Channel the Chameleon - adapting your communication style to suit - Simone Douglas

Introduction


How to identify communication styles and personality types at a networking event and what do you do once you have.
 
The people who are successful in life are very careful not to be social dopes. 
 
They tend to be very culturally aware, with a great sensitivity to divergent cultures. They also tend to be aware of different industries and the stresses placed on those industries. Above all, the most successful networkers can change and adapt their communication style and their language and sentence structure to fit the room that they’re in. They are social chameleons. This ability stems, in part, from having a really high degree of emotional intelligence.
 
Before thinking about anybody else’s personality type, it is important to understand your own. If you don’t know your personality type then there are many different tests available. My personal favourite, and the one I find easiest to understand and to explain is DISC profiling. There are numerous free online DISC profiling tests that you can use which will give you a rough idea of your personality type. 
 
You may also want to do advanced DISC profiling, which will give you much more detail and is far more helpful. When you’re in a high level corporate position it’s important to understand how you operate, so that you can help facilitate your team management.
 
Overall, though, DISC profiling is reasonably simple. Generally people will have two dominant traits on their profile, with the other two forming a far less intrinsic part of their personality. For example, I am a high ‘D’ and a high ‘I’, fifty-fifty split. I have very little ‘C’ and very little ‘S’ in my personality.
 
You can do yours for free here 
 
 
It is easy to get distracted by all the noise in the business world at large but jump day is your chance to settle in and work on your business and this season on your networks in ways that allow you to make the most of your opportunities today, tomorrow and forever. 

IBGR is a global community of commerce committed to your success and our programming is designed to give you the tools and resources as well as the one percenters you might be missing So buckle up because it's time to take an objective look at whether or not you are truly a centre of influence on playing in the outfield.


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​Show Objectives - The Why
The purpose of today’s show is to give you some insight into how different personality types network so you can adapt and engage.

In the same way that we’ve talked about the importance of emotional intelligence when it comes to reading people’s body language, and whether you have their attention or not, when it comes to personality types, you need to get really clued up on working out what personality type the person standing in front of you is presenting you with. Once you can do this, then you can adapt your communication style to suit the person you are talking to. 

It’s about making sure the other person is comfortable. If you’re a good networker, you’ll change the way that you speak, you’ll change the tone you use, and you’ll change your body language to fit the person you are talking to.



Key Issues - Owner Perspective:

1. What is my default personality type and how do I adapt to improve my networks?
2. What is important to my key contacts and where do they sit on the DISC profile?
3. Where have I been failing in my follow up communications?
4. How do I empower and train my teams to adapt their approaches for success?

What You Need to Know - What we will be covering

1. Understanding the different personality types and how to identify them- . Every personality type has it’s clues
2. Understanding your default communication style and your adaptive communication style - All of us will default to what's comfortable under stress so it is important to know what that looks like for you and also how to avoid it
3. How to Use the DISC Profile to Communicate Effectively in Business - The premise of understanding the DISC assessment is that everyone likes to communicate differently. This is based on what we value. People with high scores in each of the four different elements all tend to value different things.
4. DISC profile cheat sheet for customer communication- we will illustrate the four types in the DISC model with known personalities, which hopefully gives the theoretical model a little more colour and tangibility.
5. Asking the right questions in a networking environment- It’s about having all these questions in your head, recognising which type of person you have in front of you, and working out which of those questions you can use to start a conversation.

What you need to do​ today
 

1. Ask yourself the question - do I understand my own personality type and how it presents in a networking environment
2. Practice communicating with people based on their personality types.
3. Identify the personality types of your key referral partners and contacts
4. Pay attention to your default communication style under stress and start breaking bad habits
5. Create a sales/follow up process based on each different personality style
6. Workshop these processes with the team to get buy in
7. Plan to spend time putting lessons learnt and aha moments into practice.  Let me know how it goes.
8. ACT! Nothing changes if you don’t set aside time to make it happen so once you have worked out what you need to do start putting timelines and deliverables on your action plan. 

​The successful networker will bring all of the different personality types together. You become the glue. You need to be aware of whose voice hasn’t been heard, and whose voice you’re hearing all the time. You can tell the person who is dominating the group that what they’re saying is really interesting, and then you can steer things to someone who hasn’t said much, and give them some airtime. 

If you’re the person that’s giving everyone airtime, and engaging them, and weaving conversations together, then you’re the person that will be memorable. A good networker makes sure that everyone gets time in the spotlight. At the same time, they understand that some people, based on their personality type, will be less comfortable in that spotlight. So being a good networker means recognising other people’s needs, and finding a way to meet them.


Shows
Previous: Episode C4.05 
Do you have enough in the favour bank to start making withdrawals. - The importance of earning your stripes and proving your value before you go asking for favours
Next: Episode C4.07 

Digital Native - building networks online - Understanding the different platforms at play and how to use them effectively
Written by Simone Douglas 

The Publican & Licensee of the Duke of Brunswick Hotel, Executive Director for BNI Adelaide North one of the biggest networking organisations in the world, the driving force behind South Australia’s leading social media agency, Social Media AOK and best-selling author with her first book “Seriously Social – turning your online game into real-world gain”. and  “The Confident Networker”

Simone also serves as Deputy President of the State Chapter Committee South Australia for the Franchise Council of Australia and sits on the Franchise Advisory Council for BNI Australia

You can connect with Simone on any of her seriously social platforms
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