Personalities, communication skills, and talk tools
When I lecture on communications skills, my “talk about talk,” I know some folks in every crowd do mental gymnastics over the following:
Is his communication skills class trying to change my personality???
The big “HECK NO” comes out of my presentation in many ways. The clearest way I know to say it:
Our personalities and our communication skills are not stuck together.
This is a freeing thought. If I decide to change my communication skills, perhaps question better or learn how to be silent without offering any body language or non-verbal cues whatsoever, it does not require a complete personality overhaul.
So we don’t need to know our Myers Briggs type to improve how we talk?
That’s exactly my point! No need to know if we are an introvert or extrovert, sensor or feeler, high influencer or big connector– talk skills are skills, and we get better talk skills when we have access to great talk tools.
Great talk tools work for all of us, regardless of our personality.
I have a hunch: if we focus more on talk tools and less on personality types we will get more done and like each other better while we’re at it.