Communication Styles
Have you considered your communication “style”? This refers to “your way” of communicating or sharing information with others. For some, this might be consistent with their personality, a reflection of their values, a result of their upbringing or education, and/or specific to completing a particular task or achieving a certain goal or outcome. How one communicates might vary depending on multiple factors. Regarding communication in the workplace or working in any team, it’s important to be aware of your style of communicating and how you can communicate most effectively with others.
Main Styles of Communication
There are four main styles of communication that have been researched over the years. These include:
Passive Communication,
Aggressive Communication,
Passive-Aggressive Communication, and
Assertive Communication.
Passive Communication
Individuals who communicate passively might not express their feelings or needs, ignore their own rights, and defer to others to make decisions in order to avoid tension or conflict. One example is when someone says, “I’m okay with whatever you want to do.”
Passive communication can lead to misunderstandings, built-up anger, or resentment.
On the other hand, this approach might be helpful when needing to deescalate a situation.
Aggressive Communication
Someone who communicates aggressively might express feelings or needs at the expense of others (ignore the rights of others), alienate and hurt others, and become defensive or hostile when confronted.This style of communication can be characterized by raising one’s voice, blaming, being critical, or becoming physical, to name a few.
Aggressive communication could be helpful when someone needs to quickly stop a situation from becoming worse (when personal safety is threatened).
Passive-Aggressive Communication
A person who communicates passive-aggressively might express feelings or needs indirectly (appear passive on the surface but subtly act out anger) and exert control over others by using sarcasm or avoiding the conversation. Some examples include appearing passive but giving the “silent treatment”, spreading rumors about others, or sabotaging the efforts of others.
Assertive Communication
Assertive Communication is characterized by individuals’ utilization of direct, honest communication of feelings or needs (asserting their feelings or needs while respecting those of others). It’s important to not confuse assertive communication with aggressive communication. Examples of assertive communication include using “I” statements, making eye contact, having straight posture, and showing relaxed gestures.
Read more information about these communication styles and related resources.
In addition to the main four styles of communication previously noted, you might find other styles, such as direct, functional, or collaborative, relevant for you.
Implications for Leaders/Organizations
Whether in the workplace or working in any team, understanding communication styles is important for achieving effective communication. If you’re a leader, you also play an important role in supporting the growth and development of members of your team, as well as establishing standards for and modeling healthy communication and workplace culture. Effective communication can contribute to engagement, retention, and productivity, among other positive outcomes.
What is your communication “style”? Are you aware of how you can communicate most effectively with others?
Not sure about your communication style? Take a quiz!
I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to share a comment or reach out if you’d like to connect, have questions, or are interested in partnering.
Healthy Messages™ helps professionals, leaders, and business owners in human services improve, craft, and implement communication within and across systems.
Learn more about Healthy Messages™ mission, vision, and outcomes.
Clear Messages
When something is clear, it means it is ‘not subject to misinterpretation or more than one interpretation’ (Merriam-Webster). I really appreciate the wording of this definition. It speaks to the importance of clarity and consistency in messaging, whether the communication is written, verbal, or nonverbal behavior. This is especially relevant in leadership and organizational and professional development, and I believe a greater focus on improving messaging in these areas would contribute greatly to organizational health and success.
Can you think of a time when you were expected to fulfill a task or assignment but were left with questions about what you should do? What about discrepancies between an organization’s vision/mission, services, and outcomes? Or a leader whose values were not matched by their words and actions? I imagine you have experienced these and/or other instances when messaging was not clear or was contrary to what was intended.
Leaders have a wonderful responsibility and opportunity to cast vision, establish expectations, give instruction and guidance, share strategy, teach, mentor, and model values and behaviors. The messages that leaders convey are extremely important. And not just for leaders in the formal or traditional sense, but for you who influences the lives of people around you every day. Thus, it is important to also consider areas for continuous growth and improvement.
Healthy Messages helps professionals:
Create clear, consistent messaging.
Grow personally and professionally.
Implement practices and systems that support organizational health and success.
Develop tools for evaluating performance and measuring success.
Achieve their unique vision for services or their business.
There are a few questions I would like you to consider:
What do you want to communicate to those who you want to help, lead, or support?
What is your vision or mission?
What goals do you want to accomplish?
What messages do you want to convey in words and actions?
How do you want to grow personally and professionally?
In reviewing these questions consider how a focus on improving messaging can contribute to the bigger picture - organizational health and success.
I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to share a comment or reach out if you’d like to connect, have questions, or are interested in partnering.
Healthy Messages™ helps professionals, leaders, and business owners in human services improve, craft, and implement communication within and across systems.
Learn more about Healthy Messages™ mission, vision, and outcomes.