Last week on Rise, we were fortunate enough to visit the impressive EY offices at St Peters Square for a very insightful afternoon with Michelle Mullany, who delivered a session on how to effectively pitch. As someone who is intrigued by human behaviour, I was particularly interested in the 4 different styles of communication that Michelle showcased and how identifying your own can lead to becoming a powerful and effective communicator! Keep reading to understand your default style and how you can use it to your advantage!

Driver

Hard-working and ambitious, drivers tend to be the group leaders who value getting the job done with excellent results. Drivers are apt to be decisive, competitive, hard driving and good at delegating to others. They like to be where the action is and are likely to enjoy taking risks. Their focus is on winning, being successful and making things happen. They need options and prefer it when others are direct.

When you communicate with a Driver, be sure to tell them about progress to goals, the actions to be taken and solutions to problems. Avoid chitchat and focus on the bottom-line.

Analytical

Quick to think and slow to speak, the analytical person values accuracy in the details and likes to be right. This is a person who plans thoroughly before deciding to act, is persistent, highly organised, cautious, and logical.  The analytical prefers to work alone and tends to be introverted.

The analytical person is focused on process, tasks and doing things the right way.  They prefer a rational approach, logical thinking, solid documentation and careful planning.

Expressive

The expressive person loves to help others. This person is full of ideas and can’t wait to share them with others. Talkative and open, they ask others for their opinions and love to brainstorm. This person is flexible and easily bored with routine. The expressive is optimistic, intuitive, creative, and spontaneous and may have a tendency to be flamboyant!

Expressives are focused on the big picture. They love ideas and concepts and thrive on bringing visions into reality.

Amiable

Amiable is the relationship style. Amiable’s focus on the feelings of other people and effective collaboration. People with this style are intuitive and care about how situations “feel”.  They like consensus, avoid confrontation, and tend to be timid about voicing contrary opinions. Amiable people are good listeners, friendly and sensitive and build networks of friends to help them. They are likely to be slow with big decisions and need a lot of input. They thrive on involvement, participation and inclusion.

Now, you’re probably wondering… “How can this help me?”

Knowing about the communication styles is helpful in two ways. First, when you know your own default style, you can spot the best opportunities to use that style and build up your strengths. Secondly, once you know about the styles, you can spot someone else’s style and adapt the way you communicate to get that person on board with you.

For me, communication styles are vital to know when building connections through networking, collaboration in the workplace and even communicating effectively in relationships. I’m so grateful we were able to explore this theme with Michelle and can’t wait to apply it to real life situations!