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What are the potential strengths in the relationship?
Simon is a senior analyst. He needs to offer relevant data to inform the business. In this sense, his communication is giving Victor, his boss, the data he needs to make decisions : Simon will first diagnose to offer a broad understanding of the situation, then articulate to offer clarity on what has been going on, and then advocate to show what he thinks is best.
Victor makes more use of his controlling voices : he is focussed towards making decisions and action.
So they completement each other and are in each other’s role.
What are potential areas of tension in the relationship?
They function in a very diffferent way, and therefore might trigger each other’s sensitivities.
Simon tends to over analyse, be quite verbose and preach for his own view. Victor, who is very much decision-making oriented, might find Simon’s explanations too long, and would probably like to get to the point more quickly. Getting into long explanations is probably not the right way to get Victor’s attention.
On the other hand, Victor’s first strategy is to challenge. So Simon probably does not feel heard, and even feel criticized as Victor’s tends to over-use challenge. This will trigger a stress in Simon, who under stress tends to go on over-analysing, will still be quite verbose (even though a bit less under stress, but still too high for Victor’s liking), and starts preaching even more for his views. Which in turn will lead Victor to reinforce his already strong evaluate and direct voices, and be perceived as criticizing and dictating.
What are your hypotheses?
They probably trigger each other to reinforce what exactly pushes them in opposite directions.
What lines of enquiry would you follow?
What is Simon seeking when he communicates with Victor? What are his intentions? Could he walk me through a typical conversation with Victor, where he is seeking buy in. How does he feel when he does not get that buy-in? How does that push him to react? What other strategies might be more helpful?
With Victor : What do you expect from Simon? Do you feel that you have made those expectations clear? Can you walk me through a typical conversation with Simon, when he presents his new data and ideas? How does that push you to react? Do you then get what you need from Simon? What do you think might come in the way of that?
What development recommendations would you make for Victor and Simon?
For Simon, he de-emphasizes his diagnose and articulate voices. Maybe use more quickly his Advocate voice.
Simon’s “Inquire” becomes very low unders stress. Maybe be mindful that when under stress, inquiring could help him understand what is going on, and what are Victor’s views and expectations, so that Simon can reposition himself and respond more directly to what Victor is expecting.
Also understand that what might be felt as Victor’s “attacks” or “criticisms” are not personal but probably aimed at getting to action as soon as possible.
For Victor, I would suggest to think of different strategies to enable Simon to give him quickly the elements he needs to make decisions.
Make his intentions clearer through better articulating his needs in an objective way.
Use inquiry a bit more, and challenge a bit less (and maybe not as his first “go to” in his communication strategy).
Be mindful that his challenging, evaluating and directing may be perceived as attacks, criticisms and dictating. Maybe signpost his intentions more clearly.
Inquire : How are you feeling today ?
Diagnose : Let’s look at the diverse elements of these situation to make sure we understand what is at stake
Articulate : We are faced with a very difficult decision to make. We have looked at different options. It seems we all have concerns about each of them.
Advocate : I agree with Kim. We should definitively diversify our client base
Advise : If I were in your shoes, I’d talk to him as soon as possible
Challenge : I think there is an elephant in the room. Why is nobody talking about Jane?
Direct : Please, don’t interrumpt when others are talking
Evaluate : we need to understand whether that situation is affecting us negatively or not
Probe : could you tell me more?
What do you hypothesise from Yvette’s triangle?
Yvette doesn’t have any strong voice that stands out. They are all used at a similar level, and quite a low level. She is not taking advantage of her repertoire. She is not using communication in a powerful way. She is missing out on engagement, depth, breadth, clarity, standards, etc, all of wich is necesary to fully play her role asa manager.
The away day is on “Improve communication, to have more productive meetings”: it seems that Yvette needs to improve her communication on all fronts and is probably not been very heard in the senior management team.
What does Yvette’s comparative track tell you about her tendencies under pressure?
Under pressure, her first response will be to advocate (which will be perceived as preaching, as she tends to use it in a dysfunctional way). She then will turn to diagnose, which again will be perceived as over-anaysing as she is doing it in an “overdone” manner. So her communicattion under pressure might result in people feeling she is going in circl in her own view of the world, but not really helping the conversation to go forward.
Even unfder pressure, her voices are low. So she will probably find it difficult ot make herself herad. Just advocacy is medium range. But this advocacy probably does not generate perspective as it should normally do, as her advocacy is not used in a sound way. When people feel “preached to” they tend not to listen. Which might in turn frsutrate her, and send her into a stronger stress response and more preaching.
What are your hypotheses and lines of enquiry to explore Yvette’s profile?
My hypotheses is that yvette find it hard to feel heard and the risk is she is probably not taken very much into account by her peers.
I would ask her : What did you think and feel when you saw your results? Did anything surprise you? Do you feel you are using your communication to the best?
What are the voices that would be most useful when all is well?
What does pressure mean to you? Could you give me some examples of situations where you felt under pressure and how you reacted to them?
When you advocate under pressure : is that the result of positive pressure or negative pressure?
What is your intention when you advocate and diagnose under pressure? How does it land? How else could you do it?
Thinking of your current situation and challenges, what would be the voice ou the couple of voices that you would like to put your attention to and develop?
Q1. If I feel patronized, dictated, attacked or critised
Q2. I either close down or attack back
Q3. It is largely instinctive
Q4. The conversation stops being constructive ; it becomes all about defending myself