Stephen Doyle Jr. Guests on The Mike Brunnick Show

Most corporate team-building events follow a predictable, painful script:

1. Everyone gets called into a conference room for a half-day workshop.
2. You take a quick multiple-choice quiz.
3. A trainer tells you whether you’re a “Red,” an “Owl,” or a “High D.”
4. Everyone laughs about how accurate it is.
5. You print out a 15-page report, throw it into a desk drawer, and never look at it again.

Two years later, when the team feels disconnected again, leadership orders another batch of tests. Rinse and repeat.

If that’s been your experience with personality tests, it’s no wonder you might view them as fluff. But as Stephen Doyle Jr., a master executive coach, former engineer, and head of Focal Point’s Assessment Center, recently shared on The Mike Brunnick Show, viewing assessments through a pass/fail or diagnostic lens misses the entire point.

An assessment isn’t a test. It isn’t a permanent box. It’s a snapshot of how a human being is currently wired to operate.

When used correctly by a skilled practitioner, assessments are direct drivers of operational efficiency, communication speed, and bottom-line ROI.

The Anatomy of Human Wiring: Beyond Basic DISC

When most leaders think of assessments, they think of DISC or Myers-Briggs. While those are great entry points, single-science assessments only capture how a person behaves on the surface.

To get a true picture of a team member or leader, you have to look through multiple behavioral lenses:

• Single-Science (Behaviors / DISC): Measures how someone prefers to communicate. It tracks observable actions—their tonality, speech pace, how they dress, how structured their environment is, and how they react to conflict.
• Two-Science (Driving Forces / Motivators): Measures why someone acts. It uncovers what energizes a person, why they get out of bed, and what gives them fulfillment.
• Triple-Science (Emotional Intelligence or Skills): Layers on EQ (how someone responds under stress and displays empathy) or DNA (their actual leadership and decision-making competencies).

When you layer these sciences together, you stop seeing a flat character and start seeing a complete human being.

“Dysfunction” is Usually Just Misaligned Motivators

Why does any of this matter to a CEO, founder, or department head? Because a vast majority of internal friction isn’t caused by bad intentions. It’s caused by mismatched wiring.

Consider a classic operational disconnect between a leader and a manager:

The Scenario: A highly structured, process-driven leader manages a creative, “figure-it-out” engineer. The leader passes down strict, step-by-step procedures. The manager, who is naturally wired to experiment and challenge status quo, ignores the steps, improvises, but still delivers the result.

The Friction: The leader sees a rebellious employee who doesn’t follow instructions. The manager sees a micromanaging boss who is slowing them down.

Neither person is wrong, but stress rises, communication breaks down, and a silent silo begins to form.

That tension carries a direct financial cost. Wasted salary hours, missed deadlines, churned employees, and endless internal meetings to “fix team dynamics” are massive non-billable drains on a business.

Debunking the Top 3 Assessment Myths

During our conversation, Stephen helped dismantle three of the most common misconceptions leaders hold about behavioral science in the workplace:

1. “My team is afraid they’re going to fail.”

There is no pass or fail on a behavioral profile. An assessment simply measures what is natural versus what requires conscious effort. The only way to “fail” an assessment is to try to game it by answering how you think your boss wants you to behave rather than how you actually operate.

2. “I can just ask ChatGPT to profile my team for free.”

If you feed a Gen AI tool someone’s resume, it will make massive assumptions based on stereotypes. For example, AI might assume that because someone holds an engineering degree, they crave rigid rules and compliance. In reality, plenty of engineers operate best in high-autonomy environments. AI observes public footprints; scientific assessments measure internal preference.

3. “DISC gives my team an excuse to be lazy.”

You’ve likely heard someone say: “Don’t give me detail work, I’m a High D,” or “I can’t lead this meeting, I’m an S.” Using an assessment result as a crutch is a self-limiting belief. As a leader, your job isn’t to let people use their profile as a cop-out—it’s to help them recognize their blind spots so they can adapt and grow into the next level of their career.

What to Look for in Sales Talent

If you are using assessments for hiring or talent placement, especially in high-stakes roles like sales the metrics might surprise you.

Can a High D (Dominant) personality close deals? Sure. But they can also burn out your client base if they lack empathy and ignore customer needs. Every DISC style can excel in sales. The real indicator of a top-tier sales performer lies deeper in their motivators and EQ:

• Resourcefulness: Top performers are wired to find solutions to cross the finish line rather than waiting for instructions.
• Social EQ: They have an acute ability to read the energy in a room and adapt their communication style in real time.
• Driven by ROI: They naturally understand value exchange, both for the client and the company.

Where to Start

If you’re ready to stop guessing and start building a clearer picture of your organization, don’t start by sending out blanket test links to your team.

Start with the end in mind:

1. Identify the core issue: Are you trying to fix a communication breakdown on an executive team? Are you trying to reduce turnover in sales? Are you building a succession plan for key leadership roles?
2. Bring in a practitioner: Work with a trained coach or consultant who knows how to translate 80-page data reports into actionable leadership decisions.

An assessment should never sit in a file cabinet. When applied with intention, it isn’t an excuse for where your team is today—it’s the exact starting point for where you want to take them tomorrow.

Listen to the full conversation with Stephen Doyle on The Mike Brunnick Show.

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