Let me start off this read with a lesson I learnt when I first began my career in the Learning and Development field.
I was a few months into my job with Outperform Learning, our Learning Development firm in Bangalore, India. We were in the process of closing a big long-term project with a client, one of the leading globally acclaimed Banks. We’d almost got the go-ahead, all that was left was to get a sign off from the International Head of Learning, Campbell Morrison ( I can change the name ), who preferred to be called Cam. And that was what I was told to do – Get Cam’s ‘go ahead’.
There was I super excited to write down this what I thought had to be absolutely perfect email. So I sat down at my laptop with the utmost conviction, took a deep breath and went at it.
It took me all of 45 minutes to check my facts (the proposal, logistics, facilitators etc.), draft the email, redraft the email and finally hit send! Imagine that 45 minutes! Feeling relieved and accomplished I got up, stretched and walked over to the coffee machine to make myself that morning cup of coffee.
I had barely begun to brew my coffee when my phone beeped with a notification. I glanced at it in utmost surprise, there on my screen was a reply from Cam! He sure did have a fast TAT (turn around time)! I clicked on his reply in my Inbox and my face fell – to my 45 minute well-thought-of email was a one-worded reply. He said ‘OK ‘.
It took me a few seconds to stop staring at his one worded-response till I began trying to decipher what he was ‘OK ‘ with. Was he agreeing to the proposal? Was he agreeing to the logistics? Was he agreeing to the facilitators and the costing? I was mighty puzzled!
So, I took a minute and began responding this email. This time I was pleased with my so-called quick response, a response that took me all of 25 minutes- Hooray said my inner cheerleader! I hit send at that 25th minute and walked back to the coffee machine with a smile on my face, excited at my achievement and also eager to finish making that cup of coffee. Before I could reach out again I heard my phone beep. And yes, it was Cam, with a response in under a minute! This time with replaced with another one word answer – ‘GREAT!’
Baffled I sat down and this time gave it actual thought. Why was I sending in long responses and receiving one-worded replies. Maybe it was just a question of my writing style, versus his and an utter mismatch.
So this time, I sat down and in all of 7 minutes wrote back:
Hi Cam,
Thank you for your response.
Below are the pending tasks that I will complete before we launch the ENGAGE training program on 30th June:
- Go ahead and talk to resourcing to close on the contract
- Coordinate with Shilpa for logistics
- Coordinate with the team leaders to complete the pre-assessments
Okay?
Regards,
Nidhi
Smiling, I hit the send button.
As expected, he responded in his under-a-minute- quick fashion, saying ‘Ok’, to which I wrote back saying ‘Great!’.
The moral of the story:
- One size doesn’t fit all. Different people like receiving information in different ways, they also communicate in their own style
- Adapt adapt adapt! The goal to effective communication is understanding the other person’s communication style and adapting to it. This process is referred to as mirroring.
In order to do this you’ve got to first really get to know your audience.
Now there are many ways to do this – plenty of communication and social style models you will find, but we choose to follow a very simple model adapted from “Chris Helder’s book The Ultimate book of Influence”. We call it the Four Colour trick to knowing your audience. All you’ve got to do is remember these 4 colours – Red, Yellow, Aqua and Blue
Let’s look at each of them.
1. The Reds
This type of audience is:
- Future focused
- Power Driven
- Results driven
- Sends abrupt emails
- Focuses on the end outcome
- Is quick in their decision making
- Needs you to get to the point
- Prefers bullet point summaries
Eg:
4 pm on Tuesday is fine. JB
What you’ve got to do with a RED : Get to the point don’t beat around the bush. Give them the end goal right away. This is not the person you begin telling stories to.
2. The Yellows
This type of audience is:
- Impulsive
- Lives in the ‘right now’!
- Expressive
- Driven by fun
- Love happy colourful emails with emoticons
- Make decisions quickly related to connection
- Visually driven- need graphs, pictures, videos
- Wants to deal with people similar to them
Eg:
Hey Chris!
Great to see you yesterday!!! Looking forward to catching up next week at 4 pm!!! Keep up the good work! Have fun at the party on Saturday 🙂 It should be great! Cheers!
What you’ve got to do with a YELLOW : Encourage them, motivate them, make them feel included, and make sure to build some rapport while you’re at it.
3. The Aquas
This type of audience is:
- Focused on the past and relationships built and puts high value on trust
- Non- confrontational
- Most adaptive and accepting
- Hold cards close to the chest and do not make quick decisions
- Do not like high levels of pressure
- Extremely loyal
- Hate saying no and avoid hurting people’s feelings
Eg:
Hi Chris,
I feel like we should meet next week to go over things so we can make a decision if we’re comfortable to move forward. How does 4 pm next Tuesday sound? If it’s easier to do the first half of the day, let me know, so I can rearrange my schedule. Looking forward to working through things and getting the ball rolling.
What you’ve got to do with an AQUA: Building a good relationship with them is your first step. Once they trust you, it seals the deal to having a long-lasting client. Also, make sure to be flexible and adaptable in your communication.
4. The Blues
This type of audience is:
- Driven by process and perfection
- Play the entire timeline from past through present into the future
- Systematic approach
- High expectations of themselves and others
- Want clear outcomes, objective and strategy
- Need to be able to measure results
- Want polish and professionalism
Eg:
Chris, based on our conversation, I would like to highlight the 8 topics I would like to cover as a part of our meeting next week. Also attached is a Corporate Profile of me, as well as some map references of how to find our office. I look forward to our meeting with you on Tuesday at 4 pm. If you have any difficulty please do not hesitate to contact my office.
What you’ve got to do with a BLUE: Give them ALL the information they need- Details go a long way! Make sure you present them with all the facts, figures, studies etc. in depth to back your point up.
Remember though, the only way you will be able to identify audience styles is by OBSERVING them over time. Don’t ever jump the gun based on a single instance, but observe the way they write, the way the converse, what they ask for and you’ll know.
Knowing isn’t enough, the ball is in your court now – the end goal to effective communication is to mirror their style and adapt!