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Better versatility = Better relationships
(Avril 2, 2012)
In conversations with clients about the impact of the current economic downturn, I keep hearing one concern everyone seems to share: "How can we help our people manage the strain of all the budget cuts, layoffs and re-organisations?"
Employees are worried about their jobs even while adapting to major changes in their work environment — new reporting relationships, re-structured work teams and different job assignments. Even when they understand the necessity for all the changes, the effects can be debilitating — communication gets more difficult, morale sags and productivity slows.
So what’s the answer? How can companies deal with these problems and maintain productivity and efficiency? If you are a leader concerned about this question, you know you can’t control the external economic conditions. You can, however, do everything possible to help your people cope. A simple place to start is to make sure communications breakdowns aren’t adding to everyone’s stress and getting in the way of trust, teamwork and collaborative effort. As people struggle to adjust to new realities at work, it’s normal for them to experience misunderstandings and increased relationship tension. By becoming more versatile in their interpersonal communications, employees, managers and leaders can better understand differences in communication preferences and create more effective and productive relationships.
Versatility can be learned, practised and improved over time. It’s based on understanding your own and others’ Social Styles — defined in Wilson Learning’s model in terms of four categories – Analytical, Driver, Expressive and Amiable. Each style is characterised by being either more or less "Tell" or "Ask" oriented and more or less "Task" vs. "People" oriented. People generally feel very comfortable communicating with others who share their style, but can have problems with different styles. If you’ve ever felt impatient, intimidated or frustrated in a conversation with a colleague, friend or family member, there’s a likelihood that the root problem is a style difference neither of you recognises.
To improve versatility, managers and employees need to:
- Get feedback from others to understand their own social style. Knowing how you are perceived by others is critical. Study after study shows that most of us have no idea how we are coming across to others.
- Learn to identify the social style of others (e.g., Analyticals, Drivers, Expressives and Amiables)
- Learn to adapt their own style of communicating to match the preferences of others, putting them at ease, building trust and allowing both parties to work together to accomplish the tasks at hand.
Have you experienced a communication problem at work caused by different social styles? What happened and what affect did it have on your work performance?
These are our thoughts…What do you think?
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About the Author
Tom Roth
Tom Roth possède plus de 40 ans d’expérience dans le développement et la mise en œuvre de solutions d’amélioration de la performance humaine. Il est responsable de l’orientation stratégique et de la performance économique des activités de Wilson Learning Worldwide. Il dirige les services marketing monde et le groupe de solutions R & D. Il apporte son expertise à des équipes dirigeantes sur des problématiques liées à l’engagement des salariés, au développement du leadership, à l’implication stratégique et à la transformation des entreprises. Avant d’occuper son poste actuel, Mr. Roth était Président du département R & D et du développement du groupe et occupait le poste de PDG de Wilson Learning Amériques.
Mr Roth possède une forte expérience dans le développement et la mise en œuvre de solutions d’amélioration de la performance humaine. Il est le co-auteur de plusieurs livres tels que Unplugged: How Organizations Lose Their Energy and How to Get It Back (Déconnectées : Comment les entreprises perdent leur faculté à croitre et comment la retrouver) et Creating the High-Performance Team (Créer une équipe Haute Performance). Mr Roth est publié dans de nombreuses publications professionnelles. Intervenant régulier lors de conférences et d’événements clients nationaux et internationaux, il aborde un grand nombre de sujets, dont le leadership, l’engagement des salariés et des clients, le changement et la mise en œuvre de stratégies.
