Communication Styles

I used to think that work-related training sessions were a boring waste of time. Sometimes they are a waste. Lately though, at my current job, I find most of the material interesting. Maybe it's because a lot of these took place when I was in the midst of applications and interviews. I was doing a lot of self-reflection during that time, and these training sessions made me rethink how I interact with people.

We recently did a personality-color test/communicator-style test at work. There are four categories:

I belong in the "Just Do It" style of communicating (Brown group, for short). I like to be direct. I like to stay on task and multi-task during meetings. I hate meetings that drag on for too long because people are arguing tiny points or going off on tangents. I don't need to know every little detail about things. I see a goal and will work towards it or have other people work towards it.

Some of my coworkers are the "Let's Work Together" types (Blue group). They like to form personal connections, try to sympathize with others, and present things in terms of their personal feelings towards a subject.

 A few ended up in the "Planner" group (Green). They like to have all the information and to take time to properly review all that info before making decisions.

No one ended up in the "Make Your Own Kind of Music" aka spontaneous category (Red group).

I was wavering between being a Brown or Green. I wish we had conducted this activity prior to my interviews, because someone did ask me how I lead and I didn't really phrase it as well as I would have liked. I said something to the effect of preferring to lead by example and being a leader who sets a goal and relies on the team to plan and facilitate. In retrospect, I am like that now. Back then, I was more of a micro-manager. It took time before I realized that I can still be in control even if I step back and let other people think for themselves.

I also noticed that, as a Brownie, I don't ask my students to do things unless it's a kid who is generally very docile. I tend to command them, and somehow most of them end up obeying. Sometimes I'm surprised that certain kids still sign up for my workshops, especially the more rebellious ones, despite knowing how I work. I'm not sure if they think I'm still a lot of fun in spite of my rules, if they really desperately want to play video games so they behave (occurs rarely, but does happen), or if they just didn't read the workshop sign-up list clearly.

Oh well.