The goal of People Skills assessments and training is to learn how to modify your behavior (i.e., rotate your iceberg) to improve relationships and outcomes.
Do you know someone who prefers to carefully think through things before making decisions or taking action? They often speak thoughtfully to make sure they say only what is correct or not to upset harmony. Here are four practical things you can do to make a better impact with these individuals.
- PAUSE AND DECREASE SPEAKING ENERGY: Expedience-oriented individuals can easily pick up the pace and increase the volume when they talk. They also can become impatient and restless with individuals who appear to move slowly. Taking a more easy going pace, using a slightly gentler voice, and pausing to allow breathing room for thinking and discussion helps a process-oriented individual engage more fully with you. It also helps develop trust and respect with them.
- RECOGNIZE AND VALIDATE THEIR PERCEPTIONS: Process-oriented individuals want feedback and validation of their ideas. Rather than internalizing input from others without confirming it, make a point to acknowledge their perceptions. By doing this, you encourage a process-oriented individual to stay engaged, which increases their buy-in towards the results.
- ASK QUESTIONS RATHER THAN MAKE STATEMENTS: To increase credibility, ask questions. Making statements often prevents you from gaining information about individuals, situations, and information process-individuals are considering. Asking genuine questions implies concern for their perceptions and knowledge about others and the quality of the work.
- PAY ATTENTION TO DETAILS: Expedient-oriented individuals typically focus on the big picture. By thinking about and sharing the process from beginning to end, you provide context that taps into the strengths of process-individuals who are more focused on details, the how and the why.
