The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said…
– Peter Drucker
Having regular communication is extremely imperative in the current dynamic business environment with people you are working with to stay proactive and informed.
In our personal life also communication holds a vital position, as it bridge’s gaps and connects people with new ideas, expression and vision.
So does one need to be an extrovert to be able to communicate with its surroundings? Or an introvert suffers poor communication skills? Your communication style speaks a lot about how you deal with people and situations along with their probability of being positive, negative or assertive.
Experts believed that an appropriate communication style helps in avoiding conflict as well as solve issues both in personal and professional life. So let us understand the different communication styles and the best one that you can relate to your personality.
Effectively Communication Styles:
Aggressive Communication
Getting things done by other may seem an easy thing to you and the best way that suits you is dominating, raising voice with an intimidating posture.
If this is what attracts you then your personality would adopt an aggressive communication styles, having forceful and hostile manner to deal with people and situations.
It can’t be said that adapting to this communication styles is heinous or unethical as it may be relevant for a certain work set up or sometimes with difficult people.
The attribute associated with this communication styles leads to people being too loud, rude and threatening for others at workplace to meet organizational commitments, deadlines etc.
They may practice the same behaviour in their personal life with friends and family to get things done as per ones will and fancy. People with aggressive communication are often misjudged by others; they become alienated by others due to the feeling of hatred or sometimes fear.
Does your communication styles represent similar traits … do you often say: “I’ll get my way no matter what” or believe in “I’m superior and right and you’re inferior and wrong”, then possibly you have an aggressive communication styles.
A negative component associated with this style is its capacity of humiliating or hurting others and that’s what the person practicing the communication styles would get back.
Aggressive communication would make the person intuitive communicator with least patience in getting into the nitty-gritty of the process and being straight forward in its approach.
Passive Communication
My personal opinion, feelings, ideas can wait; let others raise this issue and I may follow him… does this line sounds similar to what you think when it comes to raising your voice or objecting to things you feel uncomfortable with, if so, then you may have a passive communication styles.
A person with such communication style generally avoids expressing his feelings, protecting his rights or considering his own needs very easily.
It is also difficult to say that this communication styles has originated from the introvert behaviour of people at work or in their informal setup but it is certain that these people fail to assert to themselves.
People with passive communication often restrain themselves from overtly to hurtful or anger inducing situations. Why to fight over issues that can be solved with mere silence….
Or people don’t consider my feelings anyways… are these similar to your thoughts. Stop here and think….. If so then you may practice this communication style.
Silence is a silent killer for these people as they keep things up to them for too long until it reaches a stage of high tolerance and it is then when these people have a high outburst which sometimes may create situations at the work place.
People with passive communication style in their personal life also are easy to live with, as they are great listeners and are considered as good friends.
They have a polite nature and soft tone that attracts people towards them very soon sometimes being a soft and shy person they avoid making eye contact or have slumped body structure which shows a sign of low confidence.
Such people are often anxious about their future and have lesser control over their surroundings that may lead to depression or having a feeling of resentfulness as their needs are ignored by others and by themselves.
Assertive Communication
I know what my rights, responsibility and duties are; no one can know them better than me….. If you believe so and follow it with full heart and soul then this could be your communication styles.
Assertive communication makes the person straight forward and being capable of stating his or her opinion and feeling in public without much fear. It enables the person to firmly advocate about his rights and needs in any situation without harming or violating the rights of others.
A person with high confidence level not only caters to his or her own needs and feelings but also respects others. People with assertive communication are generally very clean hearted and clear with an idea of their personal choice; they are not easily influenced or can be bluffed by others in a management set up or even in their personal life.
These individuals respects and value time, as they have clear vision of their emotional, spiritual as well as physical needs and demand respects not by advocating but through their contribution.
Do you believe in equal entitlement to express each other respectfully? Then surely this communication style suits your personality making you feel connected to people around you and has control of your life.
In a work place people with assertive communication are generally considered mature, they address to issues and problems on time as and when it arrives.
Along with that they build a respectful environment for others to grow, people with assertive communication not only stand for themselves but also hold the courage to point out right or wrong for others.
People with such communication maintain good eye contact with people of every age, profile and status, have no inferiority complex, have relax body posture and speaks with a clear & calm tone showcasing huge confidence both at work as well as personal life.
Another important trait of people adapting to the assertive communication style is that they are open to criticism, which may seem too difficult for people to accept both at work as well as in personal space and they are also like receiving compliments which further boost their confidence.
Passive-Aggressive Communication
You may appear subtle but basically you have ample capability to show your resentment and disapproval in an indirect manner. You may appear cooperative but actually you are not….
Does this sound any similar to you? If so then this could be your communication styles. People with passive-aggressive communication style work behind the scene this makes them incapable to express their resentment to others directly.
This kind of communication styles leads to the follower having a feeling of being stuck, powerless and resentfulness. They do have a lot to stay, objection over certain things but they do get stuck making a decision for themselves to raise their voice against right or wrong.
People often with this communication style are observed to having a habit of muttering to them, cribbing over issues that are unacceptable to them and on the same hand they have difficulty in acknowledging their anger.
One can spot such a person by their facial expression that is usually unmatched to their feelings or behaviour for example, you may see them smiling even when they are angry.
Do you use sarcasm to counter to your feeling or issues that are unacceptable to you? This could be commonly seen in people with such communication style of communication.
They may appear extremely cooperative in a team while they purposely do things to annoy and disrupt the work flow. People may find themselves being alienated from those who they found uncomfortable and shows resentment indirectly over issues that are unrelated.
On a maturity scale they may mature as per age but by their nature these people are difficult to reach maturity.
They are often mis-judged as they seem too polite when they talk with an irregular eye contact showcasing lower level on confidence.
They are even called as two faced personality creating rumors and negative feeling among their co-workers and also in their informal set up they are unable to create long lasting relationships because of their un-clear intensions.
They may hurt the people they are working with or even friends and family member by being confused, angry and resentful.
Manipulative Communication
The task assigned to you seems equally difficult as mine but you have resources to accomplish it and I don’t have…. Does this occur familiar to what you may have heard your team member saying in office to you?
Then this is what manipulative communication sounds like; being extremely calculative and shrewd on the same time. People with this communication style are cunning and try to control others by showing a sorry figure about them.
They are very straight forward and do not think twice before keeping their self-desire at priority, they look for opportunities to get their task done either through other or asking for help to accomplish it.
They generally believe in making other obliged or create a feeling of sorry for them by citing a small face or lie sometimes. People which such communication skills are extremely competent in influencing other for their self-purpose and take full advantage of others as per required.
Guilt is a strong weapon for people addressing to such manipulative communication, it is created by putting one’s position down if required to get work from others.
They use different ways to manipulate others such as shedding artificial tears, soggy voice and low facial expression to influence others about the sorry figure.
A person with such communication skill could never make close friends as they are unsure of where they really stand with a person like him, who may use their friendship for a selfish purpose; creating distrust and annoying felling among others.
In personal life this communication style leads to tremendous misunderstanding among friends and family, if they would feel that their feelings are being used for a selfish purpose it can even end the relationship forever.
The spoken words of a manipulative person has hidden meaning that can’t be judged easily by others, their integrating and patronizing voice attracts people towards them but are often seen carrying a feeling of resentment and ill-treatment which is annoying for others.
So what do you think, which communication styles suits you the best? It is important to understand the different communication styles to analyze one’s own communication style and the shortcomings associated with it, so that it can be worked upon.
A positive communication not only leads to positive results but also inspires others both at professional as well as personal set up. Similarly a poor communication often results in tension and a feeling of resentment at work and in personal relationships.
It is difficult to say that which communication style is ideal and which one should never be adapted because it is very much based on situation as well as one’s personal choice.
Communication style connects a person a lot with his or her personality: it eventually becomes a part of his working communication style considering the ability to command respect, advocate the fulfillment of one’s rights as well as ability to stand for what is right and wrong.
It is important that a person must know what exactly does his work set up requires to adapt to a particular communication style.
Also in personal relationships choosing the right communication styles is a difficult yet important aspect because a positive communication effectively can help a person build long lasting relationships where as a negative communication style can ruin it forever.
It is completely dependent on one’s personal choice and behaviour as well as his goals set for future.
First Image source: pixabay.com
