Communication Styles

By Will Thalheimer

Almost everyone has to give a presentation now and then. For many people, presentations can make or break success on the job or in a career. Executives, managers, experts, salespeople, project managers, influencers, teachers, lawyers, politicians, trainers—there are a ton of jobs that require excellent presentation skills, and yet, all of us have sat through boring, useless, poorly designed presentations. What’s going on?

One problem is that presenting to others is one of the most cognitively complex things that we humans do. We must account for other people’s interests, values, prior knowledge, current concerns, and experience. We must deal with issues of attention, habituation, energy levels, learning, memory, cognition, persuasion, motivation, hunger, humor, forgetting, and so forth. We must craft a story, curate compelling data, and organize our presentations for maximum impact. We must also, somehow, overcome our fear and channel our nervous energy toward connecting with our audience and making the whole thing appear as if a beautiful piece of performance art. Presenting is so maddeningly complex that most of us get lost in simple recipes and approaches that don’t work that well.

In the learning field, the difficulties are even more acute. Training—whether in a room or online—is simply not that easy. We not only have to have expertise in the topic, but we ought to have some expertise in presenting, teaching, and learning as well. And with so many subject-matter experts called on to teach what they know—with very little training or background—it’s no wonder that our trainings aren’t always as good as they could be.

I’ve been doing training for three decades—poorly at first. There’s so much to learn, that even now as a good presenter, I’m still learning. And with online learning becoming so important, I’m learning even more about how to present through technology, how to present on recorded videos, how to navigate between classroom and blended options. As many of you reading this know, there’s always more to learn.

Last year I began thinking about all the poor presentations and all the ineffective trainings we see—and reflecting on my own journey from “monotone man” to keynoter and webinar wizard (well, sometimes). I decided there were some secrets that weren’t being taught—that great presenters align their presentation designs with human cognition. Effective presentations must attain four goals.

As presenters we must help our audience members to:

1. Engage
2. Learn
3. Remember
4. Act

Engagement is essential and is what most presentation-skills trainings focus on. But engagement can be effective or ineffective. Audiences can be enthralled, energized, giddy with enthusiasm, but not really learn, or learn the wrong things. Engagement is trickier than we think!

No matter what type of presentation we give, we want our audience members to learn something—to comprehend something essential. And yet again, learning is not simple. Nor is it enough! As presenters, we need to go beyond learning and help our audience members to remember, to minimize the chance that they will forget what we say. We also want to persuade them and prepare them to act. Again, this is not easy and is often lost when we craft our presentations and trainings.

In the upcoming webinar, Beyond Engagement: Presentations That Move Your Audience to Learning and Action, I will show you how to get rid of all your bullet points (they are deadly), help your audience see what you want them to see (they are looking chaotically, frenetically now), use whitespace, decorations, and branding wisely (most of us are mangling this), and show complex data in ways that help your audience comprehend. Also, I’m going to ask you several times during the session to evaluate slide designs and presentation approaches—to get your thoughts on what’s working and what’s not, challenges to bring new perspectives to the art of presenting.

By taking a science-of-learning approach to presenting—by seeing that our audience members are actually learners—we can build presentations that are highly engaging, and also help our audience to learn, remember, and act!

Stories are fundamental to how we communicate, learn and think

Note: This blog post by Terrence Gargiulo discusses content that will be presented during his Jan. 22 ‘Storied Learning’ webinar.

Stories are the most efficient way of storing, retrieving, and conveying information. Since story hearing requires active participation on the part of the listener, stories are the most profoundly social form of human interaction communication, and learning.

So what is a story? We’ve all used the word to refer to a lot of different things. Take a moment and jot down any words or descriptions that come to mind. Here are some potential candidates:

It’s easier to think in terms of different ways stories function and with what kind of effects:

In 1992, Professor Luis Ygelsisas and Terrence Gargiulo did an in depth analysis of a story titled The Man Without a Story. These nine functions and effects come from that work. Email terrence@makingstories.net for a copy of the story.

How Are Stories Different?

Here’s a gotcha: avoid the temptation to use stories in the same ways as you work with other modes of communication. So what makes stories different from traditional modes of communication?

Stories encode information. That can be a double-edged sword. One edge of the sword cuts through information clutter. Our stories make messages memorable and help us connect with each other. Messages become imbued with meaning. Yet this ability of stories to encode information can also slash us. Do we want to relegate our messages to duels limited to one-way thrusts without parries and thrusts from our recipients?

In our hands, do the layered, onion-like tendencies of rich stories thrive with us as masters of their destiny? I’m afraid we have a horrible habit of enslaving stories to operate in the same manner we work with other forms of communication.

It’s easy to deprive ourselves of the deep richness of stories. Communication perpetuates a myth of striving for the Holy Grail of clarity. We are enamored with the illusion and importance of exactitude. Our messages must be precise and leave little room for interpretation. Anything less is a failure of communication; especially in business settings where tolerance for ambiguity is paid lip service but pushed beneath the surface.

Be suspicious of good communication practices when working with stories. Does that sound preposterous? It may seem counter-intuitive but there are a whole different set of communication, learning, and thinking rules operating with story-based communications. Just as Newtonian physics account for how we interact with physical matter and quantum mechanical laws predict phenomena on the sub-atomic level, good communication practices operate differently between traditional and storied-based ones.

Stories work because of their imprecise nature. Imagine stories as a bag of a variety of wild flower seeds. Listeners and readers are like the fertile soil anxious for new seeds. We reach into our bag and grab a handful of seeds. What flowers take hold and what flowers ultimately bloom are unpredictable. Our job as story communicators is to unleash possibilities. The specifics of our messages and their significance are decoded by receivers. In keeping with the garden metaphor, meaning emerges by attaching itself to the personal trellises of experiences.

Framework for Storytelling

If storytelling is such a rich and engaging form of communication how do you know if you are telling a story? Good news: Super Simple…Ask yourself: “Am I breaking the ICE?”

During your storytelling learning journey you can use a number of simple tools to help you fashion standalone stories. Here’s a tool for crafting a standalone story:

You can also identify some of the basic types of stories you need to tell at your organization. You can learn how to structure these stories and more importantly how to stich them together to create rich collages of stories.

The Triple Threat

One last critical component to your organization’s success with storytelling. You can develop your natural skills so that you will be a triple threat. In show business, singing, dancing, and acting is the triple threat. Business storytelling, requires you to become a good storyteller, story listener and story reflector.

Storytelling can’t just simply be read about, talked about, or even watched on video. You need to do storytelling, story listening, and story reflecting with other people to get good at it. And, you’re going to need some formal feedback. With key skills, you can start your storytelling journey today.

About the Author

Terrence is the former Chief Storyteller of Accenture. He is the author of eight books and for his creative use of narrative, INC Magazine awarded him with their Marketing Master Award. His work as an internationally-recognized organizational development consultant earned him the 2008 HR Leadership Award from the Asia Pacific HRM Congress for his ground breaking research on story-based communication skills. Email him at terrence@makingstories.net.

Leadership is important at every organization, and great leadership is even more valuable. “Executive presence” is the way a leader behaves — and while it may be hard to define, we know it when we see it. It’s when someone walks into a room and turns heads, and conversations open up to involve them. When they talk, people listen, and when they lead, people follow. A big factor is communication style.

Powerful executives know what their communication style is, and why it’s so important. If a person is aware of their style, navigating the complex work world becomes easier and they are likely to be more successful. They will be able to identify others’ communication styles and deal with them accordingly as they work as a team. Furthermore, if someone knows their own style plus their leader’s style, they are more likely to be able to connect with them professionally. This can lead to them having more input in company decisions and accelerating their career growth at the organization.

What is Communication?

It goes without saying that excellent communication is important in the workplace. Team members must work together and communicate effectively in order to meet goals. But how can we define communication? There are four distinct aspects of it:

• Verbal. The words used to communicate.
• Paraverbal. The manner used to communicate meaning, such as tone and inflection.
• Body language. The way people use their bodies to communicate, such as the way they shake hands or maintain eye contact.
• Personal space. interpersonal distance, or one’s preferred physical space in relation to others, as well as one’s appearance and arrangement of their work or home spaces.

To bring about meaningful improvements in communication skills, the best way to begin is to build a better understanding of the types of communication: personal communication styles and their effects on other people. The four communication styles are:

1. Direct. People who take charge, are in control, competitive, fast-paced, authoritative, and are great leaders.
2. Spirited. People who are enthusiastic, friendly, motivators, high-profile, and are decision makers.
3. Considerate. People who are warm, counseling, cooperative, reliable, and caring.
4. Systematic. People who are accurate, objective, factual, organized, and they focus on problem solving.

Once you know what your style is, you can read others to determine their style as well. Then, you can use your knowledge to determine how to approach leaders in your organization. If they have a direct style, for example, you will know when you speak to them you need to be clear, confident, and quick with your point.

How to Use Communication Style to Develop Relationships with Leaders

HRDQ is hosting a webinar titled “Talking With the Top” on Dec. 20 at 2 p.m. EDT. Consultant Suzanne McCall will enhance participants’ existing skills and develop personal awareness, increased confidence, and better strategies for capturing the attention of decision makers.

Participants will learn the key factors for executive-level presentation success, discover the drivers of presentation results, and see how to develop the framework for a well-aligned executive-level presentation. Click here to register: Talking with the Top: Tips for Building and Using Your Executive Presence

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This webinar is based on the HRDQ training product What’s My Communication Style, which provides insight into our everyday communications with others. This assessment is appropriate for individuals at any organizational level who want to discover more about themselves and their communication preferences. Participants will understand the various forms of communication and learn how to “flex” their own personal style to improve communication. Learn more here: What’s My Communication Style.

“No one told me you needed that.”

“It’s not my fault I’m behind schedule. The other group missed their deadline.

“Why didn’t anyone tell me when this was due?”

Excuses like these are all telltale signs that an organization lacks a culture that emphasizes how to manage accountability. When team members don’t take responsibility for their own actions and leadership doesn’t consistently hold them accountable, it’s nearly impossible for a team to execute its strategy effectively. Without accountability, teams have difficulty building and maintaining the trust necessary for productive collaboration. This is especially challenging for virtual teams, which already face hurdles to forming strong relationships.

The best strategy for managing accountability is to establish a culture that emphasizes accountability before things go wrong. Accountability isn’t about assigning blame after problems develop; it provides a way for people to clarify what needs to be done and follow through on their commitments.

How to Establish a Foundation for Accountability

Clarify Expectations

The most important step in building a climate of accountability is establishing what expectations employees will be held to. In order for people to take responsibility for tasks, they first need to have a very clear idea of what they’re supposed to be accomplishing. Regardless of the industry in question, if goals are ambiguous or not well defined, it can be difficult for anyone to know how their individual efforts contribute to those outcomes. Communication is very important in this regard, not only at the onset of a project, but throughout its entire course.

Expectations also define what success looks like. If someone is being tasked with producing a specific deliverable, they need to know what that deliverable should look like if they’re going to be held accountable for it. Too much ambiguity leaves room for interpretation, which could result in two very different ideas of what constitutes an acceptable outcome. Without this foundation, there’s no basis for holding anyone accountable for results.

Establish Timetables

When expectations are established and goals clearly defined, it’s important to agree upon a timeline for monitoring and measuring progress. Here again, it’s important to eliminate ambiguity. Simply stating that a project must be completed “as soon as possible” or a deliverable produced “by next week” leave a lot of room for interpretation. Without a specific timeframe, people are more likely to prioritize tasks according to their own preferences, which can create significant problems if someone can’t begin or complete a task before someone else completes theirs.

Timetables also help to create accountability by measuring how much progress has been made toward a goal. If it becomes clear that someone on a team is lagging behind or consistently creating problems for others, team leaders can address the issue before it puts the project in jeopardy. When the entire team is struggling to meet key milestones, it may be an indication that the original timing and targets were too ambitious and need to be adjusted. Without a timetable, however, teams can wind up operating in the dark, unsure of where potential problems exist until the deadline arrives. By that time, it’s too late to make adjustments.

Follow Up

Having clear expectations and a timetable is one thing; knowing whether or not people are keeping to them is quite another. Accountability is a process, not an event. Leaders need to check in with team members periodically, providing guidance and feedback where necessary. To avoid making anyone feel like they’re being micromanaged, it’s best to mutually agree upon specific check-in times. Rather than framing these meetings as a safeguard to ensure work is getting done, it can be seen as a positive interaction in which team members have a chance to show their progress and seek assistance if they need it.

Communication is important in this process. If there are problems, they should be dealt with promptly rather than ignored. Frequent check-ins can also help cut through assumptions that can lead to greater problems down the road. If someone is operating on the assumption that another team member is doing something when they’re not, a quick check-in will clarify everyone’s present status.

Accountability After the Fact

It’s simply not realistic to expect every project to come off without a hitch. Sooner or later, something goes wrong in every organization or team. Their ability to take accountability for mistakes has a major impact on whether or not those same problems will affect future projects.

When things do go wrong, everyone involved needs to ask themselves three questions:

1. What, if anything, did I do that might have contributed to the problem?
2. What can be done to get things back on track?
3. What can I do to prevent this problem from happening again in the future?

Rather than putting the blame on any one person or group these questions encourage everyone on the team to think about positive steps they can take to resolve existing problems. It establishes the idea that accountability isn’t about assigning blame, but rather identifying opportunities and potential for improvement.

Managing accountability in others is an important skill for leaders looking to execute strategy effectively. While team members must ultimately learn to take accountability for their actions, good leaders find ways to facilitate that process and encourage people to take ownership and responsibility for their actions and the consequences of those actions. By taking steps to create a culture focused on accountability, they can set their teams on the path to consistent success.

HRDQ-U and Rick Lepsinger hosted a free webinar you can watch here!