A lack of high-quality communication is the most common and destructive issue I see in almost every business I work with. What causes this significant lack of communication? Simple: understanding how to communicate effectively with each of the different personalities in the organization.
This week, I’ll focus the blog, podcast, and video lesson on communication and understanding personality styles. Why is this so important? Several issues come out of bad communication, including:
- Lower productivity
- Gossip
- Fear
- Employee turnover
- Having to redo misunderstood work
- Lost sales
Those are just a few things that cost your organization a lot of money!
Here’s why good communication is so important:
How many of us have given direction to someone, and the person we talk to gives us the deer-in-the-headlights look? The funny thing is, we’re wondering what’s wrong with the person. Don’t they understand what I’m telling them? I know they’re smart, why aren’t they getting this?
The truth is, the problem isn’t with them; it’s with us. We give information exactly the same way we receive it. So, if you’re anything like me, you like information in soundbites, short and sweet. That’s the way I want to receive information.
If the person I’m speaking with needs details, I can promise to give them the wrong information, which will cause them to fail. This goes both ways—team members and leaders.
Every time I teach an organization about personality styles, and it gets implemented in the organization, what follows is the comment,
“We had no clue how chaotic life was inside our organization until we learned how to communicate correctly.”
Understanding personality styles is vital to every single team member on your team. It’s so important that it’s one of the topics I most requested to speak about. I’ve created a video and workbook to take your entire team through!
It will show each team member how they think and process and what they can do to improve their communication with others. It will also show them how to execute with their style, how each style distracts from and sabotages communication, and how each person can destroy the team’s obstacles and dysfunction caused by low communication.
I’ll be launching the video and personality styles offering this week, so don’t miss out! If you still need to subscribe to my blog, sign up here to learn how to change how you and your team win! Also, a lucky commenter will get a free DISC personality test!
I have seen first-hand how damaging bad communication can be to an organization and the terrible thing is that I’ve been on both ends of it. Looking forward to the personality profile and communication videos this week!!
Hahaha…I can definitely say that I have as well!
Love what you’re doing here, Chris! You’ve got an incredible gift with reading Personality styles, and understanding the different lenses that people view life through. Been waiting for this video series since last yea, CAN’T WAIT to see it and go through it with our Team!
Dude, I can’t wait till you get down here for your LifePlan!
We are super excited Chris!! Looking forward to the visit, and to what God has for those jam-packed two days! …I heard it’s intense, and after being through Strat-Op, I really have no doubt!! 🙂
Winning with communication is super important to me! I am interested in hearing more about your video and workbook. Thank you Chris!
What’s up Jill Boorman?! Good to hear from you girl. I hope your biz is rockin’!
Good communication is the vein that allows the life of the organization to flow. Just like the human body, when those veins are restricted or the flow contaminated the health of the organization suffers.
Preach it Paul!
Agreed! All great leadership teams diversify talent – bringing different “styles” of receiving/sharing information. Super excited about the video and workbook!
So true Stephen. And thank you!
Looking forward to great information. This is a topic that continuously comes up on my priority list at work and at home. Hoping to get great insight on how to be an effective communicator!
Yes, Lily me too 🙂 Perhaps we can just delegate it all to Chris.
I hope the guy teaching is good. 🙂
I’ll let you know :0)
Big topic last week Chris, your spot on with “sound bites” for me! Finally I realized that is what I was doing to people…for the love of change!
HAHAHA…the funny thing is they’ve known it for awhile. I think they breathe a little easier when we discover it. 🙂
RIGHT, so why can’t they communicate they don’t have a clue what we are saying? I always ask, need any more info, are you clear? Yes, I think I’ll be good thanks!
I use this same philosophy with my family and homeschool
Fantastic Jarrod!
We do the Birkman personality style comparisons with our teams here. It seems helpful at the time, but I’m not sure we have the strong followup afterwards to make sure we CONTINUE to communicate the way each individual needs it… I would venture to guess that most people now simply have another binder on the shelf. Good reminder, Chris!
That’s exactly why I made the video Jillian. People are dangerous when they only have a small amount of info on personality styles. When you get in-depth info, you win like crazy!
I’ve seen a couple references to a video you made. I think I have missed it, somehow. Is this video out yet, up for purchase, or still in the making? Blogs are hard for me. lol. kt
This is one area where “do unto others…” DOESN’T work! 😉
It’s MORE EFFORT to communicate the way the recipient prefers, but it’s also MORE EFFECTIVE.
Amen!
These personality styles seem to be the same thing as the four temperaments.
They actually are. The temperaments are another way of saying personality styles essentially.
I just spent 2 weeks training for my new position. My better trainer is partially deaf. I have never trained with someone that I could not even make a simple comment to, nor could I ask a question.
The experience has made me re think how I will approach the next person I train.
Listening, is so an important part of any communication. My training would have gone better if the trainer had just been able hear my questions.
The ironic part, my new supervisor, is known for not listening.
Guess my next opportunity for growth is getting people to communicate, and I will start by listening.
Wow!! What a change in perspective!
Communication is HUGE in every circle.
One of the top reasons that employees do not do what they should be doing?
They think they are already doing it!
How we receive and process information is unique – and that style can be a big hurdle to others, if we are not aware of our own approach.
This is a good place to use John Miller’s QBQ approach – “What can I do to ensure my message is correctly communicated?”
“They think they are already doing it!” BAH!!!! So true Jon!!
This is one of the most eye opening things that I have learned from you Chris. I have heard you speak on the DISC personalities and it has helped so much. If you want to me to buy into an idea, I need a lot of detail and backup data (VERY high C!) On the other hand, if you give all of that data to my husband to try to get him to buy in it will probably get put in a pile and never see the light of day again. He is a high D and needs things spelled out in 5 bullet points or less! This has really helped our personal communication as well as business!
My wife and I have the same structure! I’m a high C, she’s a high D – makes for some interesting conversations!
BAH!!!! I’m am so glad that you’ve not only learned that, but in such great perspective!
I agree 100%. If everyone on our team was a master communicator watch out. Understanding personality profiles are key for the both the one giving and the person receiving the information.
Well said Michael!
Good word, Chris!
I have seen so many ministries get chaotic, bitter, and burnt out for lack of adequate communication. As a young leader, it’s been a challenge to amp up my communication skills, even though I was a competitive debater in high school. It’s a whole new level to do it in a place of leadership!
I’m so proud you are!
Since my husband and I are currently the only “employees” of our organization, it’s doubly important to communicate since we’re doing it on both a marriage and a business level. When we had a part-time assistant for a while, I definitely noticed how our personality styles came into play and that I needed to make adjustments in my communication with her. But I have lots of room to become more effective at this!
Communication is often something many of us take for granted. I know I do. The way we communicate is so important and it’s critically important that we communicate differently based on who is on the other end of our communication. Knowing your own personality style is a good place to start. Understanding how to recognize other people’s personality style is gold.
It’s EXTREMELY important! (too much emphasis….not!)
The above is the sound-byte for Chris and the other D’s out there. 🙂
I am a high C, my wife is somewhere between I and S. She likes details, but worries about people. I like details, but worry about stuff. I can be perfectly fine without worrying about people – people cause problems, so no people, no problems, right? Not really. We’ve had to work on trying to speak each others’ languages, and, when we do, we are able to make better decisions and see more things happen. When we don’t, we both just get frustrated, no one is happy, and nothing gets done.
I like it a lot! I just posted a blog entry this morning entitled “Wanna Lead? Learn to Communicate” (benjaminisraelrobinson.com). My point is similar to yours: all leadership problems boil down to communication problems. Either something was communicated that shouldn’t have been, something was not communicated that should have been, something was communicated too early, too late, or ineffectively.
I like your focus on personality styles and your promise of practical wisdom for navigating among them. Looking forward to your resources to come!