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A Matter of Style
In past issues of 5MI, we’ve looked at a range of customers in our ‘Meet the Client’ series. Next month, we will start a new series, ‘Meet the Team Member’. The characters we portray will be based on four broad styles of behaviour. These are modelled on Robert Bolton and Dorothy Grover Bolton’s book, ‘People Styles at Work’.
This book maps out four inter-personal styles. Understanding your style can help you to understand your own natural behaviours and how and why they differ from those of other people. You can then learn how to adapt your style to improve how you communicate with others and influence them.
Plot your axis!
The book categorises the four styles by using two axes to create four quadrants. The horizontal (x) axis illustrates your relative assertiveness, ranging from someone who tends to just ask questions and is a good listener at the left hand side through to someone who speaks more, tells others what they think and is assertive at the right hand side.
The vertical (y) axis shows your relative responsiveness. This varies from people who openly express their feeling at the top to those who control their emotions and may seem less interested in the feelings of others at the bottom.
By plotting your relative position on each axis and drawing a vertical and horizontal line from these points to see where they meet, you can determine your style.
Which style are you?
Your lines should intersect in one of the four style quadrants:
- Expressers are faster paced but people-focused. They tend to be visionary and creative, and animated when they speak. They must be careful not to overpower others.
- Relaters are also people-focused, but tend to listen rather than talk. They are loyal and supportive team players. However, they need to learn to express themselves.
- Analysers focus on tasks and details. They are rational and thorough, but others may find it difficult to get to know them. They need to avoid 'paralysis by analysis’.
- Drivers are faster paced and task-focused. They are pragmatic, decisive and results-orientated. They may need to learn to listen better.
It’s important to realise that each style can make a significant contribution to any team. Each has its strengths and weaknesses and no style should be seen as superior to any of the others. If they can work well together, the best teams will have representatives of all four types.
In reality, many of us are a mixture of two or three styles. With focus and practice, we can temporarily adopt other behaviours to help us to communicate more easily with people who have a different style.
You can apply this approach to your internal clients as well.If you know some outgoing, expressive marketers or some dynamic, driving senior managers, you won’t want to bore them with too much detail. However, you may also know colleagues or suppliers who insist on producing long, detailed presentations. Once you are aware of the different styles, you are in a much better position to take corrective action.
Next month, we will examine a specific inter-personal style. For those people who would like to delve into this subject in more detail, it is covered in our Insight Management training course.
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