[Danielle Swain]

Victor is in a role where he’s likely to be striving for consistently high performance. The workload is likely to be highly pressured and fast paced.
Victor is classed as brilliant but difficult – this could suggest he’s a perfectionist who isn’t used to getting it wrong/not achieving – as a result he’s likely to place high demands on himself as well as his staff.
His profile suggests he’s very comfortable/frequently using the controlling voices of direct and challenge. All the other voices are in the mid-range (except articulate) suggesting he’s relatively comfortable using these.
Articulate is an occasional voice for Victor and the one he appears to lose the least- the voice to clarify and explain.
Victor appears to start with Challenge and then moves to a decision point of either Advise, Critique, Diagnose or Direct (all are equal on the track) – I wonder if the next choice of voice after Challenge depends on which of his team/colleagues etc he is communicating with?
Victor’s pressure profile suggests a heavy emphasis on the controlling voices which could be perceived as Criticise, Direct, Attack. The other Exploring and positioning voices seem to shrink under pressure suggesting Victor goes into ‘Just do it’ mode – referring to above that could be a default position for him.

Simon’s role is highly analytical and is likely to be focused, logical, methodical- involving lots of planning and preparation.
Simon’s frequently used voices are Inquire, Diagnose, Articulate, Advocate and Challenge. The other voices are all occasionals. Simon tends to start with diagnose and articulate before moving to advocate. Given the nature of Simon’s role I might hypothesise that Simon could be an introvert. It may be that diagnose and articulate are internal voices and his thought process isn’t verbalised. He may go straight to advocate and positioning his point of view without explaining his reasoning. It could be he spends a lot of time thinking this through and may be frustrated at any kind of response that’s less than favourable from those that don’t know how he’s got to that point.
Simon’s pressure profile suggests that his ‘negative’ voices are Overanalyse, Verbose, Preach and Attack. It may be that he mainly enters into lengthy explanations without involving others. Under pressure he’s less likely to use the Inquire voice and seems to limit his attempts to ask questions/understand the perspective of others.

Simon and Victor appear to have a shared resonance with the challenge voice. I wonder if this leads to confrontational conversations of whether they respect each others ability to refocus to improve things?
Between them they ‘seem to cover’ most of the voices – they might make quite a good double act…?

Their biggest divergences are on Articulate and Direct- Victor potentially requiring a need for others to comply without explanation/clarification.
Simon focusing on clarifying the issue which Victor may see as getting in the way of getting things done. Especially if overused- he may feel that Simon’s verbosity and over analysis slows things down which frustrates him.
If overused it’s likely that articulate will lose its impact and Victor disengages. And important points get lost.

I would want to ask Victor about:
How he views his role
What he feels about his team- what are their skillsets and capabilities
What frustrates him? What attributes does he value in others
What does pressure feel like? What causes it?
What information (and in what format) does he need from his team to make decisions?
What would drive improved performance in the team (faster paced, more innovation etc?)
What impact does he think he has on others?
What might be the downsides of starting with a challenge voice?
What skills/attributes does he value in Simon? What does Simon bring to the team

I would want to ask Simon about:

Whether he felt he might be an introvert (or I’d observe this). And, if so explore the idea of whether diagnose and articulate are inner voices.
What might be the impact of starting an external communication with advocate and not explaining his working.
What does he feel his strengths are?
What frustrates him about the role and Victor?
What causes pressure? What might be impact of pressure profile?
How does it work if he and Victor are both in challenge mode.
What would help him be more effective in the role?

Development suggestions for Victor would be to strengthen articulate and ‘weaken’ direct – to try and encourage more involvement in conversations and to explain his thinking/the situation

Simon needs to focus on verbalising his thought process but clearly and succinctly so others understand his reasoning. It would probably help to link his thoughts with new ideas/innovation which Victor will value in support of improved performance.
Victor may need to ‘slow down’ and/or give Simon more time to express his thoughts.
Simon needs to work on presenting his thinking in a streamlined way.

[Danielle Swain]

Inquire: What are th situations when you’re at your best?
Probe: Who would be affected by that and what would be the impact on their performance?
Diagnose: Based on what everyone has said today there is more information needed before making a decision
Articulate: John and Amanda have raised their concerns about the impact of this. Simon has agreed to present the additional information they require at our meeting on Friday so we can agree on next steps
Challenge: We should take a moment to review this new information before we make our decision
Direct: I am responsible for ensuring this programme is delivered on time and on budget. I cannot authorise that delay.
Evaluate: If we move ahead with this marketing decision we are likely to meet our sales targets this month which will relieve short term pressure. However there is a risk we’ll run into problems later in the year and we might to achieve our end of year bonus.
Advocate: I believe there is no other option available and I will be supporting this initiative.
Advise: We could create a new position within the team to manage that programme and take the pressure off the others.

[Danielle Swain]

All of the voices on Yvette’s triangle are in ghosted lower font suggesting all are used less frequently than the average. This might suggest that Yvette is unaware go how she expresses herself and has limited understanding of how she might be perceived by others. This pattern might suggest that Yvette is introverted.
Yvette might perceive that she does not have much of a voice amongst her senior management team colleagues. This could be because it’s a company focusing on highly technical IT products in a number of countries. Yvette’s role in HR might mean she does not feel confident in understanding the technicalities of the business and the market in which it operates so feels she cannot contribute to discussions in the same way. There may also be the possibility that the team is make dominated which could add to Yvette’s reluctance to speak up.

Yvette’s comparative track suggests that under pressure Yvette’s repertoire shrinks so she’s likely to become more contained and may well be oversensitive to pressure situations.
Yvette’s most likely voice under pressure is advocate which could be interpreted as preach. Her red track is a disproportionately high in comparison to the normal track. That’s her likely starting point in a conversation so could appear to others that she’s opinionated and only interested in her own perspective. This potentially then moves to overanalyse and verbose – this might make her appear less credible amongst her peers. They may well be more fact and evidence based given the nature of the industry.
Yvette’s use of Challenge, Probe and Direct fall away under pressure there’s danger this could make her look weak in front of the team – she may feel unable or hesitant to contribute and this will emphasise this further.
It’s possible that Yvette is unable to contribute to the team in a way that would be effective.
I would ask Yvette about her role and responsibilities. I would explore more about the business and the other characters on the management team.
What does pressure feel like for Yvette? What causes negative pressure? Are there any situations where pressure feels motivating?
What sort of conversations does Yvette typically have with colleagues? How effective are those conversations? Does Yvette get what she needs from them? What contribution does she feel she makes to the team? Where can she add most value? Which voices would allow her to do this?
What would help her to get a good understanding of the voices.
What could each of the voices bring to a situation and when would it be best to use them.
I would explore some recent conversations and look at how they could have been approached to obtain a different outcome if applicable.
What does she feel would be the impact of overusing the advocate voice? How could she guard against that. What other voices might be a better starting point?
What’s the impact of not using the controlling voices under pressure?

[Danielle Swain]

Becca has to work with a range of high profile stakeholders with a range of interests, views and experience. It’s likely she has a lot of people to keep happy whilst delivering high quality training programmes. There is likely to be significant pressure to get things right in a short space of time. Aligning people, processes etc is likely to be complex.
The first triangle suggests Becca’s most frequently used voices are the controlling ones as well as advise. This would fit with the context suggested above. Becca is likely to be focused on improvement, clarity and direction to get things delivered on time and correctly. Becca appears lower than average on the exploring voices as well as articulate and advise. This might suggest Becca is keen to get straight to the point without spending too much time on understanding the context and viewpoints of all the other stakeholders. The impact could be there’s lots of telling without gaining full buy-in or without considering other points which it might be helpful to be aware of.
It might be that Becca also does not express her views so others might not understand the context of her evaluate, direct and challenge voices.
Under pressure Becca’s most frequent voices are criticise and direct which could seem quite negative and harsh to be on the receiving end of. The red pressure bar of criticise is a very high proportion of the evaluate bar.

Looking at the track chart, Becca’s last likely go to voice is articulate. It’s unlikely Becca regularly expresses what’s going on to clarify all the viewpoints of all stakeholders plus the details of the situation.
This might also indicate that Becca may be an introvert. If this is the case her frequent voices – direct and challenge and her occasional voice of articulate might be internal voices which aren’t expressed to others. It might be the first voice she expresses externally is evaluate, which if she is under pressure will be perceived as critical. This may alienate others in conversations. Especially if the role is as high pressured as I suspect.

I would observe Becca’s behaviour in the session to see if her conversation matches the profile or whether she may be introverted and the frequent voices are internal. I would also ask if she might consider herself to be a more introverted character.
I would like to ask Becca more about her role- who her stakeholders are and which of those she finds it easier to communicate with and which might be more difficult.
What are the typical conversations she’s likely to have and what is she hoping to achieve.
What are the challenges in her role? What does she need from her partner organisations that she doesn’t get?
I’d ask her to talk me through a couple of conversations that she’s had recently and explore reactions, outcomes, format of conversation. If the exploring and articulating voices weren’t mentioned I would ask what the pros and cons of using those would be.
I would use this to explore which of the voices might be inner voices and if so what the impact would be of not expressing them.
Which voice does she find hardest to use and why?
Which voice could be most useful in achieving her desired outcomes?

[Danielle Swain]

Marcia’s profile suggests she frequently uses the exploring voices of inquire, diagnose and probe. This is likely to be very helpful in working with a range of stakeholders within the hospital to understand their challenges and opportunities. To listen to their viewpoint and build a sense of engagement and involvement- likely to secure a higher level of buy-in from colleagues helping them to adopt the new pathway. Once she has their buy-in she is more likely to move to the positioning voices where she may suggest options or highlight potential ways forward. She then is more likely to move to controlling voices. The track pattern and order of voices fits well with encouraging staff to adopt a new initiative. Evaluate and direct don’t appear in Marcia’s pressure profile suggesting under pressure her communication appears positive and non dictatorial and non critical.

Marcia puts a lot of energy into the exploring voices, perhaps overdoing these at the expense of moving the project forward. She does not frequently use her advocate voice so may be reluctant to put across her own views. Direct and Evaluate voices are also not used as often. This may prevent clear action being agreed. possibly lots of talk but nothing concrete at the end- allowing some individuals to no adopt the new process. Under pressure Marcia tends to over use the exploring voices which may feel like an intrusion – this inquiry being overplayed. The proportion of red on the comparison track for the advise voice indicates that Marcia may at times appear patronising.
Later in a conversation Marcia faces a decision point about whether to move to advocate or challenge. I wonder if this is because she’s doesn’t feel she has enough experience to be able to take more control of the conversation and state her view.

I would want to explore with Marcia about
How she is finding her new role? What is she required to do and how well it is going? What are the key challenges- what gets in the way of moving things forward. Who is bought into her new process, who is not/
I would ask more about her previous role in palliative care – how does it compare? Who was she mainly communicating with? How is that different to the new role?
What does pressure feel like now? What causes stress/ pressure? What were the pressure points in the previous palliative role? How is the culture and working environment different?

Given Marcia’s history in palliative care I would have expected the exploring voices to be frequently used- asking questions to understand context and the patient’s requirements. Using controlling voices would have been unlikely to be necessary in this environment. this may be why Marcia finds it more difficult to access these voices. Marcia’s perceived lack of experience may be holding her back from offering more direction in conversations- although under pressure Marcia does move to overplay the advise voice.

I think it could help Marcia to develop the direct and evaluate voices- to clarify other’s responsibilities in implementing the pathway and to outline the pros and cons of suggestion and input. This could help move things forward.
Marcia also needs to build belief in her views and find ways to articulate her thoughts in a constructive way to help assert her authority with her new colleagues

[Danielle Swain]

Jack has high scores and frequently used voices across a number of parts of the triangle. Namely Advocate, Advise, Challenge, Evaluate and Probe. His least used voices being inquire, diagnose and articulate.
His starting voice is most likely to be Advocate where he expresses his personal viewpoint followed by a decision point of moving to advise and suggesting a course of action or challenge where he refocuses the discussion.
Advocate appears to feature very heavily in his conversations.
He seems to start conversations with establishing his viewpoint and suggestions before asking questions. That could mean he jumps straight to conclusions without understanding everything else.
Without context I might anticipate that Jack is a strong character who might be keen to lead or even dominate conversations without much context or input from others. He is experienced in the field and in senior roles so may feel that in a consultancy role he’s required to just provide advice. And that might have been the style of role he has had in the past.
It would be important to understand his view of his role and what’s expected of him.
I would want to know more about the roles and responsibilities he’s had in the past and how these are similar or different to his current position.
I would ask who he was working with and what others might say about him and his communication style.
Why he thought he had been asked to complete a profile.
What would be the upsides and downsides of the pattern of voices he uses in his role When would they work well, when might they be less useful.
What are the downsides of not using the exploring voices
It would be good to understand any cultural differences between Jack and his current employer.

Also a question from me please- Direct appears as a medium used voice on the triangle but bottom on the track. Is this something you see very often

[Danielle Swain]

Jack has high scores and frequently used voices across a number of parts of the triangle. Namely Advocate, Advise, Challenge, Evaluate and Probe. His least used voices being inquire, diagnose and articulate.
His starting voice is most likely to be Advocate where he expresses his personal viewpoint followed by a decision point of moving to advise and suggesting a course of action or challenge where he refocuses the discussion.
Advocate appears to feature very heavily in his conversations.
He seems to start conversations with establishing his viewpoint and suggestions before asking questions. That could mean he jumps straight to conclusions without understanding everything else.
Without context I might anticipate that Jack is a strong character who might be keen to lead or even dominate conversations without much context or input from others. He is experienced in the field and in senior roles so may feel that in a consultancy role he’s required to just provide advice. And that might have been the style of role he’s had in the past.
It would be important to understand Jack’s view of his role and what’s expected of him.
I would want to know more about the roles and responsibilities he’s had in the past and how these are similar or different to his current position.
I would ask who he was working with and what others might say about him and his communication style.
Why he thought he’d been asked to complete a profile.
What would be the upsides and downsides of the pattern of voices he uses in his role When would they work well, when might they be less useful.
What are the downsides of not using the exploring voices
It would be good to understand any cultural differences between Jack and his current employer.

Also a question from me please- Direct appears as a medium used voice on the triangle but bottom on the track. Is this something you see very often

[Danielle Swain]

Jack has high scores and frequently used voices across a number of parts of the triangle. Namely Advocate, Advise, Challenge, Evaluate and Probe. His least used voices being inquire, diagnose and articulate.
His starting voice is most likely to be Advocate where he expresses his personal viewpoint followed by a decision point of moving to advise and suggesting a course of action or challenge where he refocuses the discussion.
Advocate appears to feature very heavily in his conversations.
He seems to start conversations with establishing his viewpoint and suggestions before asking questions. That could mean he jumps straight to conclusions without understanding everything else.
Without context I might anticipate that Jack is a strong character who might be keen to lead or even dominate conversations without much context or input from others. He is experienced in the field and in senior roles so may feel that in a consultancy role he’s required to just provide advice. And that might have been the style of role he’s had in the past.
It would be important to understand Jack’s view of his role and what’s expected of him.
I would want to know more about the roles and responsibilities he’s had in the past and how these are similar or different to his current position.
I would ask who he was working with and what others might say about him and his communication style.
Why he thought he’d been asked to complete a profile.
What would be the upsides and downsides of the pattern of voices he uses in his role? When would they work well, when might they be less useful.
What are the downsides of not using the exploring voices?
It would be good to understand any cultural differences between Jack and his current employer.

Also a question from me please- Direct appears as a medium used voice on the triangle but bottom on the track. Is this something you see very often?

[Danielle Swain]

The negative voices which I find most difficult to be on the receiving end of are Patronise and Intrude. I think this is because I see these as reflection of what the other person thinks of me. Both suggest that I might not understand, or I might need further explanation or worse still for me, that I might be incompetent. I rarely point this out but I know it frustrates and irritates me.
As a result I am in danger of shutting down. Trying to extract myself from the conversation. Alternatively I might get defensive. This reaction is instinctive and I do my best not to let it show or at least I think I do but the danger is that I mentally withdraw from the interaction. It could bring the conversation to a halt.

[Danielle Swain]

The negative voices which I find most difficult to be on the receiving end of are Patronise and Intrude. I think this is because I see these as reflection of what the other person thinks of me. Both suggest that I might not understand, or I might need further explanation or worse still for me, that I might be incompetent. I rarely point this out but I know it frustrates and irritates me.
As a result I am in danger of shutting down- trying to extract myself from the conversation. Alternatively I might get defensive. This reaction is instinctive and I do my best not to let it show – or at least I think I do- but the danger is that I mentally withdraw from the interaction. It could bring the conversation to a halt.

[Danielle Swain]

The negative voices which I find most difficult to be on the receiving end of are Patronise and Intrude. I think this is because I see these as reflection of what the other person thinks of me. Both suggest that I might not understand, or I might need further explanation or (worse still) I might be incompetent. I rarely point this out but I know it frustrates and irritates me.
As a result I am in danger of shutting down- trying to extract myself from the conversation. Alternatively I might get defensive. This reaction is instinctive and I do my best not to let it show – or at least I think I do- but the danger is that I mentally withdraw from the interaction. It could bring the conversation to a halt.

[Danielle Swain]

The negative voices which I find most difficult to be on the receiving end of are ‘Patronise’ and ‘Intrude’. I think this is because I see these as reflection of what the other person thinks of me. Both suggest that I might not understand, or I might need further explanation or (worse still) I might be incompetent. I rarely point this out but I know it frustrates and irritates me.
As a result I am in danger of shutting down- trying to extract myself from the conversation. Alternatively I might get defensive. This reaction is instinctive and I do my best not to let it show (or at least I think I do) but the danger is that I mentally withdraw from the interaction. It could bring the conversation to a halt.