Cautious vs Direct
Complimentary cohesion refers to a culture where individuals are encouraged to embrace and celebrate their differences, leading to a sense of inclusivity, mutual respect, and positive energy. In such an environment, people feel valued, respected, and appreciated, leading to higher morale and increased productivity. Such a culture enhances the overall influence of individuals within the organization and promotes positive working relationships.
There are three areas that are critical to both personal and professional dynamics, and we use them every day.
- processing our environment
- building our ideas to reality
- influencing others
Inter Face™ is a behavioral methods instrument that provides participants with feedback in these three areas of day-to-day behaviors. This blog will focus on the last of the three day-to- day behaviors – influencing others.
Effective leaders understand the importance of communication in influencing their teams. Leaders who communicate clearly, listen attentively, and provide guidance can inspire and motivate their team members. Communication shapes the culture of an organization. Their ability to articulate a compelling vision and communicate goals effectively increases their influence over the team’s actions and outcomes. However, there is more than one approach to influencing others in the workplace.
Cautious influence and direct influence are two different approaches to influencing others in the workplace. Cautious influence involves a more subtle and indirect approach to influencing others. It is characterized by being careful, tactful, and strategic in how influence is exerted. Direct influence, in contrast, involves a more succinct and straightforward approach to influencing others. It is characterized by clear and explicit communication of expectations, instructions, or requests. Let’s take a closer look at both types of influencers and the impact their style has on their relationships and actions in the workplace.
Cautious Influencers:
- Cautious influencers prioritize building strong relationships and trust with others before attempting to exert influence. They invest time and effort in understanding others’ perspectives, needs, and motivations.
- Cautious influencers are attentive listeners and keen observers. They pay close attention to verbal and non-verbal cues to gather information and insights that can inform their influence strategies.
- Rather than using direct commands or explicit requests, cautious influencers often rely on persuasion techniques such as storytelling, framing, or presenting compelling arguments. They aim to win others over through logical reasoning, emotional appeals, or by appealing to shared values and goals.
- Cautious influencers seek to involve others in decision-making processes and encourage collaboration. They strive to create win-win situations, finding common ground and addressing concerns or objections to ensure buy-in from others.
- Cautious influencers understand that building trust and influencing others can take time. They are willing to invest in long-term relationships and incremental progress toward their desired outcomes.
Direct influencers:
- Direct influencers are comfortable expressing their needs, expectations, or opinions succinctly. They do not shy away from providing direct instructions or making clear demands.
- Direct influencers communicate their expectations or requests with clarity and specificity, leaving little room for ambiguity or misinterpretation. They provide concrete instructions or guidelines to guide others’ actions.
- Direct influencers may rely on their formal position or authority within the organization to assert their influence. They leverage their power and decision-making abilities to direct others’ behaviors.
- Direct influence is often characterized by a focus on efficiency and getting things done quickly. Direct influencers prioritize results and may prioritize expediency over extensive consultation or collaboration.
- Direct influencers primarily emphasize achieving specific goals or outcomes. They focus on the task at hand and may prioritize task accomplishment over building relationships or addressing interpersonal dynamics.
Both cautious influence and direct influence can be effective in different situations and contexts. The choice of approach depends on factors such as the organizational culture, the nature of the relationship with the individuals being influenced, the urgency of the situation, and the desired outcomes. Skilled influencers often employ a mix of both approaches, adapting their strategies based on the circumstances and the people involved.
Deeper Dive into How We Influence Others
For those individuals that are Cautious, their best communication characteristic is diplomacy. They will package their message in the best way they can, and will usually wait until the right time to share it. That can be a real asset when trying to minimize conflict, however, it may also keep them from going down a path to address something at all, and that is likely a problem.
Direct influencers’ best communication characteristic is their candor … usually. However, if they are too blunt, a Cautious person may not hear it, as they will shut down. But the people around someone that is direct will always know what they are thinking, when they are thinking it. There is never a question. Direct communicators will not necessarily try to avoid conflict, and they wish to get things on the table to work through them. Probably somewhere in between them is a perfect person. Thus, there is the need for a true commitment to adaptability.
Cautious communicators tend to read the situations around them for clues as to what to say and when and how to say it. The problem can be that they might not say it, or if they say it to a more direct communicator, their true meaning will not come across, because they intentionally dilute the intensity. That works well if they are working with another Cautious person. They will often be viewed by their Direct counterparts as under-assertive, or as one who dances around the issues, without confronting them head on. When they package a message well, the Direct communicator will think they are trying to avoid the real message. This can cause a loss of respect for the other person, on both sides. This significantly reduces the Cautious communicator’s ability to change a Direct person’s mind about an issue.
But Direct communicators tend not to read the situations around them. They say what comes into their mind, usually as soon as it does. They pride themselves on being honest and forthcoming and in not shying away from tougher issues. They say what they are thinking, leaving little to the imagination. However, they will often over-assert when dealing with a Cautious communicator, causing that person to check out and not listen. Thus, they lose the ability to convince those more cautious than they are about an issue. The judgments that take hold here are generally somewhat inflamed, as people take them personally. In short, the way we convey our message says a lot about who we are as people, to those receiving them.
Whether we are processing our thinking, advancing our thinking, or choosing to convey our message, there is a continuum that runs from being balance in one area, to somewhat strong, to balanced. People usually know about where they are, but you can take the Inter Face Methods™ instrument to quantify your methods and further your insight. Remember, our method of adaptation will always require us to reach out and meet each other somewhere in the middle. In this dimension, the way we convey our message, it is critical that we seek to meet in the middle, or we lose our ability to influence half of the people around us.
The most successful teams understand, respect, nurture, and reap the benefits of a variety of preferences. Participants learn to judge less, embrace differences, and complement each other’s strengths. The Inter Face Methods™ methodology is research-backed and proven effective by 15+ years of real-world use. The robust Learning Hub uses data from the completed survey to provide personalized training material in the areas of selling, collaboration, inclusion, resiliency, adapting to change, and customer service. We believe your team can achieve complementary cohesion because of working with us. If you are ready to strengthen communication in your organization or want more information about the Inter Face Method™ tool, go to interfacemethods.com.