L2-P2: Understanding your Communication Style
"The art of communication is the language of leadership." - James Humes
The second project in Level 2 of Effective Coaching is "Understanding your communication style". This project includes a survey with 12 questions that you have to answer from a list of 4 possible choices.
For example, one of the question in the survey is:
When working on a Project, I am:
a-Enthusiastic
b-Ambitious
2-Purposeful
3-Persistent
Based on your responses to all 12 questions, you are presented with your communication profile. Toastmasters International categorizes communication into 4 distinct categories (Direct, Initiating, Analytical and Supportive)
Similar to the Leadership Style, the take-home message from this exercise is that every individual has some elements of all communication styles. Some styles are more dominant than others and may change based on the situation.
After completing the survey, I received my communication profile. According to the results, I exhibit 'Direct' as my preferred style.
The 4 styles can be summarized as follows:
DIRECT:
This style is decisive, competitive, independent, and confident. Because the person with a Direct communication style is focused, results-oriented, ambitious, goal-oriented, and driven, others may perceive her as strong-willed or demanding. She can be seen as impatient when bored.
INITIATING:
This style is sociable, enthusiastic, energetic, spontaneous, and fun-loving. Due to the gregarious nature of the person with an Initiating communication style, he may be perceived as someone who talks more than listens. He is often perceived as self-assured, innovative, and persuasive.
ANALYTICAL:
This style is precise, exact, analytical, and logical. Because the person with an Analytical communication style is systematic and task-oriented, he is sometimes perceived as a perfectionist. He is organized, self-reliant, purposeful, and diplomatic.
SUPPORTIVE:
This style is calm, steady, approachable, sincere, and gentle. Because the person with a Supportive communication style dislikes change, she may appear indecisive. More often she is perceived as careful, patient, and amiable. Due to her active listening skills, others see her as cooperative, dependable, and loyal.
For my convenience, I have recreated the communication survey in EXCEL to help me visualize the different styles graphically.
If you want to understand your own communication style or to visualize your style graphically, you can download the file from here. After downloading, answer all the 12 questions using the drop-down list and review your communication style.
For my speech, I decided on a simpler (and humorous) approach to the subject, especially after my disappointing delivery in the previous 'Leadership' project.
I asked my daughter to create a visual to use during the speech. She came up with this.
Coincidentally, my wife's last name is "DIAS" which matches the first letters of the 4 communication styles. This helped me to create a speech that focuses on our day-to-day communication at home. My wife is also a Toastmaster and she was in the audience when I delivered the speech which added to the humor.
This is one of the few speeches that I uploaded on YouTube.
I enjoyed delivering this project.
The second project in Level 2 of Effective Coaching is "Understanding your communication style". This project includes a survey with 12 questions that you have to answer from a list of 4 possible choices.
For example, one of the question in the survey is:
When working on a Project, I am:
a-Enthusiastic
b-Ambitious
2-Purposeful
3-Persistent
Based on your responses to all 12 questions, you are presented with your communication profile. Toastmasters International categorizes communication into 4 distinct categories (Direct, Initiating, Analytical and Supportive)
Similar to the Leadership Style, the take-home message from this exercise is that every individual has some elements of all communication styles. Some styles are more dominant than others and may change based on the situation.
After completing the survey, I received my communication profile. According to the results, I exhibit 'Direct' as my preferred style.
The 4 styles can be summarized as follows:
DIRECT:
This style is decisive, competitive, independent, and confident. Because the person with a Direct communication style is focused, results-oriented, ambitious, goal-oriented, and driven, others may perceive her as strong-willed or demanding. She can be seen as impatient when bored.
INITIATING:
This style is sociable, enthusiastic, energetic, spontaneous, and fun-loving. Due to the gregarious nature of the person with an Initiating communication style, he may be perceived as someone who talks more than listens. He is often perceived as self-assured, innovative, and persuasive.
ANALYTICAL:
This style is precise, exact, analytical, and logical. Because the person with an Analytical communication style is systematic and task-oriented, he is sometimes perceived as a perfectionist. He is organized, self-reliant, purposeful, and diplomatic.
SUPPORTIVE:
This style is calm, steady, approachable, sincere, and gentle. Because the person with a Supportive communication style dislikes change, she may appear indecisive. More often she is perceived as careful, patient, and amiable. Due to her active listening skills, others see her as cooperative, dependable, and loyal.
For my convenience, I have recreated the communication survey in EXCEL to help me visualize the different styles graphically.
For my speech, I decided on a simpler (and humorous) approach to the subject, especially after my disappointing delivery in the previous 'Leadership' project.
I asked my daughter to create a visual to use during the speech. She came up with this.
Coincidentally, my wife's last name is "DIAS" which matches the first letters of the 4 communication styles. This helped me to create a speech that focuses on our day-to-day communication at home. My wife is also a Toastmaster and she was in the audience when I delivered the speech which added to the humor.
This is one of the few speeches that I uploaded on YouTube.
I enjoyed delivering this project.
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