The Art of Effective Communication
The way we are designed is to focus in on what we need and how to keep ourselves safe. So often when it comes to communication, we take the angle of what do I need? How do I want to put across this message, etc. To have really effective communication, we need people to step outside of their own needs and wants and keep them in mind while also understanding what someone on the other side might need or what their perspective might be.
Introducing the DISC Model to Simplify Communication
When we look at DISC as a model for understanding communication, there are a whole lot of nuances to get our heads around, but the simplest format for understanding these is;
Dominance (D): Our high Dominant people are results-oriented. If we can give them evidence of our ability to win and get results and show them how we’re going to contribute towards the outcomes they're looking to achieve, we are more likely to have them on board with us.
Influence (I): Our influencers appreciate recognition and positive feedback. They like creativity and a sense of humour in interacting with others. So, when they have someone who is more formal and data-driven in their communication, they are more likely to get frustrated or lose interest.
Steadiness (S): Our Steadiness people need sincere interaction and personal relationships, assistance, and support. If someone feels highly directive, potentially overbearing or impersonal, we find that our Steadiness people will shut down or isolate themselves, withholding useful insights by being in “safe” mode.
Compliance (C): Our Compliance people look for quality, thoroughness, and accuracy. They want data and information and will question, test and critique. To get their support, provide accurate insights and demonstrate that quality is your top priority.
Adapting Communication Styles for Effectiveness
You can see that just by understanding some simple elements of communication preferences for these different styles, we can get quite different outcomes than just sticking to our own approach.
Someone, for example, who is a high steadiness, who wants that very friendly, supportive environment, might find the directness of a highly dominant person, intimidating, blunt, or even rude, even though that’s not the intention of the dominant characters. If we can understand where each other are coming from, we can give each other more leeway and hopefully move towards each other to meet somewhere in the middle. This is a top insight for many teams we work with who have this dynamic in play.
Steps to Effective Communication
1. Understand Your Own Style: Recognise your communication preferences and how they might be perceived by others.
2. Learn to Connect with Others: Make subtle shifts in your communication to meet others’ needs, in the pursuit of win/win situations. A mutual adaptation helps both parties achieve their goals, but when you have insights that others don’t, you’re in control of changing yourself to help the situation have positive outcomes.
Let’s embrace our styles and work to connect with others - effective communication is the goal! The outcome? A guaranteed improvement on both personal and professional relationships. It’s a no-brainer! And when we come back to “Emotionomics,” people feeling connected and understand it will pay off for business. Teams who attempt to understand each other and show care in moving towards each other, will be more collaborative, more productive, more creative with better decision-making and problem-solving with much better outcomes than a siloed approach can.
Whatever tool you use for understanding communication styles, think about how you can get the team to not only self-reflect but understand each other and where they can adapt to the betterment of the team and the business as a whole.