Learning to Communicate Effectively Within Your Team
Have you ever caught yourself in a difficult team situation thinking, “If only she saw the situation like I do?”
Imagine if we all viewed situations in the same way? I’m sure you’d agree that whilst you could definitely see a benefit, life would be pretty uninspiring. We would all have the same opinions, always agree on everything and never experience any challenges to learn from. One of the wonderfully rich qualities of human beings is that we all see things differently. And to get along with others, be listened to and taken seriously by your team, it’s important that you are able to recognise and embrace the different communication styles of your fellow team
members. It’s also important to understand yourself and be able to identify when and how to adapt your communication style to others’ differing styles.
For your team to work effectively and achieve successful outcomes, you need people in your team who see things differently to you. A successful team needs people who see the vision, those who can figure out what needs to be done to get there, those who can analyse the situation, and those who have the people skills to lead and manage the team. If we were all great at leading and managing, there would be no one to do the work. If we were all visionaries nothing would get done and if we were all analysers, the research and statistics would look amazing but it would be difficult figuring out what to do next.
Understanding relationships at work are not only the key to your team success, but also your career success. You might kid yourself that you don’t care what other people at work think of you, but when it comes to influencing people to get what you want, such as a promotion, your reputation is critical. I once worked with a woman who didn’t care what people thought of her. She would barge into the office every morning and head straight for the solitude of her work-station, not bothering to greet her team members. She never helped anyone and if a colleague helped her, she never uttered the words please or thank you. This woman’s colleagues perceived her aloofness to be arrogance and thought she was rude and ill mannered. She didn’t have any teamwork skills and lost out big time – to the tune of $30,000 per year when the time came for a promotion. She was overlooked for someone else – someone who the company considered to be more easy-going because she got along well with her colleagues and was respectful and helpful. The company saw people skills as an important factor in choosing the right person for the promotion.
So, how do we learn to get along with others? Stephen Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, suggests that we need to, “Seek first to understand, then be understood.”
Human behaviour is very complex, but in simple terms, psychologists have been able to identify patterns of behaviour. Recognising these patterns helps us understand what makes people ‘tick’ and what we need to do to communicate effectively with them. These patterns can be
represented as four characters that guide our behaviour – a bit like the devil and angel on each shoulder that ‘whisper’ in our ear. One or two of these characters often ‘shines’ more brightly than the others and becomes our dominant subpersonality. You ‘click’ with people like you, and those who are not can drive you crazy!
Knowledge of these characters within yourself and others will help you ‘click’ with others by understanding what makes them ‘tick.’ See if you can identify some of these colourful characters in your life.
The Analyser: This first character is represented by the color blue. The Analyser is a sharp thinker, direct and to the point. They are good at analysing situations and problem-solving using logic.
The Safekeeper: This green character is very careful, practical and organised. These people are always early for meetings and great with processes.
The Player: Curious, creative and impulsive is the Yellow Player. Players are aptly named because of their playfulness and although they are not always so good with details, they are great at coming up with ideas and seeing the big picture.
The Carer: Last but not least, there is the Red Carer. Carers love a hug, asking how your family is and discussing matters of the heart. They are great at building relationships and leading teams of people.
Human behaviour is, of course, much more complex than four colourful characters, but the Click! ColoursTM are a great start to help you build relationships and boost success by understanding people who are not like you.