Enhancing Communication within your Team

When it comes to enhancing team performance, communication is a critical skill that each team member should endeavor to strengthen. Strong teams collaborate more effectively, innovate more frequently, and deliver results that keep an organization competitive. To build the strongest teams, it is beneficial to understand both the personality types and the natural communication styles of your team members. Fortunately for those team leaders who need to be responsible for enhancing team collaboration and performance, interpreting and leading a variety of personality and communication types can be learned and strengthened over time with practice and coaching.

Understanding Personality Types

In HBR’s March-April 2017 issue, Suzanne M. Johnson Vickberg and Kim Christfort explore four distinct personality types – the pioneer, the driver, the guardian, and the integrator. You will come across these four personality types in every workplace. In general, teams benefit from a system of checks and balances that results from having people with different personality styles. Consider this: If everyone thinks the same way, a team is likely to overlook something important. Yet, regardless of the benefits, if teams with a variety of personality styles don’t learn how to cater to the needs of styles different from their own, conflict and stalemates can arise. Therefore, it is critical for team leaders and team members alike to educate themselves about each unique personality type and the importance of each type to the entire team.

According to Vickberg and Christfort, pioneers are outgoing, enthusiastic, big-picture thinkers that can inspire a team. Because of their natural ability to influence others, pioneers are frequently found in positions of authority, such as within the senior leadership team and as business unit heads.

Drivers are result-oriented, logical thinkers. Their motto is similar to that of a certain famous shoe company: “just do it.” Drivers will challenge others, preferring to skip the small talk and niceties in order to get to work and get things done.

Guardians are practical, logical thinkers and communicators. They value facts over grandiose statements, and as detail-oriented people, they may mistrust a co-worker who does not fully back-up claims that he or she brings before the team. Guardians value precision and like to come up with solutions to concrete problems. They are often attracted to roles in finance, law, and accounting, due to their innate ability to handle fine detail.

Integrators value the thoughts and opinions of others, seek collaboration, and value input. They believe there are many ways to solve a problem, and they don’t want any member of the team to feel alienated. Integrators are very diplomatic when they communicate, but to guardians, for example, they may seem wishy-washy. Integrators avoid conflict and seek to maintain a steady, respectful environment.

The strongest teams will have all four types of personalities represented. Leaders and senior executives will drive higher results from their teams and for their organizations when they understand how to play to each types’ strengths. Team members themselves can learn about how the other personalities in their group think – and prefer to communicate – to make collaboration more effective. For example, pioneers can still have grand and inspirational ideas, but know that they need to bring a few details to the table for the guardians to consider their ideas seriously.

Understanding Communication Style

In addition to focusing on personality types, leaders can also tap into the six different communication processes that people use. According to clinical psychologist Nate Regier, who explained the six types of communication processes in an article for Fast Company, most people develop their preferred process of interpreting the world around them by age 7. The six processes, also referred to as perceptual languages are:

• Thoughts language
• Opinions language
• Feelings language
• Reactive language
• Action language
• Reflection language

To improve your ability to communicate with the disparate interpretive processes used by members of your team, you need to be able to understand the process they use. Regier explains that “when communicating an important message, translate the information into the listener’s perceptual language.” For example, if you’re a leader who speaks in thoughts language, using facts and details, but you’re communicating with someone who uses feelings language to communicate, you’ll have to tie some emotion to the facts to gain the best understanding.

Bringing It All Together

At the end of the day, the more you know about your people – how they think, how they work, what makes them happy – the more you will be able to provide an environment in which they can thrive. It all starts with being able to communicate with them on their level, in such a way that they perceive that you value them for who they are and what they bring to your organization. This means recognizing that not everything has to be a team effort. Some of your best innovations will come from the quieter and more reserved people in your organization who just need a quiet space to think, plan, and develop. Part of what makes a great leader great is the ability to recognize and match the different communication and personality styles of the people they work with, for, and around.

Improving Your Communication as a Leader

Communication is a skill that can be strengthened. If you’re struggling to connect with your team or find that you are not communicating as effectively as you would like, take time to learn not just about your employees’ communication processes and personality types but your own as well. Don’t be afraid to solicit feedback about your communication style and how you can improve the way you communicate with others, and don’t hesitate to seek communication training if you need to improve your skills. The benefit of better communication will make you a better leader and enhance the performance and results of your team.

Also published on LinkedIn.

Franchetti Communications delivers accelerated results by designing power-packed media interview and presentation training sessions around your unique goals, in person and via teleconference. Franchetti Communications works with corporations and business leaders to develop communication strategy, messaging, and PR strategy. Follow Franchetti Communications on LinkedIn, and be sure to download our special report: 6 Ways to Guarantee Your Message Cuts Through the Clutter.