W2 - Unit 2 - What Is Your Communication Style PDF

WHAT IS YOUR COMMUNICATION STYLE? Unit 2 (p. 22 – p. 27) By: Ms. Noha H. Salah  Table of Contents 1. Four Communication Styles 2. Understanding Others’ Styles 3. Adapting Our Communication Style 4. Uses of Conversation  Communication! Simple isn’t It?...

WHAT IS YOUR COMMUNICATION STYLE? Unit 2 (p. 22 – p. 27) By: Ms. Noha H. Salah  Table of Contents 1. Four Communication Styles 2. Understanding Others’ Styles 3. Adapting Our Communication Style 4. Uses of Conversation  Communication! Simple isn’t It? ‘Communication’, on the surface, seems ‘simple’. If we speak the same language, surely we can understand each other, right? A 2017 Economist Intelligence Unit survey revealed that most frequently cited cause of poor communication at work was a clash of different communication styles. Forbes study revealed that 42% of employees suffer from stress and anxiety due to ineffective communication since people have different communication styles. Therefore, understanding different communication style of people and adapting and tailoring our style to others’ are keys to becoming a competent and effective communicator. By: Ms. Noha H. Salah  Four Communication Styles We can profile our communication style using two sets of complementary behaviours. 1. Pushing First Set of Behaviours 2. Pulling 1. Empathizing Second Set of Behaviours 2. Systemizing Combining these two behaviours creates four communication styles: 1. Social 2. Analytical SAFE 3. Functional 4. Expressive By: Ms. Noha H. Salah  Four Communication Styles: First Set of Behaviours – Push and Pull The first pair of behaviours express our relationship or status in a conversation. Status is our position or rank relative to each other, which means that our status can only be higher or lower than that of the person we are communicating with. Our status is like a see-saw: raise our status, other’s status lowered and vice versa (rapport levels status). Pushing Pulling Raising our own status is ‘pushing’. Raising the other person’s status is ‘pulling’. ‘Pushing’ behaviour is to speak, which involves the use of force, in increasing ‘Pull’ behaviour is to listen, in increasing order of intensity, might include: making a order of intensity, might include: asking a statement, persuading, bargaining, question, exploring an idea, encouraging, criticizing, instructing, invoking rules, praising, giving way or obeying. demanding or giving orders. Conversations include a mix of speaking and listening, but most people prefer either speaking or listening. By: Ms. Noha H. Salah  Four Communication Styles: Second Set of Behaviours – Emphasizing and Systemizing The second pair of behaviours express how we prefer to understand the world around us. Understanding is about pattern-matching, seeking to match our experiences with mental models that we have built up in our minds. People with very different mental models will have to work harder to understand each other. Thus, ‘a clash of communication styles’ is also a clash of mental models. Empathizing and systemizing are two modes of pattern-matching, looking at the world in two different ways. By: Ms. Noha H. Salah  Four Communication Styles: Second Set of Behaviours – Emphasizing and Systemizing Emphasizing Systemizing Empathizing seeks to identify another person’s Systemizing seek to understand our environment emotions and thoughts, and to respond to them by constructing systems, which are a set of with appropriate behaviour, arising out of a elements that operate on inputs and delivers natural desire to care for others, and an awareness outputs, according to ‘if-then’ rules. If it rains, the of how others see us. We empathize when we pond fills with water. sense that someone’s emotions have shifted, and we wonder why. Systemizing seeks to understand how things work, and in particular the rules that govern how Empathy helps us tune in to another person’s they work. world, and pattern-match to their mental models, stopping us from offending, insulting or injuring The great advantage of systemizing is that it them. allows us to predict how a system will behave. Empathizing starts from the understanding that ours may not be the only way to look at the world, and that others’ mental models (their thoughts, feelings and values) matter as much as ours. We can all both empathize and systemize, but we tend to prefer one or the other. By: Ms. Noha H. Salah  Four Communication Styles: READING SECTION Second Behaviours – Emphasizing and Systemizing Systemizing gives us control over our environment, coming in all shapes and sizes. According to Simon Baron-Cohen, we can recognize (at least) six types of system: - technical (machines of any kind), - natural (an organism, a pond, a forest), - abstract (languages, computer codes), - social (teams, companies, families), - organizable (encyclopedias, libraries), - and motoric (playing a musical instrument, swimming). By: Ms. Noha H. Salah  Four Communication Styles We can combine these two sets of behaviours ‘push or pull’ and ‘empathize or systemize’ to create four communication styles (SAFE): Social, Analytical, Functional and Expressive. Most of us prefer one or two of these styles over the others. Identifying your own preferred style(s) will help you adapt your style to other styles, becoming an effective and competent communicator. Just as we prefer to dress in certain ways, we prefer to communicate using certain styles. Most of us can alter, adapt or tailor our communication style quite easily in certain situations, e.g., we behave quite differently at a funeral and at a birthday party, just as we would probably dress differently. By: Ms. Noha H. Salah  Connecting to others Four Communication Styles: Social (Pull + Empathizing) This style seeks to understand other people to improve our relationships with them by discovering what people are thinking and feeling. This style prefers listening and asking questions. When they do make statements, they use language that expresses emotions openly and connects to other people. The Social style is the style of the diplomat, team player, consensus builder and peacemaker. This style is conflict-averse and may not be able to deal with personal criticism easily, such as the Analytical style, who may become irritated with Social’s ‘touchy-feely’ approach. Under pressure, the Social style might become upset and exasperated. By: Ms. Noha H. Salah  Doing the research Four Communication Styles: Analytical (Pull + Systemizing) This style seeks to understand the environment better and how things work in the world. This style likes data, numbers and systems for organizing their world. It might become irritated with people who cannot support their opinions with hard evidence. They prefer listening or observing. Analytical will pick up the trends and underlying causes of events that others might miss. This style uses specific, precise, concise and unemotional language, especially the language of measurement or definition. Analytical is the style of the researcher. People turn to Analytical for clear, dispassionate, logical answers to hard questions. Analytical tends to avoid conflict and may experience ‘analysis paralysis’, which is the inability to make a decision. When confronted with such criticism, Analytical may become terse and rude. By: Ms. Noha H. Salah  Making it work/happen Four Communication Styles: Functional (Push + Systemizing) This style seeks to get things done in the world and achieve practical results. Functional prioritizes speaking over listening. It generates and explains processes: timelines, plans, and deliverables, covering all the details. Functional is the style of the implementer. People turn to this style to make things happen, on time and on budget. It may become irritated with the Social style because it is more interested in processes than people. It may ally itself with the Analytical style but become impatient with its hesitation to act. Because it focuses on systems, other styles may find Functional cold, unresponsive or boring. The Functional style can therefore lose people’s attention in presentations or meetings. By: Ms. Noha H. Salah  Putting on a show Four Communication Styles: Expressive (Push + Empathizing) The Expressive style seeks to make an impression on other people by presenting, performing and inspiring, finding its natural home on the podium or in the pulpit, and to change hearts and minds. This style prefers the big picture, using images and stories, rather than irritating details. They prefer speaking; it thinks imaginatively and creatively. Expressive communicators seek to engage their audience, seeing other people principally as an audience rather than a partner in a conversation. An Expressive speaker is acutely aware of how its audience is thinking and feeling, especially about the speaker themselves. The Expressive style is the style of the visionary. We call on the Expressive style to tell corporate stories. The Expressive style may find the Analytical style irritating and the Functional style pedestrian. Indeed, the Expressive style may lack the necessary patience to make an informed decision. It may ally itself with the Social style but hijack it for its own ends. By: Ms. Noha H. Salah  Understanding Others’ Styles Once you have got to know this communication styles model, you can also use it to understand how other people like to communicate: - People who focus on you and ask you lots of questions are using the Social style. - People who focus on the task and ask lots of questions about it are using the Analytical style. - People who make a lot of statements about a task or process are using the Functional style. - People who use statements to inspire or entertain you are using the Expressive style. Understanding the style that someone is using will give you clues about how to adapt your own style to communicate more effectively. By: Ms. Noha H. Salah  READING SECTION Understanding Others’ Styles Social Analytical Functional Expressive Fall-back Gives in Avoids Resorts to rules Attacks Attention and Results and bottom- They value Activity and precision Recognition friendship line They may need to learn to make Initiate action Make decisions Listen Check the details decisions Making suggestions Allowing them to build Inspiring them to reach Manage them best by: Providing details and facilitating their own structure their goals Stimulating and They like to be: Agreeable Accurate Efficient visionary Relationships and Support them with: Principles and thinking Conclusion and action Applause and praise feelings To help decisions Guarantees and Options and Testimony and Evidence and data provide: assurances probabilities incentives By: Ms. Noha H. Salah  Adapting Our Communication Style So far, 1. We identified our communication style and understood how to identify the others’ style. 2. Now, it is time to find ways of adapting our style to different people and situations Effective communicators manage their behaviour. You may feel that altering your behaviour is fake, dishonest or inauthentic: ‘playacting’ a part that you do not feel. Managing our behaviour simply means trying to act appropriately and trying to have the right effect on the other person. Adaptability is our willingness and ability to change our behaviour. We can test our ability to adapt our behaviour in situations where we don’t want to adapt, but choose to adapt. Do not try to adapt your style all the time. Extreme adaptability could make you appear inconsistent or dishonest. Adaptable people interact more productively with everyone they work with, manage difficult or tense situations more effectively and make life easier for everyone. By: Ms. Noha H. Salah  Adapting Our Communication Style Here are some ideas to help you get started: 1. If you prefer systemizing styles (Analytical or Functional): display a more empathic behaviour, explain how you feel about a situation, ask how others feel and encourage, praise or flatter people. 2. If you prefer empathizing styles (Social or Expressive): do more systematic thinking, restrain your social chat or control your enthusiasm, focus on the task at hand and make sure you understand the elements contributing to a problem and the steps needed to resolve it. 3. If you prefer pulling styles (Analytical or Social): look for opportunities to assert your point of view clearly and simply and focus on action. 4. If you prefer pushing styles (Functional or Expressive): practise listening before speaking, ask for others’ views, let others take control of a conversation and seek consensus rather than imposing your own views. By: Ms. Noha H. Salah THE END! :D By: Ms. Noha H. Salah