How a Communication Style Assessment Helped a Struggling Admin Team
Bradford R. GlaserHRDQ’s What’s My Communication Style, a bestseller for over 25 years, has given many managers and employees the chance to learn their own style and develop better ways to communicate with others.
Let's get into how one organization used What's My Communication Style to transform communication in their workplace.
- Discover your communication style
- Learn to flex your style
- Draw on style strengths and improve trouble spots
Table of Contents
The Problem
Gary Turner, an award-winning trainer and consultant, used What’s My Communication Style to help a large company address morale issues within its administrative team. The HR manager contacted Turner and told him she suspected the complaints, which were mostly interpersonal in nature, stemmed from recent organizational changes. She reported that within the previous year, productivity had dropped, and job satisfaction was low.
The Approach
Turner said, “I recognized these symptoms from past training experience, so I recommended that the client administer What’s My Communication Style as a diagnostic tool and starting point for intervention. The online assessment identifies personal communication style, and, in this case, it profiled the mix of styles within the administrative team.”
The program also equipped individuals with a practical tool for learning about communication types and for better adapting their style to improve communication and relationships with their peers. As expected, the assessment results confirmed that the team showed a variety of communication styles. But one metric stood out as a possible cause for the team’s problems: a very low ‘Spirited’ score.
The Scores
The team’s scores revealed whether they were direct, spirited, systematic, or considerate. The behaviors of each are as follows:
- Direct – Direct people are high in assertiveness and low in expressiveness. They like to lead with a decisive tone and emphasize the bottom line.
- Spirited – Spirited people have high assertiveness and high expressiveness. They have an animated speaking style and may be very persuasive.
- Systematic – Systematic people have low assertiveness and low expressiveness. They tend to be precise and factual at work.
- Considerate – Considerate people have low assertiveness and high expressiveness. They usually listen well and are supportive of others.
The team scored slightly above average in the ‘Direct,’ ‘Considerate,’ and ‘Systematic’ styles, but very low in the ‘Spirited’ style (which indicates a person who is enthusiastic, enjoys teamwork, focuses on the big picture, and is open to alliance building). A low Spirited score typically indicates individuals who are competitive, resistant to change, and terse with others. These personality characteristics aligned with the behavior the human resources team observed among the administrative team.
Turner developed a training session to address the trouble spots and challenges teams face when the Spirited style is underdeveloped. He also conducted individual coaching sessions focused on reducing competitive behavior and fostering more collaborative teamwork.
The Results
There was an immediate improvement in productivity for both the administrative and human resource teams following the intervention. Within just three months, the human resources team reported a 90 percent drop in the number of administrative team complaints. Not only did the administrative team improve its job satisfaction, productivity, and morale, but the human resources team is now able to focus its efforts on other areas.
How It Works
What's My Communication Style begins with a self-assessment (a communication style inventory) that participants complete in about 10 minutes. Participants respond to 24 items about verbal and nonverbal communication by selecting the statement that best reflects their communication behavior. The scoring provides each individual with a total summary for each of the four personal communication styles: direct, spirited, considerate, and systematic.
The majority of participants will show a clear preference for one of the communication styles, which becomes their dominant style. This communication style inventory is followed by a 1-hour interpretation of scores, a discussion of the topic, debriefing, and action planning. The What's My Communication Style facilitator guide also offers a workshop outline that expands the assessment into a 1.5-hour classroom training program.
After completing the program, participants will be able to identify a preference for one of four communication styles, uncover the characteristics of each style, discover how style affects communication, learn how to "speed read" a person's dominant communication style, and understand how to "flex" their own style for effective communication with others.
Learn more
What's My Communication Style is a powerful centerpiece for management development and interpersonal skills training. The communications assessment is part of the bestselling HRDQ Style Suite and provides practical training that enables lasting insights into how to master one's own communication behavior and interpret others' behavior in any situation.
Get a free demo of the course to see how What's My Communication Style can transform your workplace.
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