What’s Your Communication Style?

by sue on January 7, 2012

At It’s Understood, we have lots of projects on the go. One that’s occupying much of my (Sue’s) time is completing Talk To Me: A User’s Guide To Workplace Communication. I aim to make it available, in February, as a Kindle eBook. (If people like it, we’ll publish for Kobo, iPad, Blackberry Playbook and in traditional book format.)

One of the communication concepts the book tackles is that people have distinct communication styles. Each of us is unique, yet our differences are somewhat predictable.

In my communication coaching, I often use the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) as a starting point in exploring relationships. That reliable and validated assessment is wonderful, but I needed something simpler to use in workshops and presentations. So I created Communication Styles as a way to highlight the different ways people like to receive and share information, especially in conversation. It’s a fun way to discover why individuals respond differently to your message – and to figure out how to present your ideas so they’ll be understood.

We’ve created an online version of the assessment and a special report that explains how it works. You’ll find the link on our web site (look to your right). It’s free. I love that price. Just sign up with your name and email – and have fun.

As a bonus, signing up also gets you our occasional email update “Be Understood.”

 

{ 4 comments }

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

by sue on December 20, 2007

Binocs000004108258small

As the last page of the calendar streaks by with alarming speed, let’s grab a few minutes to check the rear view mirror and invest some precious time to assess where we (and our organizations) have been.  Noticing what we’ve achieved in the past 12 months is an excellent way to launch the plans we make for the new year.

With our eyes firmly fixed on where we’re headed, we often forget to celebrate or even notice what we’ve already accomplished. As a coach, I often ask clients to catch themselves doing something well and stop to savour the moment. I can, sometimes, forget to take my own advice.

Last week, I made time to do that, as I joined with a friend and fellow solopreneur to refine our business plans and set action priorities for 2008. Our first activity was to make a note of what we’d each achieved. At her suggestion, we also listed the names of people who had helped us get there.

Read the whole post!

{ 0 comments }

You call this entertainment?

by sue on February 21, 2007

Cellphones
It’s hard to be a Help Desk person. We customers only call when we’re angry or confused or both.  If only we could just learn to enjoy:

  • waiting (Kenny G is Top Of The Pops on “Hold” this week)
  • listening to long multilingual messages that don’t make sense in any language
  • bouncing between service people (I suspect they have a [Random] button to send us to other departments where we will hear, “That’s not my job,” immediately before they ask the obligatory question, “Is there anything more I help you with today?”)
  • getting nowhere and taking forever to get there

In a bid to be the “ideal customer,” I have started to use my problems as entertainment, for both myself and Help Desk employees. I had a great chat, this morning, with someone at Bell Canada. He was wonderful and had the customer service spirit so often missing in call centres.
Read the whole post!

{ 0 comments }

Eclectic and Enigmatic – the Women’s Show

by sue on March 20, 2006

"So how was the Women’s Show?" curious friends asked me. "Well," was my cautious answer, "I’m not sure what to make of it."

Talk about life!
It was fun.  No question there.  Very little lights me up more than talking to people about their lives and their work.  Women of all ages stopped by to pick up a fortune cookie and laugh at my bad joke: "Your fortunes improve when you work with a coach!" (Just because it’s true, doesn’t make it any less corny.)

WheelMany who stopped by agreed to do the "Life Wheel," sharing how satisfied they are with eight major dimensions of life. The result of that conversation is a  "snapshot" of their situation and, often, some insight about  where they might want to do some work.  "It’s not that I didn’t sense this," said one of our booth visitors, "But I didn’t really see how out of balance things are."

Mini Trends
I noticed some patterns that weren’t surprising.

Many of the people who reported that they aren’t having much fun in life also report concerns about their health. And vice versa. That mind/body connection is clearly at work.

There seemed to be a similar relationship between satisfaction with one’s financial situation and the personal growth dimension. Those who are yearning for more of one, tend also to be yearning for more of the other.

The people visiting the show on Saturday were more likely to rate their satisfaction with career as a 7 or 8 out of a possible 10.  The Sunday folk tended, on average, to be around 5.  Theories anyone?  Perhaps people who just jump in and do things, whether it’s work or play, just have a better time.

The other interesting thing was that some of the people who visited the booth actually knew what life and business coaching is and wanted to come and talk about it.  (It didn’t hurt that the business section of the Saturday newspaper featured an article on how coaching isn’t just for executives anymore. )

Theme: More of everything
As for the rest of the show, anyone looking for a pattern was left confused.  Booths around us included local colleges, the police department, cosmetics of all sorts, belly dancing, armed forces recruiting, fitness clubs, chiropractors, sewing machines, handbags, aromatherapy, mutual funds, real estate – in a word, "eclectic."  The only conclusion I drew is that women are interested in everything – like that’s news to anyone? 

{ 0 comments }

Incommunicado

by sue on July 8, 2005

Greetings from Florence. Alitalia has created a brilliant opportunity to write something about BAD customer communication. “What do you expect?” I hear you ask, “It’s an airline.” OK, I’ve been a spoiled princess where airlines have been concerned. Alitalia is making up for all that.

The fact that Alitalia has an area on its web site for dealing with lost luggage should have been a clue that things could go wrong. The more distressing thing is – it doesn’t work. I dutifully entered the number they gave me at the lost luggage counter at the airport, and the system doesn’t recognize me or the bag. If you call the office, you hear a tape recording telling you that all claims must be in writing and there is absolutely no point in trying to talk to anyone. Yes, let’s just cut off all communication with anyone who might actually be able to tell me that someone is actually searching for this bag.

When a customer has a problem with your product or service, it’s important that they get some sort of acknowledgement that someone notices or cares. Actually being seen to be doing something to resolve the problem is even better. Best of all? Solving the problem!

I don’t know whether this is something Alitalia doesn’t know, or if it’s employees and managers just can’t deal with all the yelling. But shutting off communication won’t stop the yelling. It makes us yell more. We just yell more publicly and to anyone who’ll listen.

Yelling was something they were really trying to avoid when they cancelled the London – Milan and London-Rome flights yesterday morning due to a scheduled short-term strike by – well – nobody could tell us. Hundreds of people were inconvenienced – and the situation was made worse by the fact that the airline would provide no information. No info about rescheduling. No info about what would happen if we missed connections. No info about why the flight was cancelled.

When someone in the line with a wireless-connected laptop tried to get to the Alitalia web site to see if they could get some info on rebooking, we learned about the shocking bombings in the London Underground. Already stressed, the crowd’s anxiety levels increased.

A group travelling to Africa was clearly going to miss its very necessary connection. As they became more agitated and anxious, they became louder. The official became more steadfast in his refusal to give them any information that might suggest anyone knew or cared about their situation. I actually heard him threaten to call police and have the next person who yelled at him arrested.

This was all going on in a communication situation complicated by language and cultural differences and the shock of the bombings. A little sensitivity was completely in order, and none was demonstrated.

Sure, Alitalia is, like so many airlines, experiencing serious financial and operational difficulties. But information doesn’t cost anything. Neither does being nice. Going incommunicado is not a survival strategy.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }