The Clarifying People’s Preferred Working Styles Approach

Imagine that you lead a team. This is an approach that can be used in one-to-one meetings.

If you feel it would be useful, however, you can invite people to do the following exercise individually and then share their preferred working style in a group setting. 

The next section explores this second approach. There are several points to bear in mind when doing the exercise.

The exercise is most effective when each person in the team wants to deliver professional performances. You can then help them to make their contribution to the team’s picture of success.

The exercise is not about working in a group setting with individuals who are delivering poor performances. You can hold those kinds of discussions elsewhere in a one-to-one meeting.

Start by asking each individual to complete the following pack about how they work best. Explain that the team will then meet together to explore how to build on people’s strengths.

Explain that the sharing will be done in a positive atmosphere. It will not be about getting people to change. Several points are worth bearing in mind when introducing the exercise.

Ask people to be as honest as possible. There are no good or bad working styles – there are just consequences.

Ask them to be as specific as possible. When in doubt, they are to describe things in behavioural terms.

Talk them through each part of the pack, perhaps giving examples from your own style to bring it to life.

Here is the pack that you can invite people to do. There is an introduction to each part.

Imagine that you have given people time to do these exercises. As mentioned earlier, you can follow up with them in one-to-one sessions. Another approach is to take the following step.

You can facilitate a session in which people
share their preferred working styles

Create an informal atmosphere in which people feel able to share their working style. You may then wish to explain the rules.

Explain The Rules

Each person will have fifteen minutes to share their answers to the exercises. People can ask questions when the team member presents, but mainly for information. It is again worth underlining the following point:

The aim is to understand the person. It is not to get them to change.

Fifteen minutes seems a long time, but it can take longer. If people have done the exercise properly – and the group asks questions for information – it may take up to thirty minutes per person.

Providing you have created a positive atmosphere, you will find that people open-up and are willing to be honest. This is an approach that – providing it is done properly – can help people:

To understand each other’s working styles; To understand how to encourage and get the best from each person.

If appropriate, you can then meet each person to make clear contracts about their best contribution to the team. You can then employ your strengths to enable the team to achieve peak performance.

Imagine that you want to follow elements of this approach. How can you do this in your own way? If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This invites you to complete the following sentences.