As far as I am concerned you can never learn enough about communication. It is the key to being successful in life no matter what it is that you do. If you cannot effectively communicate with others you will continually struggle in one way or another. Understanding your co-worker’s communication style will help you to be able to understand them better, thus making communication better (hopefully). There are three communication styles, passive, assertive and aggressive. Once you have read through the positives and negatives of each it shouldn’t be too hard to determine which type you are and which type your co-workers are. But don’t stop with just knowing, do some research on these types so you can understand that they go along with personalities and the more you understand them the better equipped you will in communicating with them.
Passive: The communication style is usually indirect, they do not speak up and they will minimize their own self-worth. They do not express their true feelings, do not make waves, apologize a lot and will try to remain in a neutral position to avoid conflict. They speak softly, will smile in agreement, and allow others to make decisions for them. In general they feel they are not important.
Aggressive: People with this communication style are closed-minded, poor listeners, make it clear your feelings are not important. They feel they are superior and everyone should be like them. They are never wrong and will achieve goals at the expense of others. Here are a few more attributes; they are domineering, patronizing, condescending, they will point their finger, stare you down, chew you up and spit you out before you even know what happened. This type of co-worker usually stands alone as people fear them. I have always wondered how do people like this keep their job?
Assertive: This communication style is the most successful and desired by employers and co-workers alike. Their communication style is one in which they do stand up what they believe, but they also respect other’s rights and what they think. They realize all types of people are important and everyone opinion matters. They are non-judgmental, confident, proactive, trusts self and others. They usually have a great sense of humor, are realistic in their expectations of themselves and others, they are fair, just and consistent. Wow…I want to work with people who have this communication style, I see why they are successful. They have seemed to master the art of communication with others.
Even though our personality does play into our communication style we still can unlearn some of the bad traits of communication we may have, and learn good ones. It may be hard, but it can be done if you put your mind to it and realize that our communication skills play such a big part of who we are and how others relate to us. Our communication with others is one of the keys in being successful in life.
I have provided a link to a site that has several articles about communication skills, styles and much more, take a look there is a lot of great information.
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