Tag Archives: interpersonal relationships

Personality is a Part of Performance

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When seeking sustainable performance improvement, it’s important to look at things holistically.  Personality is not separate from performance, just as relationships are not separate from teamwork.

Knowing that, it’s often easiest to make large-scale changes by unpacking complicated, synthetic concepts like performance, and making sure that each component is cared for.  Personality is a good place to start.  Performance, when broken down, is a series of decisions – behavioral choices – that we use to accomplish our goals.  It’s important to know where these decisions come from and how they affect one another.  Our preference for certain types of decisions and behaviors is determined by our personal style.

Personal Style

But, that is not to say that we are limited by our personal style.  Simply acknowledging our personal style makes it possible to choose behaviors that are not in line with our natural tendencies, but that are more effective for the situation at hand. When that situation involves dealing with someone who is very different from us, understanding their personal style is the most fundamental aid to presenting and gathering information to and from that person – to communicating with them.  Learning the difference between our preferred methods of communicating and the methods of others will make working together more efficient and effective.  It may also reveal which methods are more successful than others when approaching certain tasks and goals – helping everyone involved become more effective when approaching similar tasks in the future.

There are many ways to measure personality style.  One very popular and proven method is presented in the Personal Style Inventory (PSI) – a personality assessment and soft-skills training program based on the theories of Carl Jung.  Starting with a quick and easy-to-score self-assessment, the PSI ascribes a style to each participant based on their responses.  Participants are guided through an explanation of how these styles are differentiated, which behaviors are associated with them, and how they are perceived by people with opposing styles.  The PSI includes style strengths and action-planning to avoid ineffective, style-specific behaviors.

Personal Style Inventory

On an individual level, knowing our own natural strengths and weaknesses helps us decide where to focus our energy and which of our skills need refinement.  Whether we are working together or separately, performance – just like personality – is a relative measure.  When working to accomplish any goal, it’s always important to consider our actions as they relate to others.  That’s how we build organizations, communities, families, and ourselves.

Experiential learning activities like the Personal Style Inventory allows for application of new knowledge in the moment – a positive change just by participating.  Improvements in performance and interpersonal relationships take effect immediately, and become part of work life.

The Personal Style Inventory is your first step toward sustainable improvement – try it today!

Doing a Little Spring Cleaning in Your Office?

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What your workspace tells about your co-workers and your communication styles.

Throwing away old papers? Dusting off that top shelf? During your office spring cleaning, take a closer look around your workspace. Does your desk have an endless supply of papers strewn across it; or is it so clear of clutter that you can see every inch of the desk with charts and graphs on your wall? Are papers arranged in neat organized piles?  Or mixed with personal photos and some clutter? Your work space can provide insight into your personality style.

Personal style is developed over time and revealed by the level of assertiveness and expressiveness you display. Assertiveness is the amount of effort you make to influence or control another’s thoughts or actions, and expressiveness is the amount of effort you make to control emotions when interacting with others. By measuring your levels of assertiveness and expressiveness, you can discover your preference for one of the four personality styles.

HRDQ Style Model

Identifying an individual’s preferred personality style as Direct, Spirited, Considerate, or Systematic enables us to develop better interpersonal connections while recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of each style. By understanding the strengths of each style, we can flex our own style to work with those strengths – communicating and interacting better.

The next time you enter into your or a co-worker’s space, take some time to look around  - take mental notes about the space.

Personal StyleIf you have a hard time finding their desk under all the papers, notes, books, or magazines, they are displaying a spirited personality style and you should turn on your listening ears because they like to talk.

Do you see family photos prominently displayed? Is there a comfy couch or chairs? This type of space reflects considerate personality styles. Create rapport by making small talk.  You’ll build a solid relationship before jumping into projects.

Personality StyleIf you see piles of papers nicely organized with personal photos discreetly placed in the corner, you are meeting with a direct personality style. Be direct and to the point with clear instructions.

When you pass by your co-worker’s workspace at night and all you see is the desk, they are displaying a systematic personality style. Provide and focus on the facts in an organized way.

Simple clues such as how a co-worker’s workspace looks help identify communication styles and enter into more effective relationships.

What's My Communication Style?The HRDQ Style Series provides quick and accurate ways to identify personality styles and the impact they make in the workplace. Using self-assessments, participants can better understand how personality drives behavior, improve their people skills, and successfully create interpersonal relationships.

What’s My Communication Style? is the perfect place to start!

What’s My Time Style?

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Personality Style affects all aspects of our work life – especially time management.  Just as with social situations involving different groups of people, we approach time management differently depending on what we’re doing.

Time ManagementWhen thinking about time management, it’s important to consider not just the nature of the task, but the other people involved.  Team members, managers, and other stakeholders may have very different methods of time management than we do.  And while we cannot control the behaviors of others, and most often can’t choose who we work with, we can make our time-management style align more closely for a more harmonious group effort.

This is especially important when fitting our own tasks into a schedule developed by someone else.  We need to choose an appropriate time-management style for the task at hand, but also make sure that our style is appropriate for the people we are working with.

So, how do we classify time-management style?

We all observe behaviors in ourselves and in others, and can sense when we are compatible (or not).  There’s a simple and effective way to decipher these behaviors and understand why they result in compatible or incompatible relationships.  It’s the HRDQ Style Model.

HRDQ Style Series

Classifying observable behaviors into four distinct personality styles (Direct, Spirited, Systematic, and Considerate), the HRDQ Style Model helps us create a plan for capitalizing on our own natural strengths, and relating to others more effectively.  The HRDQ Style Series is comprised of eight style assessments that deal with specific aspects of work life and provide personal development training.  What’s My Time Style? deals directly with time management.

What's My Time Style?Built on a foundation of behavioral tendencies, arrived at by self-assessment, What’s My Time Style reports an individual’s “style” and provides enough interpretive information and time managemet training to chart a course toward better performance, better relationships, and smoother sailing all around.

Learning about personality style can improve all aspects of our home and work lives, and help us build the skills and relationships we need to maintain high performance, feel fulfilled in our interactions, and help others succeed with us.

Let the HRDQ Style Series help you!

Bridging the Leadership Divide

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The last thing leadership relationships should do is stand in the way of productivity.

At HRDQ, we often make the assertion that leadership is pretty straightforward – it’s a specific set of skills that can be learned by anyone. (And we’re right.)  But that doesn’t mean that every leader behaves the same way, or is regarded in the same way.

Bridging the Leadership DivideAnd when differing behaviors are perceived by others, they may come across as “incorrect” or non-beneficial.  They may be dismissed altogether.  Often, these differing behaviors are displayed by leaders of different generations – forming a rift in leadership teams.

With this in mind, it’s important to find ways of capitalizing on legacy strengths from incumbent leaders and new potential from emerging leaders without compromising one for the sake of the other.

It is possible to have the best of both worlds – it just takes effort from both sides.

Bridging the Leadership Divide is a self-assessment and soft-skills training program that addresses generational differences in leadership style to improve leadership practices within an organization.  It offers two models for addressing leadership skills in a multi-generational workplace.

Bridging the Leadership DivideOne model is about change (and transformation).  Improvement doesn’t happen without change, and this model shows leaders how to make positive changes in themselves, between individuals, and as members of an organization.  Transformation needs to occur within and between individuals to create new leaders – individuals need to “become” leaders and they need to establish leadership relationships with others.  This three-part model helps leaders choose a stance (a set of behaviors to practice) and reach across the divide (acknowledge and accept the leadership of others).

The second model illustrates six patterns of problem behavior between incumbent and emerging leaders and offers an approach to managing each.  With these problem patterns highlighted, leaders of any generation are able to recognize them in action, and replace them with productive behaviors – improving relationships between leaders and making strides in the overall quality of leadership in their organization.

Using one or both of the models presented by Bridging the Leadership Divide to create awareness of leadership behavior through experiential learning will place your leaders on level, common ground, and start them off on the best foot for leading – no matter how long they’ve been doing it.  You’ll improve performance, relationships, and culture in your organization while helping each individual participant better their work-life.

Get started with Bridging the Leadership Divide today!

Don’t Kiss Me, I’m Systematic

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On St, Patrick’s Day, everyone is Irish.  It’s not really about ethnicity or religion – it’s about finding things that are special and unique in us and in others, and celebrating them.  It’s about being aware and appreciative of differences.

Personality StyleBut more than that, it’s an acknowledgement that behavior is a choice.  We can shape our interactions and interpersonal relationships by choosing certain behaviors.

On St. Patrick’s Day, everyone incorporates the good, fun parts of the signifier “Irish” into their own behavior.  In the same regard, we can all flex our personality style to incorporate positive aspects of other styles into our behavior in situations that call for them.

Teams and organizations are made up of personalities.  Successful teams and organizations are conscious of the different strengths and weaknesses of these personalities, and understand that behavior is a choice.

Personality Styles

By helping your team understand their own behavioral tendencies, you’ll encourage them to recognize and develop their special, unique strengths while appreciating the strengths of others.

The HRDQ Style Model is based on the understanding that everyone has inherent tendencies – a personality style – and that no style is fundamentally better or worse than any other.  Measuring the expressiveness (desire to share thoughts and feelings with others) and assertiveness (desire to influence others) of individuals, HRDQ Style Assessments reveal a personality style based on individuals’ response to statements regarding interpersonal behavior.

Offering eight different assessments targeted towards varying soft skill sets, the HRDQ Style Series is your tool for building healthy and productive workplace relationships.  On their own, or as part of broader training on related topics, HRDQ Style Assessments are an effective foundation for a variety of soft-skills training topics, including communication, leadership, team building, and supervisory skills.

Get Started with the HRDQ Style Series Today!

Celebrate your style with a blinky button!

Celebrate your style with a blinky button!

They’ll have theirs, and you’ll have yours, and I’ll have mine. And together we’ll be fine….

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Most of us need to collaborate or negotiate with at least someone every day.  In an ideal situation, everyone with whom we work will have the same goals that we do – but that is rarely the case.

When we interact with others, we have to give up at least some control of the situation’s outcome.  We will not always get our way, and we can’t predict or prescribe the actions of others.  Knowing this, the best thing we can do is choose behaviors that are most likely to lead to a positive outcome for everyone involved – stepping outside of our own needs and actively managing conflict.

Conflict Strategies

Developing an awareness of the ways people might react to conflict prepares us for any situation – we can modify our own behavior to encourage and contribute to the best possible resolution. But beyond that resolution, there are good things that come from conflict in process:

  • Underlying issues are brought to light – reducing the likelihood of recurring issues
  • Creative solutions (and the skills to arrive at them) are developed when trying to accommodate different needs
  • Heightened self-awareness and awareness of others better enables us to work on a team and understand the consequences of our actions
  • Good feelings are generated from having gotten through a tough time in a positive way

The first step toward embracing conflict is acknowledging these long-term benefits of conflict management – then figuring out how to adjust existing tendencies to maximize those benefits.

Conflict Strategies InventoryThe best thing for a team is to create an environment that welcomes conflict and expects all employees to seek out appropriate strategies.  To help your team find the appropriate strategy in any situation, HRDQ developed the Conflict Strategies Inventory – a self-assessment and workshop designed to explore the many possible ways to handle conflict, and how to recognize the best way.

By beginning with self-assessment, the Inventory shows each participant what their natural tendencies are when faced with conflict. With this knowledge, they can begin action planning for future conflict management and become better equipped to address the needs of everyone with whom they interact (including themselves)

Give the Conflict Strategies Inventory a try today, and help your team not only manage conflict, but turn it into a positive.

Wear Your Personality on Your Sleeve (or Which Ninja Turtle Should You be for Halloween?)

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Our Personality Style comes through every day, whether we are conscious of it or not.  Awareness allows us to take control of – and improve – our interpersonal relationships.  Developing an understanding of our Personality Style can be the first step in improvement.  This Halloween, you can start by choosing to celebrate your style.  Obviously, you were planning on being a Ninja Turtle.  I didn’t even have to ask.  But which one should you be?

Do you have a Direct style?

Raphael embodies the Direct style.  Never hesitating to take action, he’s always ready when the team encounters conflict and isn’t reluctant to dive in feet first.

Do you have a Spirited style?

Michaelangelo’s big personality always keeps the team engaged and communicating – on a personal level, and when it’s time to get down to business.

Do you have a Systematic style?

Donatello is a total Systematic.  As the team’s technical expert, he’s always thinking of new ways to improve strategy and resources to get things done more efficiently.

Do you have a Considerate style?

Leonardo pulls the team together with his Considerate style – reminding them of their purpose and the teachings of their leader, and keeping everyone working together, harmoniously, toward common goals.

One reason the Turtles are such a successful team is their variety of styles.  Each style has a different way of contributing to the group dynamic and taking on leadership.

Not sure exactly which Turtle you have the most in common with?  The What’s My Team Member Style?  Assessment can help you better understand the contribution you make to your team, and how to capitalize on your personal strengths to benefit your organization.

Try it now at the HRDQ Store!

The Importance of Influence

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Interpersonal Influence is a key factor in contemporary business.  In a growing market, everyone is in the business of selling ideas.  And when a sale is defined by buy-in and commitment, it’s the communication of goals and vision that does the selling.  Offering solutions in an appropriate and influential way is, in most cases, the result of observation.  Taking into account the situations of others, and how you fit into them allows you to communicate on common ground.

But, it is reductive to say that communication – what we say and how we act – is a result of our current situation.  Communication shapes situations.  That’s what we mean by Interpersonal Influence – behaving in a thoughtful and intentional way; not just reacting, but contributing to the situations in which we find ourselves.

More and more, as businesses globalize and coordination becomes a larger part of every job, employees at every level of an organization need to be able to communicate to influence both situations and people.  While this can be done in any number of ways, certain behaviors are more effective than others – behaviors that enable us to exercise our own rights without denying the rights of others.  We call them Assertive Behaviors.

It’s not always obvious which behaviors are characteristically assertive and which aren’t – and few of us behave the same way all the time.  So, how can we make sure that we’re being assertive and influencing others in a positive, effective way?

Our solution is the Interpersonal Influence Inventory – a 40-item assessment that measures individuals’ current behaviors on two scales: Openness in Communication and Consideration for Others.  Developing an awareness of our behaviors is the first step to influencing others effectively.  By understanding that certain behaviors are appropriate at certain times, we are empowered to choose the most effective behaviors that a situation calls for.

This assessment provides insight to individuals’ influence style, and highlights the benefits and possibilities of a more assertive style.  By showing participants these possibilities, the Interpersonal Influence Inventory opens up a new way of thinking about communication and the meaning of behaviors.  The assessment will give participants the opportunity to make impactful changes that will not only benefit the individual, but everyone with whom he interacts.

You can reach every member of your organization with the Interpersonal Influence Inventory – developing communication skills, bolstering confidence, and improving performance.  Get started today – click here to…

Dimensions of You

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For literally thousands of years, people have been asking the question, “What’s the deal with me?”

In Classical times, “what we are” was the same thing as “who we are.”  The physical body was fundamentally connected to the “I” (the personality) and the deed/action.  Classical physician Hippocrates noted signs from the body that related to the disposition and personality.  He called these physical/behavioral pairings the Four Humors, and related each to an element of nature (fire, water, wind, earth):

Classical notions of ideal forms (developed by Hippocrates’ contemporary, Plato) found resurgence during the modernist period.  People had, in the face of automation, a renewed interest in self-assessment: “If a machine can do what I do, then what am I?”  By this time, though, the Cartesian model shaped our thinking.  We saw a division between the physical world and the world of the mind – thoughts separate from actions, feelings separate from sensations.  We now see a duality in forms (personality types): a division of self from self-expression.  We understand that our behavior is not just dependent on our physical self, but the choices we make with respect to others.  The dimensions we now consider are

Expressiveness - The degree of effort made when revealing emotions to others

Assertiveness - The degree of effort made to influence others

These dimensions form the HRDQ Style Model:

The measures of expressiveness and assertiveness are more about building relationships than categorizing or classifying.  We’re learning what our preferences are so we’ll understand how our behaviors effect those around us.  Even though a machine can do what your body does, it can’t form the relationships that define business today.

Personality Style at Work, a new book form author Kate Ward, is based on the HRDQ Style Model.  More than just a tool for self-assessment (but don’t worry, it has a great one!), this book guides us through difficult everyday situations – using personality style as a tool for achieving positive outcomes and improved relationships.

With Personality Style at Work, you’ll not only learn what the deal is with you, but how to read the behavior of others, how to build rapport with different people, communicate effectively, and create positive interactions and relationships at work and at home.  Click here to learn more, and get started today!

It’s Time to Flex!

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You don’t have to work out for hours every day to get in shape, but you do need to do it consistently, if you want to progress. The same goes for successful communication. By understanding your personality style, and the styles of those around you – and allowing that understanding to frame your interactions – you can effectively communicate with virtually no strain or confusion.  By recognizing the tendencies and preferences of others, you’ll be able to flex your own style to accommodate their needs as well as your own.  Change your tactics in order to appeal to your counterparts’ personality style. Message flexing will ensure that you’re on the same wavelength, before your discussion, planning, or negotiation even begins.

Find the Right Approach

There are four styles outlined in the HRDQ Style Model: Direct, Spirited, Considerate, and Systematic.  Each style has a set of preferred behaviors, and knowing what to look for when approaching each style can go a long way in ensuring effective communication.

  • Direct: Get to the point immediately; be prepared for a dispute, and reiterate the logic or reasons behind your ideas.
  • Spirited: Be ready to discuss alternate options
  • Considerate: Build rapport with small talk, and break negative news or communicate dissention by ensuring your counterpart that it isn’t a personal attack.
  • Systematic: Don’t get emotional! Be ready to answer many questions and provide factual details about your ideas.

You Mean I Have to Deal with These People Every Day?

We all have a range of personalities to interact with each day.  Kate Ward’s latest book, Personality Style at Work, is based on the HRDQ Style Model.  With it, she helps us understand the values of this range, and how we fit into it as individuals.  Ward shows us how to navigate through our daily interactions to become more effective communicators.

What Do They Want, Anyway?

We all have expectations when we approach other people – a set of norms that we feel suit the situation best.  These expectations, however, don’t always match.  We can avoid the difficulties of unbalanced needs by anticipating and adjusting to the needs and expectations of others. Here’s what each personality style is looking for:

  • Direct: These people are often brief and to the point. They make direct eye contact, and may come across as brash. Match their intensity to get their intention.
  • Spirited: These people want your attention and recognition, so if you frame your conversation with that in mind, they’ll be more open to your ideas.
  • Considerate: The Considerate personality type wants to be your friend, so pace the conversation, and use your mannerisms, language, and tone the way you would with a friend.
  • Systematic: Give them information! Don’t spend much time on small talk, because it is only going to make a Systematic personality type grow impatient. They may tend to focus on criticism, and you can counteract this by being ready with answers before your interaction.

Although there is no style better than any other, your own style has certain strengths.  By leveraging these strengths, and your new-found ability to approach other styles, you can turn every opportunity into an advantage.

So get flexing, and start moving through each interaction smoothly and with better results! Click Here for more about the power of Personality Styles.