Recognizing and Understanding Communication Styles

Introduction

Whether communicating through speech or some other method, your communication style has a lot to do with how much of what you "say" will truly be understood and accepted. It is very important to understand your own communication style so that you can recognize both its strengths and weaknesses. This also means that it is helpful to understand the communication styles of others. By recognizing where your styles mesh and where they don't, you have the opportunity to be a much more effective communicator.

What is Communication?

Communication is more than just the act of talking. For true communication to happen, ideas have to be shared and understood among people. While talking is certainly one of the most obvious methods we use to relate thoughts and ideas to one another, it is not the only form of communication we use regularly. Have you ever had an entire conversation without even speaking a word? A glance here. A head nod there. Maybe a couple of gestures. Without even opening your mouth, you can communicate entire thoughts to other people.

There are a number of ways to define communication styles. It seems that every self-help or public speaking book has yet another way to categorize the ways people prefer to communicate. The labels placed on the various communication styles are much less important than taking the time to simply consider what your own style might be. The more you know about the various styles of communication, the more effective you can be, not just in making your own points, but also in understanding what others are trying to communicate to you.

One common method for determining communication styles is to break them down into the following categories: Passive, Aggressive, Passive-Aggressive, and Assertive.