By: Sandra Bulgin on December 2nd, 2020
What’s the Best Personality Assessment for Communication Training?
From the first cry we make as an infant to the meeting you had with your team yesterday, the ability to communicate effectively directly impacts outcomes. Your success in navigating relationships with others and conveying salient points in business communications directly impact results, both for you personally and for your business. Those interpersonal communication skills are the true key to success.
There are challenges in finding the right way to communicate together to achieve our collective goals. So how do you improve communication even when there does not appear to be a problem and how do you solve a problem when such a basic need is present?
While you may be hard pressed to find a colleague or friend admitting to their communication style shortcomings, those misalignments are there. Does it mean one style is better than the other? No, it does not.
Playing to Your Strengths: How to Achieve More Success through Identifying Your Communication Style and Your Team Knowing Yours
It does mean though that no matter how savvy a communicator you are, there is always room to improve. Consider, how many times you have been part of a team where the team just could not align itself to the goal, spent additional time or social-emotional capital to stay on task, or simply where not everyone felt heard?
Knowing that, how do you address an interpersonal communications issue without alienating some or all of the group, especially those who believe themselves to be good communicators or, at least, not part of the problem?
Interpersonal Communications Training is the immediate answer. In fact, “Extensive lines of research [determine] interpersonal skills strongly predict business and professional success,” according to the authors Goldman, Boyatzis and McKee of Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence.' With a good training solution, outcomes are improved, and success can be achieved.
A Review of SOCIAL STYLE vs. DiSC vs. MBTI Assessments
With a myriad of personality assessment options on the market, we will address the top 3 to provide an overview of their strengths so you can choose what might work best for you and your team:
SOCIAL STYLE®
The SOCIAL STYLE® model measures communication based on the task to the relationship orientation and the faster to the slower paced responses. The axis of the user’s SOCIAL STYLE® meets at versatility, that is the information to moderate your behavior and to make the other person more comfortable in the communications exchange. The unique SOCIAL STYLE®s are:
- Driving = Results
- Expressive = Recognition
- Amiable = Relationships
- Analytical = Accuracy
These styles address different ways of using time and predicable ways to interact and making decisions. You are taught how to appropriately observe for style and determine communications preferences to moderate your behavior to make the other person more comfortable during the exchange – your versatility.
SOCIAL STYLES® is considered intuitive, with easy to grasp concepts to put into practice. The training addresses how to positively approach tension within a group and how to be versatile in managing your style for better outcomes.
DiSC®
DiSC® works to improve work productivity and communication. Through identification of your personal DiSC® profile, you will know more of your personality and behavioral style and how best to adapt your style to the styles of others.
The profiles within DiSC® describe behaviors, such as responses to challenges, influences on other’s behaviors, and how you respond to the guardrails of rules or policies. While there are four main personality profiles, DiSC® recognizes the blends of styles with a primary style and gradation of that style as well as tendencies toward other styles.
DiSC’s four primary styles are below with styles being a blend of these:
- (D)ominance = confident with emphasis placed on accomplishments, results
- (i)nfluence = open with emphasis on relationships, influencing others
- (S)teadiness = dependable with emphasis on corporation, sincerity
- (C)onscientiousness = quality with emphasis on accuracy, competency
DiSC® rates highly overall with positive reactions to the training and the ability to identify styles. The training addresses viewing your style blends and how best to adapt your styles to the styles of others. By recognizing the behavioral cues of other’s styles, you are better able to navigate your style to achieve better interpersonal communication.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI)
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® measures the psychological preferences of how you perceive the work and make decisions, based on the work of Carl Jung. This may be the most widely adopted interpersonal communications measurement tool. The type is determined by where you may fall on the continuum of MBTI®’s four categories.
MBTI®’s four categories are:
- Introversion/Extroversion
- Sensing/Intuition
- Thinking/Feeling
- Judging/Perceiving
While MBTI® does not rate highly on the recognition for the styles of others, it is very well-known tool and widely adopted across education and professional trainings. MBTI® provides information on how to adapt your preferences to others, as well as recognize the style indicators of others through observation.
Through over 18 years of research on the relational side of work, Harvard Business Review concluded, “Interpersonal savvy is critical in almost every area of business…”² Though responding to the interpersonal styles of others can be challenging, having the right training and tools can enhance teamwork, impact productivity, and improve outcomes for overall business success.
Helios HR has certified instructors to help your team enhance their interpersonal skills through SOCIAL STYLE®, DiSC®, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®, as well as executive coaching or custom training. For more information, reach out to us.