Communication Style
Part I: What it is and Why it's Important

Coaching for employees — both digital and in-person formats — can provide a variety of benefits when you embrace the mindset that intelligence and leadership growth can develop over time.

Do you want 100% of what you say and write at work to be tasteful while doing some heavy, and sometimes better, lifting for you? It's possible through your Communication Style. Discover yours here. Like different ingredients in a cake recipe, individuals have different personality traits that come together in the workplace to form a mix of communication styles. Understanding and acting on these styles can improve workplace relationships, productivity, and satisfaction.

How much do you know about your own communication style? Or the styles of others? Can your style be improved or changed as easily as a cake batter can change from lemon to chocolate? Perhaps not as quickly, but communication styles can be flexed and flavored within a day, based on:

Part I of this article deals with important ingredients of four workplace communication styles found at all organizational levels. The styles will be described in a way that will help you see aspects of your style and those of others, and why we may click with some communication styles and get a sour taste in our mouths from others. How effectively we communicate with people inside and outside the organization often depends on how we can use and flex our unique style.

Part II of this article, yet to be published, will provide tips on how to communicate better — especially with co-workers, customers, and others who have a style, words or attitudes that we may deem "difficult" to digest in writing, on the phone, or face-to-face. Certainly, we don't want to be the ones pointed to as "sour pusses" or difficult, so we can flex and learn to communicate more effectively, armed with the knowledge of unique communication styles and tips for improvement.

If we can learn to bake a better cake that is more pleasing to our taste buds simply by changing some of the ingredients or the time in the oven, then we can change some of our approaches to ensure better communication. In other words, we can learn to make speedy changes in the way that we think, which can lead to a change of:

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