Overcoming Communication Challenges: How we function in the outer world

 

Lavonne is a Myers-Briggs Certified Coach and works with both individuals and groups.

Do you find it effortless to communicate clearly with some co-workers or clients, but feel completely misunderstood with others? Carl Jung, the famous Swiss psychologist, posited that we have innate preferences that predict how we will act in certain situations, including in communication. The four dichotomies that make up the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) are how we take in information, how we make decisions, where we get our energy, and how we organize our outer world. Regardless of how we get our energy – Introversion (internal thoughts, ideas, reflections) or Extroversion (interaction with people, activities, events) we all need to function in the outer world we live in. The two dichotomies for how we organize our surroundings are Judging and Perceiving. Judging types want to have order and structure and want closure. You can think of Judging preferences as “a place for everything and everything in its place” while a Perceiving preference wants to leave their options open and explore other possibilities and are not in a rush for closure. A noticeable difference between these two is in how they approach deadlines. Judging types are stressed if a deadline is looming and they have not planned out their schedule to finish ahead of time. Perceiving types tend to do their best work under the last-minute stress of a deadline. When it comes to communication, the rub occurs when a person with a judging preference and person with a perceiving preference are working on something where both have responsibility for providing input. The judging preference wants to get to closure quickly and in doing so may suppress other options the perceiving preference wants to share that could provide the best outcome. Conversely the perceiving preference may want to pursue more options than the timeframe allows so they must prioritize. Communication is essential to agree on a schedule that can accommodate both styles. To improve our communication, we want to identify our individual preferences, and understand those opposite ours, so that we know how best to reach across the potential communication gap and have meaningful and productive communication.    Want to learn how to improve your collaborative communication and decision-making skills?   Lavonne Mullet | Career Insights, LLC 316-288-9788 #communication #myersbriggs   In Partnership with DL Biz Services | DLBizServices.com