By Sandra Rowell:  Associate of DISCsimple

A family business can spot a good opportunity and still struggle to decide what to do next.

The founder may want proof that the business can afford it. The next generation may worry that waiting means losing ground. Another family member may have concerns about the staff who will have to put the plan into practice.

These are useful perspectives. But when people have worked together for years, they may stop asking what someone means and start assuming they already know. A DISC behavioural assessment can help family members understand how they prefer to communicate and make decisions. That understanding becomes valuable when they use it in the next meeting, not just when they read their reports.

Agree on the Decision You Are Making

Suppose a family business is considering a second location. The discussion begins with enthusiasm about a suitable site. Within minutes, one person is debating the cost, another is talking about recruitment, and someone else is questioning whether the first location is running well enough.

It can feel as though everyone is arguing about expansion. In fact, they may be answering different questions.

Before the meeting, write down the decision that needs to be made. Are you agreeing to explore the opportunity? Approving money for a feasibility study? Or committing to open the location?

That distinction gives the conversation a useful boundary. Someone may support researching the site without being ready to approve a lease. Once the group is clear about the decision, it becomes easier to identify which information matters now and which questions belong to a later stage.

Make Space for Different Ways of Thinking

Some people are comfortable discussing an idea while the details are still taking shape. Others prefer to read the figures first. One family member may want a quick decision so the team can move forward; another may want to understand how a change will affect customers and employees.

A DISC assessment for teams can help people recognise these preferences and discuss them openly. It can also challenge familiar assumptions. The relative who asks detailed questions may be trying to make a sound decision, rather than dismissing the idea. The person who wants to move quickly may be responding to a genuine commercial deadline.

Knowing someone’s style does not tell you what they will decide. It gives you a better starting point for asking what they need.

For the second-location meeting, that might mean sharing the figures several days in advance, leaving time to discuss the opportunity, and asking each person to name their main concern before the group moves towards a decision. Everyone then has a chance to contribute.

Turn Insight Into Better Questions

It is easy to leave an assessment session with a useful report and then return to the same meeting habits. To make the insight practical, use it to change the questions you ask.

If a family member wants to proceed with the second location, ask, “Which opportunity do you think we would lose by waiting?” If someone wants more information, ask, “What would you need to see before you could support the next step?” If a person has been quiet, give them room to speak before treating their silence as agreement.

These questions uncover what is behind a position. They also make it easier to find a workable next step. The family might agree to investigate the site immediately, ask the operations team to assess staffing needs, and set a date for a final decision.

The group can also use its DISC findings as a starting point for a team communication assessment of its own meeting habits. Does a direct question help clarify a risk, or does it sound like a challenge? Does a long explanation build support, or leave others unsure what decision is being requested? Discussing those habits gives people something specific to adjust.

Be Clear About Who Decides

Communication alone cannot settle an unclear chain of authority.

Imagine the founder has handed day-to-day management to their daughter but still owns the business. She believes she can approve an initial study into the new location. The founder expects to be consulted before any money is spent. Neither expectation has been stated.

A workplace DISC assessment may help them discuss the issue with greater awareness of their different approaches. They still need a business agreement: which decisions can the Managing Director make, which require consultation, and which need owner approval?

It helps to record that agreement before a difficult decision arises. Otherwise, a meeting about the second location may turn into an argument about who was allowed to commission the research. Clear responsibilities let the family discuss the opportunity without repeatedly reopening the question of authority.

Check What Happened After the Meeting

The quality of a decision-making process is easier to judge once everyone has tried to carry it out.

At the next meeting, ask what worked. Did people receive the information early enough? Was the decision recorded clearly? Did anyone raise a concern afterwards that they felt unable to voice in the room?

If the family agreed to investigate the second location, check whether each person understands the next step. Someone may be responsible for costs, another for staffing, and one named person for bringing the findings back to the group. That prevents a promising discussion from ending without action.

It also gives the family a chance to improve its meeting habits before the next major choice.

Keep Using What You Learn

Family businesses make decisions through shared experience, commercial judgement and relationships built over time. Behavioural insight can add something useful to that mix: a way to notice when people need different information, different questions or more room to contribute.

Everything DiSC offers a framework for discussing those differences. DISCsimple provides assessments, reports and practitioner debriefs to help teams apply what they learn in workplace conversations.

The next step can be small. Choose one decision your family team needs to make, state exactly what must be agreed, and ask each person what they need to take part constructively. That is where understanding behavioural differences begins to improve the way a business works.

Want to make your family business discussions more productive? Contact DISCsimple to explore a DISC assessment suited to your team.