Getting What You Want from People.
How to Get Buy In, Follow Through and Enthusiastic Participation on Projects, Task and Goals.
By Patti Wood MA, CSP, Professional Speaker
Your boss walks into your cubical and says, “I need that project from you by 2:00,” turns around and walks out. How do you feel? Well if you’re a get it done kind of person, you might appreciate that he didn’t waste your time with niceties and was in and out. But if that is not your style you may get pretty mad. You’re really excited to tell your team you have a new project. It will require a lot of work and the deadline is almost impossible to meet without everyone putting in extra hours, but you're pumped. You go in smiling and read to rock. Speaking with an enthusiastic voice and lots of gestures and rah rah language you tell the team about the project. How do they respond? Well if they are fellow expressive types they might jump on the bandwagon with equal enthusiasm. However if they are get it right analyzers they are sitting there shaking their heads thinking of all the details that need to be taken care of, in other words all the mistakes that they will need to fix and how they will be spending every waking hour for the next three weeks. Different people need different delivery styles.
If you have an important idea to communicate to someone at work and you need other people's buy in, you have a task to assign to someone and you want to make sure they follow through, or you want to make sure you will get enthusiastic participation, what’s the best way to present your message? You need to consider the personality of the person you are going to talk to and form a message and delivery style that suits them. We often go in to persuade someone using the communication style that is comfortable for us. What we need to do is consider the personality type of the person we are speaking with! Below are the four basic personality types of the DISC personality inventory and their characteristics. Read what each one likes and prepare your message and delivery style to match your communication recipient's needs. Understand the underlying traits of the four main types, but know that most people are a combination.
The Amiable or Get Along. This type of person wants to be your friend. They respond to heavy use of the word "you" and the promise of an on-going relationship. They like warmhearted friendly conversations and a relaxed pace. Ask about their weekend and their kids before you ask for work from them. In fact, you should build relationship credits with them every week so when you really need them you have relationship credits to draw on. Also know a warm hello and a sincere thank you are as necessary as food and water to the Amiable. Amiable think carefully before taking any action and they don’t like change. You need to talk them through any new projects or changes in old routines to get them to buy in and follow through, otherwise they will keep doing it the old way or what they may consider the way that has “always worked before.” They need to feel a sense of security before moving forward. They best way to get work from an amiable is to become their friend. Make your body language warm, your voice soft and relaxed, and smile.
More on the other types this Sunday!
