 It was wonderful to work with a leadership team last week and be reminded how vital behavioural styles are in assisting people to communicate more effectively. Because people …
Behavioural styles, also known as People styles and Social styles, are a key ingredient to quality communication between people and within a team. Playing to your strengths, through knowing your own style, is helpful in a team where many styles will be represented. We need all styles at work so enjoy being your style, rather than wishing you were a different style. All styles lead - just in different ways. There are a range of ways to determine your behavioural style which is how you are perceived as behaving by other people. A behavioural style represents a pattern of observable behaviours that will be similar across people from the same style. [Note – there are also sub-styles, that give even greater understanding, however this is beyond the scope of this blog]. My preferred model is that developed by Bolton and Bolton (People Styles at Work and Beyond, Amacom, 2009). Their model looks at behaviour on two continuums – assertiveness (seen by others as forceful or directive) and responsiveness (seen by others as showing emotions and demonstrating awareness of the feelings of others). Refer to their book or this article hcleadershipessentials.com/blogs/leadership/the-people-styles-model-for-gaining-selfawareness-as-a-leader for guidance to work out your style – my recommendation is that you check this with others who know you well! My experience is that people often do not see themselves as others see them. The four behavioural styles are driver, expressive, amiable and analytical. Each style is a quadrant and your style is related to the degree to which others perceive you as being assertive and responsive. When I work with leadership teams, we openly discuss the style of each person as a means of understanding how every person will communicate and work best in the team. In my experience the real benefit comes from being more self-aware (essential in a leader) and understanding your own behavioural style and that of those you work with, meet with, manage and lead. Once you know your patterns of behaviour, you can subtly modify these to achieve optimum communication and relationships. For example, as an expressive, simply slowing down any conversation with an analytical or amiable person will assist them in understanding what I am saying or asking for. If I am working with a person who is more analytical, I will need to give more details, as this is what they need. Developing the capacity to work with those who have different behavioural styles is an essential component of leadership and optimal communication. Enjoy discovering the styles or re-visiting them. Comments are closed.
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