By John Wright, Senior Partner at The DISC Agency
In a world obsessed with personality types, there’s one section in the TTI Success Insights® DISC report that often gets overlooked—but it’s pure gold for managers, recruiters, and ambitious professionals who run teams or departments.
It’s called the Behavioural Hierarchy.
While the DISC graph shows how we behave, the Behavioural Hierarchy shows where we shine. It ranks our behavioural tendencies across 12 critical workplace competencies—turning DISC data into practical, people-focused decision-making.
If you lead a team, run a business, or coach performance, this is the section you’ll want bookmarked.
What Is the Behavioural Hierarchy?
Located toward the end of your DISC Management/Staff, Sales or Executive DISC profile, the Behavioural Hierarchy provides a bar graph comparing your natural behavioural style across 12 workplace behaviours.
Each behaviour is measured from 0 to 100 and benchmarked against the general population (represented by a shaded band on the graph).
Here are the 12 competencies assessed:
- Competitive – Desire to win and achieve
- Frequent Change – Comfort with shifting tasks
- Urgency – Action-orientation and immediacy
- Versatile – Ability to adapt to new situations
- Interaction – Engaging with others
- People-Oriented – Building rapport and relationships
- Customer-Oriented – Meeting customer needs
- Consistent – Performing predictably in routine tasks
- Following Policy – Adhering to rules and procedures
- Analysis – Working with data and detail
- Persistence – Finishing tasks despite obstacles
- Organised Workplace – Maintaining order and structure
It’s a behavioural X-ray for real-world performance.
Why Is the Behavioural Hierarchy So Valuable?
Most DISC users focus on the four main factors—Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance. And rightly so. They tell us how a person approaches problems, people, pace, and procedure.
But the Behavioural Hierarchy goes a step further. It shows where someone naturally excels in the flow of work.
🧠 For leaders, it identifies which team members will thrive in fast-paced environments… and who prefers structured, predictable routines.
📈 For hiring managers, it’s a cheat sheet for behavioural job fit—so you don’t place a high-urgency, high-competition person into a methodical, detail-heavy role (hello, turnover!).
🧭 For individuals, it reveals potential blind spots, strengths to lean into, and skills to consciously develop.
Let’s use John Doe from the sample report as an example…
Meet John Doe: A Case Study in Behavioural Hierarchy
John scores exceptionally high in:
- Competitive (100) – He’s results-driven and plays to win.
- Frequent Change (98) – Thrives in dynamic, shifting environments.
- Urgency (95) – Takes immediate action and pushes for progress.
- Versatile (95) – Comfortable pivoting and learning on the fly.
- Interaction (90) – Engaging, persuasive, and expressive with people.
But he scores low in:
- Organised Workplace (10) – Prefers big-picture thinking over fine-tuned organisation.
- Persistence (20) – May drop projects when new opportunities arise.
- Analysis (20) – Doesn’t enjoy deep data work or prolonged focus on detail.
- Following Policy (22) – Resists rigid structures or micromanagement.
The takeaway? John is a bold, fast-paced starter who thrives on influence, innovation, and autonomy—but he’s best supported by people who love structure, process, and detail.
Team Alignment & Development Planning
Now imagine having your whole team’s Behavioural Hierarchies side-by-side.
You’d immediately see:
- Who needs freedom vs. who needs structure
- Which team members are suited for frontline roles vs. back-end operations
- Where natural conflict might arise—and how to prevent it
You can also use this section to:
✅ Clarify development goals
✅ Build complementary partnerships
✅ Make smarter hiring decisions
✅ Increase engagement and retention by aligning roles with behavioural strengths
In Summary
The Behavioural Hierarchy is one of the most practical, actionable parts of the TTISI DISC assessment—and yet it’s often skipped over.
Don’t let it collect dust.
It’s a roadmap to individual strengths, team synergy, and behavioural job fit.
Whether you’re leading a sales team, hiring an admin assistant, or trying to better understand yourself, the Behavioural Hierarchy provides an unmatched depth of insight—all grounded in how people actually behave at work.
At The DISC Agency, we help organisations unpack this data so they can hire smarter, lead better, and build resilient, high-performing teams.
Want to explore your Behavioural Hierarchy or your team’s strengths in a DISC workshop?
Reach out to The DISC Agency for a tailored DISC facilitation session that connects behavioural data with real-world impact.
