Communication Approaches for High Performance

2883 Words6 Pages

Any employee can be driven to high performance with the use of the appropriate managerial approach based on the employee’s experience within an organization. Formal and informal leaders on organizations are bound to guide collaborators into better professional performance for which this article works as a guideline comprising four guidance styles on the delicate and subjective art of communication.
This article describes the key characteristics, cautionary behaviors and benefits of each style. The suitable timing for the use of each style is also suggested to vary chronologically as collaborators advanced and grow within a company. The styles diverge on how directive and supportive the leader should be and the corresponding readiness for task execution from the collaborator.
To this extent the disclosed communication approaches target:
• The starting employee (No readiness): Requiring high direction and low support
• The low experienced employee (Low readiness): Requiring high direction and high support
• The high experienced employee (High readiness):Requiring low direction and high support
• The expert employee (Full readiness): No direction nor support required
Directive Communication
“Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes. “ – Peter Drucker
An instructional type of communication characterized by a leader who tells team members what they are expected to do and sometimes even how to perform the expected tasks. The directive method is more benign than aversive communication, but still top-down, expressing leadership through direction, instructions, and command. A directive communication style might be useful within a business where team members have jobs...

... middle of paper ...

... research on the communication styles shows that alternatively these styles can also be categorized based on leader’s behavioral types. According to Dr. Tony Alessandra, in his research in the Art of Better Communications, these four behavioral types of leaders are: Supportive, Reflective, Directive and Emotive. Based on their supportiveness and directness behavior these types define how leaders interact with their members within the organization. The classification of these behavioral pattern is as follows:
1. Supportive: Supportive/Indirect
2. Reflective: Controlling/Indirect
3. Directive: Controlling/Direct
4. Emotive: Supporting/Direct
Research on Communication styles is not new and people have used various terms to describe the differences since the time of Hippocrates. Although the terms used to describe may vary but the qualities of styles remain the same.

Open Document