What's your style?

First off, I'd like to apologize for my lack of blogging . It's been quite busy in my neck of the woods lately.

So last week as a new hire I took part in this "culture" training. I'm not sure if that's the best name for it, but that's what I call it as it was 2 days of the company values, how things work around here, and how to get better results for yourself and your team based on the environment of this place. Yes, I was treading it going in, I already had to take it once coming in as an intern. However, once I was there it really wasn't so bad, and I feel like I got a lot out of it. Hopefully I can continue to use what I've learned there in my respected area. 

One of the most useful topics we learned about was your behavioral style. You all thought I was going to talk about clothes huh...got ya! We really learned and had to decide which style we were, and even better we learned how to deal with the other styles that were not our own. We all know those people who are completely different than us on the job scene and don't you about want to wring their neck! I know I do sometimes. Now that I am powered with the knowledge of what my style is and what other people's style could be I feel like I can work with people much easier. It's a good thing to if you know what my job is! I'd like to share this with everyone because I feel like even if you don't use it to help you in your job it's good to know where you fall as it pertains to your life as a whole, not just the work place.

So first we had to decide what style best suited us based on this matrix:

Now understand you have to pick ONE quadrant. No line straddling, no putting a dot in the exact middle. What if I'm a little of both, or what if I'm a little of everything you say? We all have a little of all these things in us, but choose where you see yourself most of the time. Also, remember you can use this like a graph, you don't have to be extremely formal or extremely easy going. Here is an example of where I see myself. 

My matrix & where I see myself.

I tend to be a little less informal, honestly I think that is kind of our generation anyways. But I am definitely a dominant person. All of you that know me out there quit your head nodding. I know, I know - I'm the queen, the boss, and intense one, and I like it that way!

Do you have where you think you are? Now, time for the descriptions of them. No changing your mind, your initial instinct on where you fall is the right one. It doesn't matter if you change your mind anyways you still fall there and you still, for the most part, have these traits. 

Behavioral Style Characteristics

Please remember that all of these behavioral styles have their strengths and weaknesses, nothing about them is suppose to be a negative. Without all the the styles present in the work place, home, world - we'd be no where...or fighting a lot depending on the style :) These quadrants follow the matrix: if you are formal & dominant you are in the Controlling group, formal & easy going you are in the Analyzing group, informal & dominant you are in the Promoting group, and finally informal & easy going you are the Supporting group. Did you find your group? I'm in the Promoting quad. Now who you are suppose to work the best with and get the best results with is the counterpart, or the box diagonal for your own. Controlling/Supporting go together & Analyzing/Promoting go together. Makes sense right! Wouldn't you think you would work better with those you are opposite of you so you get both view points. The one's strengths is the others weakness, if you cover all your strengths and weakness how could you not end up with a good result.

Now that you know where you fall try to use this knowledge to the best of your ability anywhere you feel you need too. Not only take what you now know about yourself but use what you know about the other quadrants to get the best results out of the situation. As an example if you are a promoting person working with a supporting person remember they work better in teams, and like to get as much input as they can. Instead of bringing your normal behavior to the table try changing it up some to accommodate them as well as yourself. Your work and their work will get done much quicker, and be much more accurate. Hopefully this empowers you as much as it has me.  If nothing else work on your own behavior, make those potential liabilities into a strengths, maybe try to move yourself into a more desirable quadrant if you think you need to. Whatever you do with it, it's only going to help you to become a more aware of yourself, and all those around you.