Andrea Banaag
Regent University
Introduction & Preferred Style “Emotional intelligence refers to the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships” (Goleman, 1998, p. 317). According to Jenna Carpenter’s PowerPoint “Effective Communication: Motivation, Impact and Being Heard” that was presented at the College of Engineering and Science’s Graduate Seminar in 2011, understanding your “emotional intelligence, communication style and that of those around you helps to address three of the four emotional competencies: self-awareness, self-management and relationship management” (Carpenter, 2011, p. 6). In order to be effective employees, managers, supervisors and communicators it is essential that a person understand their default communication style and the implications said style has on their relationships.
According to the Manager Tendency Survey that we took, the four possible styles are open, blind, hidden and closed. Most people tend to have a dominant communication styles but may change communication styles for different situations. The brief definition of each is:
Open: tend to use both disclosure and feedback and are equally interested in people’s needs and productivity;
Blind: subject-matter experts and can accomplish major tasks with little or no input from others. They thrive in situations in which they can demonstrate there expertise and experience, and they do not avoid others, but tend to overuse disclosure; Hidden: prefer social environments and want to be friendly with everyone. They are interested in people, good listeners, and generally well liked. It is very important that everyone gets along and that conflicts are avoided. They are hidden because they often hide their feelings and knowledge from others; and
Closed: they are usually productive, hard workers who feel more comfortable working with programs rather than people. (Hamilton, 2011).
The Manager Tendency Survery scored my results almost exactly the same for the employee tendency indicator (84 points) and the