[Chibuzo Ejiogu]

What are your hypotheses?
-There is strong use of the Direct voice and this may be over-used and present as Dictate. Under pressure this drops a bit but still remains in the high zone. Perhaps Becca uses this to show ‘expertise’ or because time and standards are critical in disaster-prone contexts.
-Challenge is the next most used voice and drops from high to mid-range under pressure, and has a similar shape to Advise with also drops under pressure. Perhaps these voices are replaced with Evaluate under pressure. Evaluate is used only under pressure and understanding why will be important.
-The Exploring Voices are low scoring and her role involves working in partnerships, this may signal an important absence in Becca’s repertoire of voices. Inquire moves from low to mid-range under pressure as does Advocate, perhaps showing a choice between these two voices after Direct has been tried.

What lines of enquiry would you follow?
-How does Becca’s context (job, partnerships, disaster-prone countries etc) influence how she perceives her role and how her voices should be used?
-Do any of these voices tend to be used more as inner voices rather than be verbally expressed externally (especially Direct, Challenge, Probe and Articulate) and who are these voices aimed at (self or others)?
-What stresses does Becca face and how does Becca use voices when under stress? What is the impact?

What questions would you like to ask Becca?
In addition to the questions above (about context, stress etc):
-what resonates with you from your profile?
-what are the positives from your use of voices
-what is the impact you have on others from the way you use your voices and do you receive any feedback on the way you may come across?
-do you use any of your voices more for an inner dialogue rather than verbally express these? Which ones and why? Who are they aimed at? How does this serve you?
-if there was one voice you could change, what would it be and why?
-what Exploring voices may you want to try use differently?

[Chibuzo Ejiogu]

Q1. What hypotheses do you have about how Marcia’s profile helps her to be effective in her role?
Marcia has a lot of experience as a nurse in palliative care and this may account for her strong use of Inquire, Diagnose and Probe. These are also very useful in her new role in change management and process improvement. She appears to use the Exploring first then Positioning voices, with lesser use of Controlling voices. This may mean that she first tries to find out what others think and what the issues are then tries to position the change she is suggesting or advocating.

Q2. What hypotheses do you have about her how profile might cause her difficulties in her role?

Her lower use of Controlling voices may pose challenges in her work context, these will need to be explored with an open mind to understand her context and the impact she is having. Lower use of Directive voice may mean she does not sufficiently draw attention to or hold people to responsibilities and standards which may be an important part of her change management role and process improvement role. Lower use of Evaluate may also indicate that she may not be thoroughly assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the change she is advocating as well as the views of those she is interacting with.
Under pressure she may overuse some voices and display interrogate, intrude, over-analyse and patronise which may be detrimental in building relationships and trust in her role as a change manager.

Q3. What sort of conversation might you expect to have with Marcia?

I would want to explore the positive impact her use of voices is having at work and how her previous experience and sense of self-identity and values may be shaping her approach to her current role. I would also like to explore any negative impact from her use of voices at work and why she thinks these may be so. It would be important to explore what stresses put her under pressure and how she reacts to these stresses and the impact it may be having in her communication and interactions. Also, the sequence with which she uses the voices, are there any turning points that make her switch from Exploring voices to Positioning voices, and switch between Advocate, Challenge and Evaluate.

Q4. What voice/s do you think it might be helpful for her to develop? Q5. In what way/s?

It may be helpful for her to look at ways in which Direct and Evaluate may be useful and relevant in her role. She appears to use Direct only when under pressure and Advise seems to be used more frequently under pressure. How do these voices help her cope with pressure and are there alternative ways of coping with pressure that these and other voices may suggest to her.

[Chibuzo Ejiogu]

Q1. What catches your attention about the shape of Jack’s profile?

It appears that Jack expends a lot of time and energy using the Advocate voice and starts with this voice. Advice and Challenge are the next most used voices and they are almost equally used, perhaps suggesting that when there is a turning point in the conversation or interaction he switches to either Advise or Challenge. He uses all 9 voices to some extent as there are no low-range voices although Direct has the lowest score. His high-range voices cover all three triangles (exploring, positioning and controlling) although Probe is the only high-range voice within the Exploring triangle.
Q2. What impressions do you find yourself forming about Jack from his profile?
He seems to spend a lot of time and energy positioning and controlling and less on exploring (which seems to focus more on probing to go further rather than open ended inquiry or diagnosis). Perhaps he focuses more on telling and closed voices rather than listening ad open voices

Q3. Which aspects of the context do you think might be important in this case?
-cultural differences between American and South-East Asian communication, and if there are any differences between other parts of the region he has worked in and this new context
-his role as a Consultant and how this affects the voices he perceives he uses, including a potential lack of formal authority contributing to lesser use of the Direct voice
-his experience and consultancy after retirement, how does he see himself in his Consultancy role e.g. does he see himself as the experienced expert or change process facilitator?
-the context in relation to his being asked to complete the VoicePrints profile, what were the drivers for this and was he the only one asked to do so or is this part of a wider developmental initiative, was this based on feedback etc.

Q4. What issues might you be looking to explore with Jack?
-how does the profile resonate with him?
-what are the impacts of his use of the voices?
-all issues in the context above
-how he uses Advocate and what may be turning points when he uses other voices
-what may be missing from the absent voices

[Chibuzo Ejiogu]

Q1. Attack, Over-Analyse and Patronise annoy me
Q2. I tend to react initially by becoming defensive, switching-off listening, or withdrawing, I take time to cool off and assess if there are any points I need to take on board even though I may not like how it was delivered
Q3. My initial reactions are largely instinctive, I have trained myself to then take time to deliberately assess if there are any points I need to take on board, although this may be challenging, I have found this helpful
Q4. My reactions sometimes create distance in relationships and slow the pace of communication and action