiny that we do. But we advise that any assessment worth using will have been subjected to the rigors of ensuring that it does measure what it says it does, and does so reliably and effectively. We can proudly boast that ours do!”
To evidence the marketplace saturation of assessments currently available, we look at just one example of an assessment platform, the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM), which has its own Talent Assessment Center (TAC) for companies to purchase assessments from. Within the TAC catalog there are 427 tests and assessments available for sale. More specifically, listed under the category of ‘personality’ assessments alone, there are 182. This is only one example of an assessment provider, and there are countless more.
The content of an Athlete Assessments DISC Profile provides coaches, athletes, students, and sporting professionals worldwide with an effective path to self-awareness. DISC Profiles contain information which gives an individual a fundamental awareness of their own preferred way of behaving, an insight into their strengths and limitations, plus knowledge of their potential areas for improvement. DISC Profiling also details the pace an individual prefers to tackle tasks, build relationships, communicate, deal with challenges, and points to environments they naturally thrive in. Importantly, each profile also delivers an insight into how the individual may act under stress, providing a deeper understanding that sometimes their preferred way to communicate is not always suitable for every situation, this gives them time to develop strategies to make adaptations in their behaviors as needed.
Athlete Assessments’ DISC Profiles are generated from the results of a 12-minute online survey which poses questions and scenarios the individual is to answer within the context of their specified sporting role or environment. DISC Profiles are a behavioral assessment tool based on observable actions you can see, and are founded on the understanding that behavior is flexible, while personality is not. The end goal of Athlete Assessments’ DISC Profiles and the assessment process is not to improve on your profile, but to understand yourself so that you can develop your capacity to communicate and build relationships with all kinds of people, in any environment.
Liz speaks to the importance of developing self-awareness as a critical performance factor, “It really has the capacity to elevate performance to the next level when applied to adapting behaviors to make communication and building relationships even more effective in the high-pressure sporting environment. Whether it’s between coaches, coaches and their athletes or sporting administration, sport psychologists and their clients, or academics and their students. Every person in sport benefits from having an increased understanding of their own preferred behaviors, as well as being able to recognize that of others, to ultimately create more effective communication and performance outcomes.”
Athlete Assessments’ services and packages vary according to the style of delivery required, but they all include our commitment to exceptional customer service, a debrief to ensure everyone knows how to best apply their profile, and direction on where to go for more knowledge and resources to aid in applying their particular profile. To understand more about the way Athlete Assessments uses DISC in sport click here.
Where to from here?
Whether you are a consultant, sport psychologist, academic, or coach, your people rely on you to bring them knowledge and up to date information on the tools that will raise their performance to the next level. If we can provide you with any additional information or resources to help you come to a decision about assessments just reach out and contact us.
Also, we encourage you to search our extensive online library of related articles which detail the way Athlete Assessments’ DISC Profiles are applied in classrooms and in training, right through to competition and career development.
Recommended Articles
In line with the release of our new look DISC reports, we wanted to provide a refresher on the history of DISC and basics of each profile. Bo talks about where it began, why it’s important, and the value in knowing your own profile and preferred behaviors and even identifying that of others.
Let me ask you the most important of coaching questions, “What style of coach are you?” As coaches we occupy a special, even privileged place in our athletes’ lives. On the surface, we are just a part of their athletic journey, but really, we often spend as much, if not more time with our athletes, than their family and close friends.
“I rarely choose the easy route just because something might be hard.” It’s a simple and succinct statement of fact, but it also serves as a quick character portrait summing up Dr. Scott Douglas, a 2x NWBA Champion, 4x player for the U.S. Men's World Cup Tennis Team, 3x Paralympian, coach, and Associate Professor at University of Northern Colorado.
Learn more about Athlete Assessments’ DISC Profiles
AthleteDISC Profile Report
CoachDISC Profile Report
Sport ManagerDISC Profile Report
AthleteDISC Profile Report
For Athletes – the AthleteDISC Profile
Get practical strategies that will help you coach athletes based on their individual needs. Know the behaviors that produce their best performances so your athletes can achieve greater consistency and perform when it counts the most. Help your athletes build self-awareness, a key contributor in making improvements and taking greater responsibility for their behavior on and off the ‘field’. Find out more!
Click here to view a sample AthleteDISC Report
CoachDISC Profile Report
For Coaches – the CoachDISC Profile
The distinguishing factor of great coaches is their constant pursuit of the competitive edge both in their athletes and themselves. Coaches will better understand their coaching styles (and their fellow-coaches and staff) and find new ways to further improve their coaching and communication with athletes and others. Ultimately, this results in increased success! Find out more!
Click here to view a sample CoachDISC Report
Sport ManagerDISC Profile Report
For Sports Administrators & Professionals – the Sports ManagerDISC Profile
Provide your people with a comprehensive understanding of themselves and those they work with. It quickly improves communication, working relationships and ultimately results. Use in recruitment or as a foundation for professional development plans and part of a team building exercise. Find out more!
Click here to view the sample Sports ManagerDISC Report
Get practical strategies that will help you coach athletes based on their individual needs. Know the behaviors that produce their best performances for greater consistency when it counts the most. Help your athletes build self-awareness to make improvements and take greater responsibility for their behavior on and off the field. Click here to view a sample AthleteDISC Report.
The distinguishing factor of great Coaches is their constant pursuit for the competitive edge both in their athletes and themselves. Coaches will better understand their coaching styles (and their fellow-Coaches’ and staff) and find new ways to further improve their coaching and communication with athletes and others. Ultimately, this results in increased success! Click here to view a sample CoachDISC Report.
Provide your people with a comprehensive understanding of themselves and those they work with. It quickly improves communication, working relationships and ultimately results. Use with recruitment as a foundation for professional development plans or part of a team building exercise. Click here to view the sample Sports ManagerDISC Report.
