Dominance, inducement, submission and compliance. Those are the personality traits that Miles & Stockbridge sought to track through a personality test that it administered to about 30 of its leaders in 2014.
The test, called DiSC—short for those four traits—is a behavioral assessment tool that Miles & Stockbridge chairman John Frisch calls “really eye-opening.” The leaders of the 236-lawyer, Baltimore-based firm learned that their ranks included partners who were more process-oriented, some who were analytical and others who were more intuitive. Using those insights, Miles & Stockbridge partners started to change their communication and behavior. For colleagues who have a more abrupt style of communication, Frisch says he now simply leans into their office for a three- to four-sentence conversation about things that needed to be done.
