“There are few problems at work that cannot be solved with the right conversation.” was the opening line of John Niland’s latest newsletter. John coaches business professionals at Success 121 and later in his article in support of conversations he points out that, “it’s conversations that build relationships, and relationships that build business. Each conversation is therefore the “ultimate atom” of the relationship – not the email that follows or precedes it.” I love this thought, particularly as it applies to clients, and to colleagues.
We have a tendency these days to drop information into an email rather than having a telephone or (even better) a face to face conversation. John makes his point because it’s so much harder to build a relationship with someone if you remove the personal element of conversation. However, there are also pitfalls in the face to face conversation. Being aware of them can help you avoid them.
People with very different communication styles can sometimes mis-communicate simply because of these differences. These differences in style can cause people to switch off, dismiss what the other person is saying, mis-understand what’s being said, and at worst, really annoy each other with the way they communicate.
Here are a few examples from the Highlands Ability Battery:
- Specialists tend to use language that’s the same as only 20% of the population. They are likely to use words that are specific to their field. They like to be seen as the people to go to for information so their information will be valuable, but not necessarily phrased the same way a generalist would speak
- Generalists often like to operate on the basis of consensus. Their communication is likely to be more consultative in nature and they will seek input from others
- Those high on the Concept Organisation (deductive reasoning) scale will want to be sure everyone is aware of every step in a process
- But those who are high on the Classification (inductive reasoning) scale will find the thoroughness of the high Concept Organisation style a bit slow and may feel impatient. They have a tendency to leap over some of the steps when the can see the conclusion so clearly, making the assumption that everyone else knows what has to happen inbetween.
There are more factors that have an effect on communication style, but these few should give you a feel for why it’s so important to understand how others hear what you’re saying. One of the greatest advantages of using the Highlands Ability Battery to find out your pattern of abilities is understanding how you’re different from others and what impact that has.
Differences should be celebrated – they’re what make the world as interesting as it is. But it does help to know what those differences are.
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Photo credit: Clairity
Article by Vandy Massey
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