Let’s Be Clear: How to Manage Communication Styles
Let’s Be Clear: How to Manage Communication Styles
Generally, diversity training and seminars about generational differences seek to increase cultural awareness, reduce conflict, and promote teamwork. Being aware of cultural and generational differences can improve employee productivity, enhance the work environment, and contribute toward greater understanding of one another. Knowing how to adapt their communication styles to complement someone else’s style will enable employees to sustain productivity and create a harmonious work environment.
Furthermore, recognizing your communication style can help you to understand how your actions are perceived by others. Centuries ago, the Greek physician Hippocrates studied people’s personality types. Instead of using basic terms that today’s researchers associate with certain personality types, Hippocrates determined one to be sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic, or choleric. Although he believed that certain body fluids such as blood, phlegm, bile, and black bile determined one’s temperament, he was on to something.
Conflicting situations are bound to occur in the workplace, but unlike Hippocrates, we can take an active approach by being aware of others’ communication styles and then adapting our style to find that balance. There are typically four basic communication styles. Today, researchers use the terms expressive, systematic, sympathetic, and direct. Modern researchers have also differentiated the terms personality and communication style. In fact, communication styles are probably more determined by our needs at a given moment than by our personalities, which tend to be constant traits.
For example, someone who is generally a nice person could be having a bad day. Or, a generally positive co-worker could be experiencing symptoms of depression following the loss of a loved one. Temporary occurrences like these don’t.
Q1. Describe what you found interesting regarding this topic, and why.
Q2. Describe how you can apply that learning in your daily life, including your work life.
