September 11, 2012
What’s My Communication Style?
Communication is a message conveyed with words, body language, vocal inflections, and personal space and the meaning understood by the recipient. Problems occur when the message received is not the message sent. What’s My Communication Style assesses and identifies a person’s dominate communication style. It outlines the strengths and weaknesses of the four styles: Spirit, Direct, Systematic and Considerate. Knowing which style you are comfortable with and which styles you need to improve upon will increase the effectiveness of your communication. This assessment was enlightening because I scored relatively close on three of the four styles. After reviewing the details of each style, I see myself in those three characteristics. I scored 8, 7, and 6 on Spirited, Considerate and Systematic respectively. Therefore, I maintain my dominate style is Enthusiastic and adapts based on my audience. The positive aspects of a spirited style are persuasiveness, enthusiasm and working at a fast pace. Similarly, the considerate style listens well, values relationships and builds trust. I think all of these qualities are essential in project management. For example, at work I always ask how people’s families are or how their weekend went before we start a planning meeting. I listen to what each department thinks is the most important needs and tasks to be addressed during the project. Above all though, I want to gather all the facts before we get started and then decide how we are going to proceed. When problems arise during the project, I listen to each responsible department to see what they think went wrong, make my own assessment and then make plans to correct and put the project back on plan. To strengthen my spirited style, I need to focus on including everyone better so they feel like a more substantial part of the team. One trouble spot that I would like to work on