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Communication Section Leadership Training Manual
Communication Section Leadership Training Manual
Paul Richardson
Copyright © 2009
Communication
ANALYTICAL DRIVER
AMIABLE EXPRESSIVE
An obvious conclusion from the chart above is that the opposite diagonal
styles have opposing strengths and weaknesses. Thus, analyticals and
expressives have difficulty communicating because they are “tuned” to
different channels. The same is true of drivers and amiables.
Once people in an organization realize where they are on the grid and where
the other person is, there is the opportunity to try to meet the other person at
least half-way to make sure the communication is robust and fills the needs
of both parties.
A third element of the model is versatility. That is, how “hard-wired” is the
person in his social style? The less versatility, the more difficult to meet the
person because you have to make all of the movement. On the other end of
the scale a person with high versatility is sometimes hard to pin down as
they resemble a chameleon.
Thus, the question is how do you tell your style and the style of those with
whom you are dealing?
There are two basic ways. The first is through assessments. The most
accurate are expensive and involve a 150 question assessment that is given
to 5 people who know you at work, usually a boss, a peer or two and two or
three subordinates. There is a short hand assessment that is much less time
consuming and is usually accurate especially if given to several people who
know you.
The second way and invaluable for dealing with people who haven’t been to
the training or been assessed is to use the person’s “backup” style to
determine their position on the grid. A backup style is the behavior
exhibited when the person is stressed in their work. You could term it
frustration.
BACKUP STYLES
ANALYTICAL DRIVER
“avoids” “autocrat”
AMIABLE EXPRESSIVE
“acquiesces” “attacks”
Social Style 1st Backup 2nd Backup 3rd Backup 4th Backup
Driver autocrat avoid attack acquiesce
Analytical avoid autocrat acquiesce attack
Amiable acquiesce attack avoid autocrat
Expressive attack acquiesce autocrat avoid
Therefore, the social styles model if you are observant and sensitive to the
position of the other person can greatly facilitate better communication with
much less misunderstanding.
• Just because you don’t like a person’s profession, doesn’t mean that
they don’t have something to contribute to the situation at hand.
People are usually not one-dimensional “Johnny One-Notes” so learn
what people have to contribute.