Human Resources Mysteries - Understanding Communication Styles

I have recently participated in a great leadership training session which opened my eyes and made me realize that during my recruitment times and during my HR career as a manager and team member I have made some mistakes in judging people incorrectly. I will tell you how I found that out, one mistake I realized now I made and how you can use the information that was offered to me in order to communicate better as a team leader or as a team member.

In 1975 Dr. Paul P. Mok developed the Communicating Styles Technology. He identified 4 main communication styles that people use more info. Understanding these styles helps us understand each other better. I was amazed to see how many misunderstandings and misjudgments can appear if we don't understand and accept these styles in the people around us. No style is correct or incorrect - this is just how we communicate and we need to accept that. Also, some people use sometimes more than one style, under stress conditions the style can change dramatically, and understanding the main elements of each style helps.

Dr. Paul P. Mok also developed a questionnaire that helps us identify our style, but I am not able to provide that since it has copyright. You will have to find it yourselves. I will provide however, the main traits of each style so you can check where you are and where people around you are according to their behavior and according to how well you know them so far.

The main 4 communication styles are:

Thinker:
- Always based on logic, organizing and problem solving;
- Personal values: quality, ethics, justice;
- Focuses on all stages of a project: past, present, future;
- Is motivated by logic, scientific questionnaires, anything that is well organized and included in a clear system;
- Prefers analytical tasks, likes to collect and use data - as detailed as possible;
- Thinks about consequences before making a decision, likes to analyze all angles before any action is done;
- Feels uncomfortable to use direct personal communication and to do fast decision making;
- Prefers: cold colors, classic and conservative dress code, an organized work environment;
- Communication type: always structured and organized;
- Suitable for jobs like: law, engineering, accounting, computers, science, problem solving.

Feeler:
- Based on direct human interaction, projecting feelings;
- Personal values: family, friends, loyalty;
- Needs and likes to receive constant feedback and cares about what other people think;
- Focuses on past stages of a project;
- Is motivated by love, gratitude, the feeling of being useful;
- Prefers tasks concerning of human interaction, likes to "shine", likes to analyze people;
- Feels uncomfortable with: structured areas, receiving orders, science, impersonal situations, strict accuracy;
- Likes fun, people interaction, volunteering, team sports, informal dress code, a comfortable home environment for work;
- Communication type: spontaneous, unplanned, informal;
- Suitable for jobs like: psychology, social services, sales, ministers, trade;

Intuitive:
- Based on imagination, vision, speculation; they say this is the communication style least common and that most real leaders are intuitive;
- Personal values: concepts, ideology, discovery;
- Focuses on future stages of a project;
- Is motivated by creative and unstructured tasks, discovery, using imagination;
- Feels uncomfortable with: structured areas, bureaucracy, strict accuracy;
- Likes reading, walks, climbing, chess, other games intellect-related, color mixtures, unpredictable dress code, high tech and thinking-lab work environment;
- Communication type: abstract, ideas and vision oriented, professional done by association;
- Suitable for jobs like: research, science, design for new products, economics, teaching;