DECODING DIFFERENT PERSONALITY STYLES AND COMMUNICATING FOR SUCCESS

Do you ever wonder why you don’t ‘click’ with certain people? And despite your best efforts to make a connection, it still goes awry?

We are often repelled by someone’s approach (body language, tone of voice, word choice) rather than the message they are trying to convey. If their personality style is contrary to ours, we may not understand them.

As an example, if you tend to be reticent and introspective, an interaction with a loud, direct personality may be uncomfortable for you. You may perceive what you’re seeing as arrogance or indignant and here’s where things go off kilter. You are ascribing an incorrect intention to their behaviour.

WHY IS THAT?

Our view is uniquely shaped by our own lens. We see outward, but not necessarily inward. We’re not always aware of how we show up to others because A, we know what we are thinking and feeling (aka our intentions) and B, we don’t have a mirror reflecting our demeanour back at us.

So, it’s very possible that the direct personality doesn’t know that they’re coming across aggressively. Conversely, the introspective person may appear aloof and uninterested to the more assertive personality.

Now, imagine the impact of this in the workplace. You can see how a minor misunderstanding in approach could potentially derail a conversation.

As a Team Facilitator, I often start my sessions by asking the participants to guess the key predictor of a team’s success.

WHAT DO YOU THINK IT IS?

If you said, communication, you are correct!

It turns out that patterns of communication are more important than factors like intelligence, education, ability, combined.

So, while communication may be a ‘soft skill’ it turns out to be an essential skill.

To hear more about decoding different personality styles and communicating for success, you can check out my podcast, DISCovering You on all podcast players or by clicking here:

Connect With Me

WEB: www.discoverwhatworks.org

PODCAST: Pod.link/1609255605

IG: @discoverwhatworks