Where you find conflict between your objective and theirs, spend extra time planning how you will manage these people, ideally before your formal communication is delivered. Speak to them one-on-one or find someone who has a good relationship with them to do it either for you or with you to understand their concerns and increase your chance of engagement.
3. MASTER HOW TO ENGAGE THEM
This last piece is not to be underestimated. At the highest level we can assume all audience members are intelligent and in a hurry, and that it is safe to provide pre-reading for those who are interested.
However, we can engage the most important members of our audiences, the decision makers, better when we understand their work style. We use the Bolton and Bolton Work Styles framework to help us do that.
With its foundations in the well-known Myers Briggs framework, Bolton and Bolton looks at a person’s behaviour in a particular setting at a particular point in time and divides us all into four work styles.
It is useful to understand these, so we can identify our own style as well as that of our audience so we can flex to their needs. We can do this directly if we know them or through others where we do not.
Amiables are motivated first and foremost by being part of their team. When making decisions they prioritise the impact on their team and people in general. They tend to be quieter and more softly spoken than other types and enjoy anecdotes and human stories. Be thorough, courteous and factor in the people priorities and you will increase your chance of engaging Amiables.
Analyticals are motivated by understanding the details and delivering analysis that is correct.
They like to be thorough and take their time when making decisions to be confident they are right. They like to provide detail first, and then offer the recommendation last. Give sufficient time to think through your analysis before any decision needs to be made to increase your chance of engaging Analyticals.
Drivers are energetic people who like to ‘get things done’. They will prioritise progress over correctness and can often be found in senior levels of organisations. Explain in clear and simple terms how your proposition should be implemented so that it delivers maximum value to the organization to increase your chance of engaging Drivers.
Expressives enjoy variety and change. These colourful people love new and different things and fast-moving environments. They love innovation and prefer to develop new programs than to manage existing ones. Talk your ideas through in person wherever possible in short, sharp bursts rather than lengthy detailed presentations to increase your chance of engaging Expressives.
In tomorrow’s email I will give some ideas to help you avoid making your audience do all the work.
In the meantime, download today’s notes and course challenge here. It includes some extra ideas for you too.
Until then,
Davina