Do you ever get the feeling that your communications aren’t landing as well as they could? Don’t worry, it happens to the best of us—especially if your message is going out to a wide audience.
Projects are made up of people with a variety of personalities. As a project leader, it’s your job to make sure your message lands with all of them. To do that well, you need to know who you’re working with so you can cater to their communication style.
Understanding the different types of communicators and how to communicate with them effectively can help you:
So let’s take a look at 4 communication styles you may find on your team. These were created by the New York Times bestselling author and leadership guru Mark Murphy. He spent decades researching interpersonal communication and developed this construct so you can understand your own communication style and how it coincides with those of others.
Analytical communicators lead with facts, not emotion. They prefer concrete data and numbers and typically dislike when things are unclear. They trust those who are in command of facts and aren’t concerned about the process that got you to your data as long as it’s correct.
Analytical communicators are all business, which means they typically hold a relatively unemotional view of things. This allows them to use logic and data to make decisions and work out problems.
Colleagues often look to analytical communicators for informational expertise and objectivity, as their focus on facts enables them to stay neutral in most situations.
Emotional words don’t hold sway with analytical communicators. They rely so heavily on data that you’ll lose their trust quickly if you don’t have a firm grasp on the facts.
This communication style might come across as rude or indifferent in situations that would otherwise require some emotional intelligence. It’s not that analytical communicators don’t care or are incapable of emotion. They’re simply more focused on reaching a goal and prefer to keep interpersonal issues or communications separate.
Intuitive communicators never get lost in the details. In fact, they prefer seeing the big picture so they can get right to the point. They make decisions quickly because they don’t overanalyze the situation or get overwhelmed easily.
Intuitive communicators are able to look at the overarching situation to understand challenges and opportunities and will quickly act on that. Their knack for big-picture thinking means they’re not afraid to challenge the status quo, and that often makes them great innovators.
Because intuitive communicators lack the patience to dig into details, they run the risk of missing important points or skipping steps that could negatively impact their work. You’ll have to check in on their progress and make sure you’ve got a process in place to check their final work product for errors.
Lay a clear path to success with a visual plan that’s easy to understand, and keep everyone in sync with flexible workflows and team collaboration.
The functional communicator loves being in command of details, as they value specs, timelines, strategies, and plans. Their attention to detail means they work hard to make sure no stone goes unturned. They focus on process, communicate end goals, and prefer seeing things presented in a stepped-out, logical fashion.
Functional communicators are great at breaking down situations to consider every aspect. Because they thrive on process and mind the details, that often earns them trust on teams.
Team members often look to functional communicators to implement new strategies or play devil’s advocate where necessary. You may have guessed it by now, but you’ll often find functional communicators in project management roles.
We all know that there’s a lot more to communication than process. Functional communicators can get so caught up in the details they run the risk of annoying or even losing the attention of their audience
Personal communicators are the people on your team who easily make meaningful connections with others. They’re natural communicators who embrace emotional language, listen well, and truly value building and maintaining personal relationships.
Their ability to connect with others and form relationships often makes the personal communicator a strong team lead. They want things to go well—not only with communications but also productivity—and can sense when things are getting off track.
They’re often able to gauge team morale and even smooth over conflict because of the value they place on maintaining healthy relationships. For that reason, personal communicators are often seen as the “glue” that holds teams together.
While building strong connections at work is great, relationships can sometimes get in the way of work. This is where analytical communicators may call out, or even lose patience with, a personal communicator.
That’s why it’s important for personal communicators to be aware of their surroundings, in command of facts, or at least take full responsibility for their tasks or roles.
A clear and collaborative project plan is your best tool for communicating and tracking all the details, deadlines, and to-dos that will lead your team and project to success. And TeamGantt makes planning easy!
You’ll have all the features you need to ensure projects finish on time and under budget—from drag and drop simplicity and team collaboration to customizable views and workload management. Best of all, it’s all wrapped up in a simple and intuitive interface your whole team will love. 😍
