Use Communication Style Clues to Manage Your Employees

Over the last two months, “From the College” provided insight on the Five Rs of physician leadership: recruitment, realization, recognition, redirection, and retention. The Five Rs give great guidance in managing the leadership process, yet they will be far less effective if you lack the ability—or willingness—to successfully communicate with your employees.

Whether managing a small practice or a large department, highly successful physician leaders have learned how to communicate effectively with their staff members. They have discovered and embraced the fact that not everyone communicates—or responds to communication—in the same way, and they have taken the time to adjust their own communication styles to ensure their employees will help them successfully manage their practices, departments, and institutions. The challenge? There are many communication styles, and each of your employees is uniquely different from the others. The good news, according to Timothy J. Keogh, PhD, is that a physician leader can place most employees, supervisors, and coworkers into four categories. Once you learn about these communication types, you will be able to maximize your conversations for the most effective practice or department.

There are four main communication styles: sensor, feeler, thinker, and intuitor.

Dr. Keogh is assistant professor of Citadel School of Business Administration in Charleston, S.C.; adjunct associate professor of Health Systems Management at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans; and featured speaker at the American College of Physician Executives’ 2008 Annual Spring Institute. He is also a contributor to the book, Enhancing Physician Performance: Advanced Principles of Medical Management, where he writes, “Insight into our own style begins to give us the fundamental skill of how to adjust, or flex, our style to the style of others. Without this insight, we often create the personal barriers to communication, which causes us to think, ‘I don’t know what it is about this person, but we just don’t see eye-to-eye.’ This invisible barrier comes between two people with different styles and creates a shield through which our words fail to pass.”

Dr. Keogh suggests that there are four main communication styles, and it is the responsibility of the physician leader to identify his or her style and then work to flex to the styles of each of his or her employees.

Four Styles

1) The Sensor is a person who likes to be seen as powerful. He or she is often busy and will likely greet someone who enters his or her office with a short, to-the point salutation like, “What do ya got?” To others, the Sensor can be seen as impatient and dominant. To communicate with the Sensor, a physician leader should get right to the point, have a bottom line, emphasize action, and give concrete examples.

The Sensor does not want to be bothered with social chit-chat or minute details. He or she wants to know just enough to make a decision and move on. When communicating with a Sensor, Dr. Keogh says it is important to use balance and, “skip the preliminaries, skip the details, include steps [to take action], and bring something to hand over [such as a chart or graph].”

2) The Feeler likes to be seen as popular among peer groups. He or she is a master at networking and wants to be involved and liked on many different levels. The Feeler will engage people in chit-chat and can be seen by others as disorganized or as someone who makes decisions based on gossip.

To communicate with the Feeler, Dr. Keogh says, “An approach that is too abrupt will be unsuccessful.” Starting with social conversation will engage this person from the start of a conversation. Making a lot of eye contact, appealing to passion, and dropping the names of others in the organization are all successful techniques to use when communicating with a Feeler.

3) The Thinker likes to gather and organize information. He or she loves systems and plans (charts and graphs really speak to a Thinker).The Thinker wants to be to be seen as perfect and has very high internal standards. He or she will be humiliated in the wake of a mistake but will never show it. The Thinker can be seen as overly critical of himself or herself as well as others and will often give unsolicited feedback.

To communicate with the Thinker, Dr. Keogh suggests being organized and prepared with a specific plan. Additionally, Dr. Keogh warns to not expect the Thinker to make a quick decision, as this person is more likely to prefer selecting from a number of choices in a methodical way.

4) The Intuitor is the person who likes to mull things over in his or her head. The Intuitor wants to be seen as patient and will take the time to explore all avenues before making a final decision. He or she often goes along easily with the group to avoid appearing aggressive. Because the Intuitor is often quiet, he or she can be seen as unenthusiastic.

To communicate with the Intuitor, Dr. Keogh suggests using patience and politeness while allowing him or her ample time to digest and mull over the conversation (either during or afterwards). Dr. Keogh also suggests being inventive when communicating with this type of person. “[Intuitors] like to challenge themselves by learning new things and by solving problems which stretch their existing skills,” he says. “Offering a way to expand their horizons and produce some rational solution can be persuasive to this type.”

Dr. Keogh’s research has shown that most physicians are either Sensors or Thinkers, but the physician leader should be prepared to communicate with—and manage—all four types. Some may think this suggestion is asking a physician leader to cater to his or her employees’ quirks, but the savvy leader will understand that different communication styles are part of life, and understanding how to elicit a positive response from different people will only help the leader in the long run.

There are several ways to determine your communication style and that of your employees, with the Myers–Briggs test being among the most popular. Research on trusted Internet sites or at your local library or university can help you determine how to best identify your employees’ communication styles.

No matter how you go about identifying your communication style, it is important to understand that establishing open, proactive internal communication is one of the greatest assets a physician leader can have (or can obtain) to lead a successful practice, department, or institution.