A work style is how a person tackles tasks and projects. Working styles typically fall into four unique types: idea oriented, logical, detail oriented and supportive.
Workplace collaboration isn’t always a walk in the park. However, bringing diverse minds together can also be a very powerful thing. More collaborative teams lead to increased productivity, creativity, and growth opportunities.
As an employee, it’s important to reflect on your own workstyle and empower your team members to understand theirs, too. Understanding working styles will enhance individual strengths, elevating productivity and success. This knowledge will also help recognize individual biases that need to be overcome.
Some roles can also benefit from specific working styles that align with the position. Understanding working styles can help guide career paths and foster employee engagement.
There are four different working styles that reveal individual’s most important working ethics and how he approaches his task:
Often known as drivers or doers, individuals who fall into this category prefer to face challenges directly and efficiently. If you identify with this work style, you're probably analytical, love working with data, and want to see a task through from start to finish. Logical workers typically have great focus, which can sometimes lead to communication beingless important to them. Focusing on effective and personable communication can be an area of improvement for workers in this style. If this seems like how you approach work, you may need to improve your planning and preparation skills.
Example: Jason is a brand manager, and he has a logical approach to work. He is result-driven and evaluates the effectiveness of his campaigns based on tangible achievement. He prefers to work quickly and efficiently and executes tasks without delay. Jason expects his peers to waste no time and prefers workflow with the fewest steps possible. He speaks his mind and is always honest with his coworkers, especially if he feels something needs improvement.
Individuals with this style of working make skilled engineers, because of their attention to detail. Detail-oriented employees bring order and stability to a team and are strategic, organized, and pragmatic. People with this working style can sometimes become micromanagers as they advance in their careers and strive for accuracy in everything. They avoid risks and approach challenges with caution and consideration. They differ from those with a logical style in that they excel in the planning and preparation stage, yet might stall in executing their plans. When paired with peers who have a logical work style, they make an effective team.
Example: Susan is an accountant and has a detail-oriented approach. Her attention to detail means she rarely makes mistakes, and she is highly reliable. She uses finely tuned processes to organize her workflow. These may slow down her productivity, but result in error-free reports. Susan stays organized and schedules her tasks daily to keep her workflow on track. She thrives in an environment where her team is as meticulous as she is and can benefit from being motivated by an inspirational leader.
People who prefer to interact with others in a sensitive and considerate manner are part of the supportive category. Supportive coworkers are emotionally intelligent and are excellent collaborators. They build strong relationships at work easily and consider the feelings and opinions of everyone around them. They work best in a team environment, where they can foster workplace relationships and benefit from having more detail-oriented colleagues to guide them through tasks and logical peers to motivate them.
Example: Pablo is a retail assistant in a shoe store and has a supportive attitude in his work. His friendly demean our and listening skills make him excellent at customer service. When his teammates need help, he's eager to jump in and assist. When customers need help finding the perfect shoes, he is patient and considerate. He thrives in social situations, makes every customer feel welcome in the store, and works hard to please his manager. Someone with a supportive work style benefits from being busy and working with others.
Often thought of as big-picture thinkers, idea-oriented coworkers make outstanding leaders. Employees with this personality share their vision with their teams and inspire them to achieve their maximum potential. Excellent problem solvers, those with this working style can overcome challenges in unique and often surprising ways by constantly innovating. Idea-oriented employees benefit from pairing with more detail-oriented colleagues.
Example: Alex is the general manager of a cinema and has an idea-oriented work style. Their innovative approach to running the cinema means that they're always coming up with ways to bring in new customers. When problems arise, such as staffing shortages, they're able to apply their creativity to adjust their employees' schedules to keep the cinema running smoothly. Having detail-oriented people working for them helps Alex focus on the business's overall success without
overlooking small yet essential elements.
Identifying your working style requires you to pay attention to the way you work and ask lots of questions, of yourself and others, about how you approach problems. As you journey toward discovering your work style, remember that you might identify as more than one style. Here are 7 ways to help you dig out your own working styles:
No matter what your work style is, you can be part of a productive team. In fact, the more diversity the better in terms of balancing everyone's work style assets and defects. The right mix is important, but even if you have a perfectly balanced group, they’ll need oversight and direction.
The first thing to do is know that you’re working with a group that is made up of individuals. It might sound like an oxymoron, but the magic of management is making those individuals work together productively as a group. That requires knowing each of their work styles to get them to work better together. That includes knowing each one’s strengths and weaknesses.
Working style is such a powerful tool to help an individual fully learn himself in the work and use it to collaborate better with his team. Therefore, take few time to assess your own working styles and implement them for higher efficiency!
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Fish Wang is a graduate student in the Schulich School of Business specializing in marketing, Fish uses her both academic and internship experience to learn content marketing and create more engaging content for the Litespace.
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