Two Complementary Approaches
When organizations look for tools for hiring, team building, and personal development, DiSC and the Core Values Index (CVI) often come up as options. Both assessments offer valuable insights into human performance, but they measure fundamentally different aspects of who we are. Understanding this distinction helps you choose the right tool for your specific needs.
The Core Values Index is the only assessment that characterizes the unchanging nature of a person. DiSC measures behavioral styles—how people tend to act in various situations. This difference between unchanging nature and adaptable behavior means these assessments serve different purposes.
What DiSC Measures: Behavioral Styles
DiSC categorizes people into four primary behavioral styles: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness. These styles describe observable behaviors—how someone approaches problems, interacts with others, responds to pace and change, and follows rules and procedures.
The DiSC model is useful for understanding behavioral tendencies in specific contexts. Someone high in Dominance tends to be direct and results-oriented. Someone high in Influence tends to be enthusiastic and collaborative. These behavioral descriptions can help teams understand each other’s working styles.
However, behavior is naturally adaptable. People modify their behavior based on circumstances, training, and intentional effort. The behavior you show in a high-pressure meeting differs from how you act at a family gathering. This adaptability is a valuable feature of human nature.
What the CVI Measures: Your Unchanging Nature
The CVI is the first tool to accurately measure the core values that are built into who you truly are. Abraham Maslow called this inner self the “unchanging real self.” It contains your natural ways of thinking, feeling, making decisions, and connecting with others.
Maslow proposed that this inner nature stays the same from childhood until death. This isn’t about how you behave—it’s about what drives you at the deepest level. Your core values determine what kind of contribution you’re wired to make, what work will be genuinely fulfilling, and where you’ll naturally excel.
The CVI measures four core values: Builder (power), Merchant (love), Innovator (wisdom), and Banker (knowledge). Everyone has all four values in different proportions, creating a unique core values profile that remains stable throughout life.
The Stability Advantage
At Taylor Protocols, multiple test/retest studies typically achieve 94% or greater repeat reliability, with the CVI achieving 97.7% overall. This high level of consistency can only be achieved if we are measuring something that is genuinely stable over time.
Because the CVI measures your unchanging inner nature rather than adaptable behaviors, your results stay consistent whether you take the assessment today or years from now. This stability makes the CVI particularly valuable for long-term decisions like career direction, hiring for fit, and team composition.
Surface Behavior vs. Deep Motivation
Think of the difference this way: DiSC tells you how someone typically behaves. The CVI tells you why they behave that way at the deepest level.
Two people might show similar behavioral styles but have completely different core values driving that behavior. A results-oriented person might be a Builder driven by the core value of power—personal energy invested to make a positive difference. Or they might be a Banker driven by knowledge, using results as evidence that proven methods were applied correctly.
The surface behavior looks similar. The underlying motivation is completely different. And that underlying motivation determines what work will be fulfilling, what management approach will be effective, and what roles will allow for peak contribution.
The Proportional Difference
DiSC places you into one of four primary styles (or combinations). The CVI measures the proportion of each core value within you, recognizing that everyone contains all four values.
Your CVI might show 28 Builder, 24 Merchant, 14 Innovator, and 12 Banker. This proportional approach captures human nuance better than categorical placement. Two people who are both “high Builder” might have very different secondary values, leading to very different contribution styles.
The combination of who you are (your unchanging inner self) and what you are (your personality, skills, and talents) determines where you will find work that is fully engaging and fulfilling—work that puts you in the flow.
Behavior Can Be Trained; Nature Cannot
Often employers think an employee performance problem can be fixed with training. For example, a supervisor who is having morale problems is often sent to management training. The employer expects this training to work and the supervisor will return as a great leader.
The problem is that we are sometimes sending the wrong people to training. We are sending managers who are not wired to be managers. They are simply in the wrong job. Sending people to training to learn skills for work that isn’t their real work is a lose-lose game.
DiSC can help someone understand their behavioral tendencies and adapt them for different situations. But it cannot reveal whether someone’s fundamental nature aligns with the core requirements of their role. The CVI fills this gap.
Using Both Assessments
These assessments can complement each other. DiSC provides useful insights into communication styles, team dynamics, and behavioral preferences. The CVI reveals the deeper motivations and contribution styles that remain constant throughout life.
For decisions that require stability and long-term predictive value—hiring, career direction, team composition—an assessment that measures unchanging qualities provides the most reliable foundation.
What you don’t know about yourself controls your life. If you don’t know who you are at the deepest level, you cannot fully understand how you operate, what motivates you, what work engages you, or what your highest contribution should be.
The Right Tool for the Right Purpose
Both DiSC and the Core Values Index have helped organizations improve performance and self-understanding. The choice depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.
If you want to understand behavioral tendencies and improve day-to-day interactions, DiSC offers valuable insights. If you want to understand your fundamental nature—the core values that drive your motivation, satisfaction, and highest contribution—the Core Values Index measures these unchanging aspects of who you truly are.
Taylor Protocols has learned that putting the right person in the right seat is the single most important task of any business leader. If this is not done correctly, all the training in the world will not produce the desired outcome. You cannot train someone to be something they fundamentally are not.
Discover Your Core Values
Experience an assessment designed to reveal your unchanging core nature. In just 8-10 minutes, the CVI provides insights that will remain true throughout your lifetime.