By Alexandra Zatarain
To determine an individual’s communication style, use a reliable measurement, like the DISC Personal Profile or Myers Briggs Indicator. A good assessment, if handled skillfully, can help you coach and work well with diversity. Dr. Marilyn Manning
Not everyone is a natural good communicator, and even when good there’s always room for improvement. An assessment of employee’s communication styles will help better guide towards an effective communication in the workplace.
Everyone is different. There is no clear right or wrong way but training and professional development in communication topics will ensure that the staff is understood and will help them adapt their style to the needs of others. (1)
Personality styles and communication
Understanding and identifying each employee’s personality style is essential to helping them become great communicators and most importantly to enhance communication as a group. Each personality style has its own traits and tendencies associated to them, which means different motivation factors, fears, response to pressure. Each characteristic will provide an insight into what can and should be done to enhance an employee’s communication abilities and group interactions.
There are different assessment tests out there than can help identify key personality traits, from the DISC Personal Profile System to the Predictive Index System.
The DISC test describes four main dimensions: Dominant, Influential, Compliant, and Steady. Each of them presents certain behavioral tendencies:
Dominant
- Goal oriented
- Strong ego
- Strong-willed
- Decisive
- Efficient
- Desires change
- Competitive
- Independent
- Practical
- Motivated by: Challenges
- Basic fear: Loss of control
- Under pressure: May show lack of concern for others’ views and feelings
Influential
- People-oriented
- Emotional
- Enthusiastic
- Optimistic
- Ambitious
- Friendly
- Talkative
- People-oriented
- Stimulating
- Motivated by: Social recognition
- Basic fear: Social rejection
- Under pressure: May become disorganized
Compliant
- Task-oriented
- Seeks perfection
- Sensitive
- Accurate
- Persistent
- Serious
- Needs many explanations
- Orderly
- Cautious
- Motivated by: Correctness and quality
- Basic fear: Criticism of work
- Under pressure: May become overly critical of self and others
Steady
- Team-oriented
- Dependable
- Agreeable
- Supportive
- Accepts change slowly
- Content
- Calm
- Amiable
- Respectful
- Motivated by: Maintenance of status quo
- Basic fear: Change, loss of stability
- Under pressure: May become overly willing to give
Another proposal by Dr. Marilyn Manning summarizes four basic styles:
- The influencer: likes to be asked questions about themselves and their experiences. Enjoys getting credit and looking good. Like to be included and feel part of a team.
- The analyzer: likes to figure out how to get things done. Prefers structure, details, thoroughness and quality. Enjoys working with other high achievers that share these values.
- The stable supporter: is not a high risk-taker. Requires ample time to make decisions. Minimize conflict for a stable supporter and keep him plugged into the team. Greatly value committed relationships and lots of communication.
- The controller: wants to be in charge of change and just about everything else. Needs details and facts and moves very quickly. Is a problem solver and will give a high level of commitment for challenges and stretch goals.
Communication in a social or work group setting will be directly determined by the individuals’ personality styles. A manager must be able to identify each staff member’s style and address any communication with him/her in a way that suits his/her personality. This will ensure a more effective communication which will produce better results and it will also avoid conflicts.
When any conflict arises it will probably be due to the lack of personality compatibility among colleagues. Again, a manager must be able to identify each individual’s tendencies and most of all his/her motivations and fears. After assessing these traits the manager can proceed to mediate between the conflicting parts.
Benefits of improving communication in the workplace
A better interaction among co-workers will result in happier and more productive and successful employees. If employees are happier and feel motivated they are less likely to leave their job.
Improving communication will also help streamline business processes and activities, and avoid misunderstandings that can affect regular business operations.
When a problem arises
Elizabeth Smith, of Demand Media, recommends taking concrete steps to solve a problem when an employee’s communication style is “grating on other staff members”.
Step 1: Establish standards of workplace communication and publish them in the office. Don’t make accusations; just state that you wish to create a safe, open corporate culture that fosters great work. Don’t go into details; just mention general things such as respecting coworkers’ time, taking everyone’s opinions into consideration and respecting cultural and traditional backgrounds.
Step 2: Closely observe your team’s interactions and define exactly what the person is doing to cause troubles. Try to sense if the actions are intentional or not. List the specific ways the employee’s communication is causing an issue in the team.
Step 3: Address the employee in private. Explain the actions that are causing strife and provide examples. Never mention specific names of coworkers to avoid creating discomfort and resentment. Give the employee time to make up for the wrong actions.
Step 4: Ask the employee about his communication approach, to understand if he knows his own traits and sense if he’s aware of what can be done better. Make specific recommendations suck as: listening better, using a calm tone of voice or learning to spot when people need to get back to work, for example. Always reassure that management is there to help.
Step 5: Give positive feedback if employee has managed to improve his communication style.
Open environment
Communication is innate to humanity. Without it humanity wouldn’t exist as a species. Every day we communicate in very diverse ways, through different channels and with different approaches and styles. By promoting better communication in the workplace you will increase team efficiency and organization productivity.
References
Tags: communication
