From left to right: Larry Ellison: Photo by Oracle PR Hartmann Studios, licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped from original, collage. Oprah Winfrey: Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson, licensed under public domain via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped from original, collage. Satya Nadella: Photo by Richard Morgenstein, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped from original, collage, mirrored. Andy Grove: Photo by Intel Free Press, licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped from original, collage.
What 8 Top CEO’s and Athletes’ DISC Profiles Say About Being True to YOUR Leadership Style
There’s no one way to be an effective leader. But there is one clear wrong way: trying to be someone you’re not.
So many mistakes that CEOs make fall under that wide umbrella of inauthentic leadership. Your business’ key stakeholders will never be able to connect with you if they feel like you’re trying to be a second-rate version of another CEO.
Instead, make 2025 the year that you become the best version of you. The DISC personality profiling system can help CEOs gain the self-awareness and confidence they need to harness their unique strengths, shore up weaknesses, and Make BIG Happen.
Let’s break down the four DISC personality types and think about how eight top performers embody these qualities like no one else.
What is DISC?
A DISC Assessment is a series of questions that creates a profile for the respondent. In a sense, DISC explains the “How?” behind “Why?” people react the way they do in various workplace scenarios, as measured in four categories:
A typical DISC profile will be strong in one or two of the four categories, and weaker in the others. These results shouldn’t be interpreted as a complete personality profile, or as a measure of intelligence — only as a general picture of how the respondent is likely to perform in neutral, low-stress, and high-stress situations. There is no right or wrong personality profile.
How can CEOs leverage DISC Assessments and Profiles?
Many of CEO Coaching International’s coaching clients use DISC Assessments as part of their hiring or onboarding processes to gain some insight into how someone will — or won’t — execute key tasks and contribute to the company’s culture.
But CEOs can also work with a skilled administrator, like their CEO coach, and take their own DISC to help them reflect on and improve their own leadership performance.
As you read through these examples of DISC traits and leadership styles, try to give yourself a mini-DISC. Think about where you would expect to score higher and lower, and what your optimal DISC profile might look like. Which of these traits should you lean into? Which need some balancing out? And which do you need to improve on if you’re going to Make BIG Happen this year?
In addition, think about your executive team. Is there someone who you tend to “clash” with on occasion? If so, it’s likely your DISC profiles are “opposite” each other and each of you find it hard to “accommodate” the other person’s style.
At the hands of a skilled facilitator, you could have your entire executive team complete the DISC profile and plot the results to see where each person lands. Through discussion, you can then learn the most effective ways to communicate with each other and get BIG done.
D – Dominance
In some ways, high-D CEOs are the archetypical leaders: results-driven, decisive, assertive. These CEOs are the loudest voices in the room, and there’s no question who’s ultimately making the final call. They have an innate competitive drive that they try to channel through the rest of their companies. But the best Ds also learn how to balance their intensity with the emotional intelligence they need to connect to a modern, diverse, multigenerational workforce.
Making early bets on enterprise databases, cloud computing, and BIG acquisitions are ways that Oracle founder Larry Ellison exhibited his Dominance in the tech world. Ellison’s hard-driving competitive leadership also extends to his Oracle Team USA yacht racing team, which has won the prestigious America’s Cup twice.
There’s arguably never been a tennis star as Dominant as Serena Williams, who won 23 Grand Slam singles titles in her illustrious career. Off the court, Serena uses her VC fund, Serena Ventures, to help entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities muscle into the business world “through a champion mindset.”
I – Influence
Charismatic leaders who have a knack for managing people typically score high-I on their DISC profiles. Influencers are good at creating engagement with stakeholders both inside and outside of the organization, leading board members and investors to be supportive, customers to act as brand ambassadors, and employees to give their all and drive innovation. A high-I CEO may need to rely on a strong CFO and results-oriented team leaders to keep the company hitting its targets.
Throughout her run as a talk show host, Oprah Winfrey developed her ability to connect with her audience and Influence what they thought, how they felt, and eventually, what “favorite things” they wanted to buy. Oprah parlayed that Influence into a multimedia empire centered on the inspirational power of that connection.
Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff has used his Influence to create a people-first culture of social responsibility. Benioff’s philosophy of “Salesforce Ohana” reinforces the company’s core values: Trust, Customer Success, Innovation, Equality, and Sustainability.
S – Steadiness
Employees want to be inspired, cared for and even challenged. But they also want to feel reassured when they look at the top of the company, especially when times are tough. Count on high-S CEOs to be that reliable, calming presence, always focused on maximizing the company’s core competencies, minimizing risk, and maintaining forward progress. Just remember that Steadiness can’t come at the expense of innovation and taking calculated risks at opportune moments.
Of all the BIG tech personalities, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella may be the most Steady, which helps explain how the company has pulled off a remarkable reinvention. As the world moved away from desktop software, Nadella helped Microsoft pivot to the cloud and AI, all while maintaining a focus on the growth and development of his employees to maintain continuity.
Mary Barra, the CEO of General Motors, first gained mainstream attention for her Steady management of a major crisis: an ignition flaw that led to 13 deaths, 32 crashes, and the recall of 2.6 million vehicles in 2014. Barra was praised for following three principles as she managed GM’s response: solving the problem, transparency, and customer support.
C – Compliance
With a new president, new congress, and new challenges all over the world, the pace of business is only going to continue to accelerate in 2025. High-C CEOs will be among the best-positioned to keep pace. These detail-oriented leaders are methodical about keeping everything above board, from exceeding industry regulation standards to maintaining clear communication throughout the company. Because of the value they place on data, high-C CEOs are probably far down their AI roadmaps. But to keep from letting the numbers do all the leading, high-C CEOs might consider adding a CXO this year so they have a fuller understanding of how decisions are affecting company stakeholders on an emotional level.
Some early stumbles in Intel’s transition away from computer memory to a focus on microprocessors probably influenced Andy Grove to double down on Compliant leadership. Grove methodically anticipated where computing was headed and positioned Intel to be be a leader in the space, while also popularizing the idea of “healthy paranoia.”
IBM also had to navigate complicated evolutions in tech during Ginni Rometty’s tenure as CEO. Rometty led a wave of strategic acquisitions and portfolio rebalances that ramped up IBM’s capabilities and prepared the desktop stalwart for a hybrid cloud future.
One common trait that all these leaders share is that they evolved their leadership along with their businesses. Taking a DISC assessment from your CEO coach can be an important part of your own evolution this year. But a commitment to improvement has to be a regular part of your CEO routine. Make time every single day to learn something new. Attend conferences that could help you achieve the unimaginable.
Incorporating what you learned about your leadership style in ways that are personal and relatable will position you to Make BIG Happen.
About CEO Coaching International
CEO Coaching International works with CEOs and their leadership teams to achieve extraordinary results quarter after quarter, year after year. Known globally for its success in coaching growth-focused entrepreneurs to meaningful exits, the firm has coached more than 1,500+ CEOs and entrepreneurs across 100+ industries and 60 countries. Its coaches—former CEOs, presidents, and executives—have led businesses ranging from startups to over $10 billion, driving double-digit sales and profit growth, many culminating in eight, nine, or ten-figure exits.
Companies that have worked with CEO Coaching International for two years or more have achieved an average revenue CAGR of 31% (2.6X the U.S. average) and an average EBITDA CAGR of 52.3% (more than 5X the U.S. average).
Discover how coaching can transform your leadership journey at ceocoachinginternational.com.
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