[Kim Harvey]

Potential strengths in both are:

Both knowledgeable in own fields
Both use the challenge voice and both have med/high strengths is diagnose and advocate
As they both use the challenge voice, this suggests there is common ground around areas that are important to them eg, cost, quality etc

Potential areas of tension are:

Simon’s strengths around articulate and diagonse will be seen as a drain for Victor who is much more fast paced/action orientated. He may find simon too verbose and over analytical. Equally Simon will see Victor as impatient and critical and too attacking.

My Hypotheses:

Victor wants action, straight to the point dialogue and challenge on implementation of ideas, whereas Simon is more a thinker and wants to diagnose and talk through various options. This is a clash of styles and with some movement on each of their voices, they will be able to work together successfully.

Lines of Inquiry:

Victor – How do you like to make decisions?
What approach from others do you prefer when you are being influenced to make a decision or give your opinion?
What voices do you see from the 9 that you struggle with when others use them? Why do you struggle with this voice(s)?

Simon – How have you tried to engage Victor so far? What has been his response? You say, it is difficult to engage with Victor, what do you see, hear or feel that tells you this? What voice do you hear when Victor speaks, how does it make you feel?
If you could make one change to the relationship you have with Victor, what would it be? What will it take from both of you to make the relationship work better? What voice do you think you could use with Victor to get a better outcome.

These questions could also be asked of Victor on Simon.

Development suggestions for both are:

Victor – Dial up the Inquire voice and probe voice where Victor can move away from ‘tell’ and move towards ‘ask’. This will allow him to understand the thinking of his team and to listen to their concerns/ideas and start to build trust. Reduce the amount of challenge and directness so others feel they have a voice and can be involved in decision making.

Simon – Develop his advocacy voice by stating own opinions as this will suit Victor’s preference for ‘tell’. However, Simon will need to be ready to be challenged on his ideas and because Simon has already developed this, it shouldn’t be too difficult to do. It would be worth Simon asking Victor one or two questions at the start as a way of setting up expectations and then advocating his view point based on those initial inquire or probing questions.

[Kim Harvey]

Articulate: What I am hearing is you are feeling uncomfortable with your current situation, could you tell me more about this?

Advocate: Based on my experience, I think you should talk to your boss about this situation

Advise: How about having a go at the probe voice to help you identify what is going on with your colleague?

Challenge: I am hearing alot of options, which one do you want to implememt?

Direct: This is not the right way to proceed, what I need you to do is …..

Evaluate: It sounds like option A is more expensive than option B, but on the other hand Option B doesn’t give you so much cover

Probe: When you say you get angry at times, can you tell me what that looks and feels like?

Inquire: What do you want to achieve during our sessions together?

Diagnose:Based on what you have said so far, it appears to me that you want more out of your relationship with your manager?

[Kim Harvey]

1. The triangle shows all 9 voices are used occasionally so no particular preference in evidence. This would be worth exploring as it appears bland and I would imagine it would be worth knowing how they went about completing the questionnaire. I would want to know whether the results are surprising for her and what she would expect to be her preferred voices.
2. Yvette’s profile under pressure suggests she preaches as advocacy is her strongest voice and under pressure it will sound like preaching to others. She is also likely to over analyse when under pressure because the diagnose which is medium, starts to dial up. It would be useful to know if this is an internal or external voice.
3. I would want to understand what pressure looks like for Yvette. How does she feel being part of a senior team, what does she has her role on this team? As she does not favour any strong voice, it would be useful to understand how she thinks her role as HR Leader is perceived. How does she want to come across? What voice does she want to show to others?

I would want to explore the pressure voices of preaching and over-analysing and how they come across to self and others. I would want to for examples of where she has shown these behaviours within the senior team and the effect it had.

I would want to know if she thinks developing a voice might serve her well in the team. The advice voice is low and I would want to know why this is in her role as a HR Leader. Explore if this is a voice she could exercise more fully and what is preventing her from using it.

[Kim Harvey]

1. Marcia’s profile shows the strong exploring voices which would suggest she would be good at asking the right questions in her role as a change agent. Marcia would probably be able to probe and get to the bottom of colleagues thinking that would help with idea generation and getting suggestions on the table. Her medium voices are articulate, challenge and advise so this would help her position what colleagues had said and she can challenge assumptions.

2. Marcia may have difficulties in overdoing the exploring voices as these will come across as interrogating, intrude and potentially over analysing the answers she receives. This may stop colleagues from being open as the intrusion may feel she is looking for a certain answer and the group are not giving it.

Marcia may have issues in evaluating and summing up ideas and getting to action steps. There may be a lack of follow through at the end of meetings, and meetings may take a long time as her preference for positioning may take over.

3. I think the conversation with Marcia will be open and honest, she will be easy to talk to and get ideas from. It might be hard to take her to solutions as she may be more comfortable with setting the scene and giving answers as to why she may use the voices she uses. It would be interesting to see how she felt about her pressure profile and whether she has experienced reticence when she over uses the positioning voices. I would want to explore when she uses challenge and how it makes her feel.

4. Marcia may need to develop the evaluate voice further to help colleagues agree a course of action. Equally she may find during change that if colleagues are reticent to change, she may need to direct on occasions to get some movement or use this to follow up on actions. Not sure how assertive Marcia will be so would need to investigate this.

5. The reason to develop the direct voice as it will assert her authority and as a change agent/project lead she may need to make decisions and get actions from the group. She would need to show leadership and although her positioning skills are great, she may not be that decisive and have a consensual style that could take time to get the group galvanised for action.

[Kim Harvey]

Q1. Jack’s profile is off the chart with regard to advocate (positioning) and then follows with advise (still positioning) and then challenges (controlling). As time goes, he then opens up to probing (exploring)
Q2. My hypotheses is that Jack has worked as Operations leader and his role suggests that he had had to advocate his position and view points and advise others of how he wants things done in his dept. This is what I am taking from his initial voices.
Q3. I would want to ask the following:
What occasions do you use advocacy? What does this look and sound like – get examples? How do others respond to the advocacy? As advocacy is so strong, what situations prompt you to move to advise. As these are positioning voices, what do you infer from this? What outcomes do you get when you use advise and advocacy from others? How much time did you spend using these voices in your position as Ops leader and now as a consultant? What other voices might be helpful now you have moved to a consulting position? What can you do to develop those?

[Kim Harvey]

Q1: Direct/Dictate
Q2: Makes me feel I haven’t got a voice and makes me want to push back
Q3: Makes me defensive or to dictate back. It depends on the situation and who is directing/dictating!
Q4: It means I am quick to defend myself and not listen to the direction which might be very relevant