This document is from a workbook that helps users understand their own working style and how to improve relationships with others who have different styles. It discusses four working styles: Analytical, Driver, Amiable, and Expressive. For each style, it provides characteristics, potential strengths and weaknesses, and strategies for being a team leader or member. The workbook guides users through an assessment to determine their dominant working style, reflection questions, and strategies to apply based on their style and how to adapt when stressed. The goal is to improve how users work with others and get the best from relationships.

1. Source: People Styles at Work and Beyond – Making Bad Relationships Good and Good
Relationships Better/Robert Bolton and Dorothy Grover Bolton, 2nd ed 2009.
Working StylesABC
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iSkills for
Which Working Style are you:
workbook

2. Source: People Styles at Work and Beyond – Making Bad Relationships Good and Good
Relationships Better/Robert Bolton and Dorothy Grover Bolton, 2nd ed 2009.
Which Working
Style are you?
ABC
improvement
iSkills for
Working Styles Characteristics
This workbook will help you to understand your own working style and encourage
you to reflect, not only on your strengths and weaknesses but on how you would
like others to work with you, and how you can change your ways of working to get
the best out of your working relationships. The workbook is set out to work from
start to finish:
• Overview – summary of each of the working styles
• Questionnaire – answer questions honestly to find out your working style
• Score Sheet – Lowest score identifies your working style
• Thought Exercise – reflect on your working style and how you work with others
• Strategies – for consideration when working with others

3. Working Styles Characteristics
Working Styles
Overview
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Driver
• Takes action and acts decisively
• Likes control
• Dislikes inaction
• Prefers maximum freedom to
manage self and others
• Cool and independent, competitive
with others
• Low tolerance for feelings, attitudes
and advice of others
• Works quickly and efficiently by
themselves
Expressive
• Spontaneous actions and decisions,
risk taker
• Not limited by tradition
• Likes involvement
• Generates new and innovative ideas
• Tends to dream and get others
caught up in a dream
• Jumps from one activity to another
• Works quickly and excitingly with
others
• Not good with follow-through
Analytical
• Cautious actions and decisions
• Likes organisation and structure
• Dislikes involvement with others
• Asks many questions about specific
details
• Prefers objective, task – oriented
environment
• Wants to be accurate and therefore
relies too much on data collection
• Seeks security and self actualisation
Assertiveness
Responsiveness
Amiable
• Slow at taking action and making
decisions
• Likes close, personal relationships
• Dislikes interpersonal conflict
• Supports and “actively” listens to others
• Weak at goal setting and self-direction
• Demonstrates excellent ability to gain
support from others
• Works slowly and cohesively with
others
• Seeks security and inclusion
Source: People Styles at Work and Beyond – Making Bad Relationships Good and Good
Relationships Better/Robert Bolton and Dorothy Grover Bolton, 2nd ed 2009.

4. Look at each of the 5 statements below and then rank your responses from 1-4
(1 is what matters most to you and 4 is what matters least to you).
1. When performing a job, it is most important to me to
a. ____ do it correctly, regardless of the time involved.
b. ____ set deadlines and get it done.
c. ____ work as a team, cooperatively with others.
d. ____ demonstrate my talents and enthusiasm.
2. The most enjoyable part of working on a job is
a. ____ the information you need to do it.
b. ____ the results you achieve when it’s done.
c. ____ the people you meet or work with.
d. ____ seeing how the job contributes to progress.
3. When I have several ways to get a job done, I usually
a. ____ review the pros and cons of each way and choose.
b. ____ choose a way that I can begin to work immediately.
c. ____ discuss ways with others and choose the one most favoured.
d. ____ review the ways and follow my “gut” sense about what will work the best.
4. When working on a long-term job, it is most important to me to
a. ____ understand and complete each step before going on to the next step.
b. ____seek a fast, efficient way to complete it.
c. ____ work on it with others in a team.
d. ____ keep the job stimulating and exciting.
5. I am willing to take a risky action if
a. ____ there are facts to support my action.
b. ____ it gets the job done.
c. ____ it will not hurt others’ feelings.
d. ____ it feels right for the situation.
Working Style
Questionnaire
ABC
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iSkills for
Source: People Styles at Work and Beyond – Making Bad Relationships Good and Good
Relationships Better/Robert Bolton and Dorothy Grover Bolton, 2nd ed 2009.

5. 1. A ____ B ____ C ____ D ____
2. A ____ B ____ C ____ D ____
3. A ____ B ____ C ____ D ____
4. A ____ B ____ C ____ D ____
5. A ____ B ____ C ____ D ____
Totals: A ____ B ____ C ____ D ____
Transfer the answers from the People Styles Assessment sheet onto the scoring grid
below by entering the rank order number (1,2,3 or 4) that you assigned to each letter
listed under the five statements. Next, total each column and record the total in the
space provided.
Your LOWEST score is your preferred or dominant working style.
In the case of a tied score, you should pick the working style that you feel is more like
you.
A - Analytical
B - Driver
C - Amiable
D - Expressive
My preferred working style is: _______________________
Working Styles
Score Sheet
Working Style
Score Sheet
ABC
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Source: People Styles at Work and Beyond – Making Bad Relationships Good and Good
Relationships Better/Robert Bolton and Dorothy Grover Bolton, 2nd ed 2009.

6. What does your working style mean for you?
Consider the working style that your score sheet indicated. Note your reflections below
• Does this working style mirror how you tend to work? If not consider the other
working styles
• Reflecting on your working style as either an Analytic, Amiable, Expressive or Driver:
• What do you think your potential strengths are?
• What do you think your potential weaknesses are?
• How do I like to work?
• What is the best way to influence my style?
• Bearing in mind that generally the population is split equally across the four working
types, so 75% of the people you work with will work differently to you
• Also that there is no evidence that any type is more or less successful in what they do
– people just do things differently!
• Apply the questions above to the different working styles and reflect on how
you might change the way you work to get the best out of your interactions
with others.
Working Styles
Score Sheet
Thought
Exercise
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7. A –Analytical Strategies as a team leader
or team member
Strategies when under stress
Cautious actions and decisions Make a Decision Often avoids and withdraws
Likes organisation and structure Be more flexible, more open-
minded
Logically discuss the issue
Dislikes involvement with others Openly show more concern for
other people
Acknowledge a need for time
Asks many questions about
specific details
Be decisive with data Set a deadline
Prefers objective, task-orientated
work environment
Listen to people’s feelings Ask questions
Wants to be accurate and
therefore relies too much on data
collection
Use time accurately Seek opinions from others
Seeks security and self-
actualisation
Provide evidence and service to
influence decision-making
B – Driver Strategies as a team leader
or team member
Strategies when under stress
Takes action and acts decisively Listen to others Often takes over and dictates
Likes control Acknowledge different points of
view
Offer options for moving forward
Dislikes inaction Be patient Recommit to results and time
frame
Prefers maximum freedom to
manage self and others
“Calm down” internally Calm down
Cool and independent,
competitive with others
Pay attention to others’ feelings Seek input from others
Low tolerance for feelings,
attitudes and advice of others
Use time efficiently Delay decision-making
Works quickly and efficiently by
themselves
Provide options Restate others’ concerns
Working Style
Strategies
ABC
improvement
iSkills for
Source: People Styles at Work and Beyond – Making Bad Relationships Good and Good
Relationships Better/Robert Bolton and Dorothy Grover Bolton, 2nd ed 2009.

8. C – Amiable Strategies as a team leader
or team member
Strategies when under stress
Slow at taking action and making
decisions
Assert your opinions Concedes to others, acquiesces
Likes close, personal relationships Be less sensitive Allow them to express
disagreement
Dislikes interpersonal conflict Be willing to take risks Speak up
Supports and “actively” listens to
others
Say “no” more often State your thoughts in a logical
concise manner
Weak at goal setting and self-
direction
Let people know what you think Ask open questions about
concerns
Demonstrates excellent ability to
gain support from others
Support relationships to
establish rapport
Seeks security and inclusion Incorporate facts into your
opinion
D – Expressive Strategies as a team leader
or team member
Strategies when under stress
Spontaneous actions and
decisions, risk taker
Restrain and check Often attacks and confronts
Not limited by tradition Talk less Separate emotions from facts
Likes involvement Spend more time looking at the
facts
Acknowledge feelings and points
of view
Generates new and innovative
ideas
Control time and emotion Refrain from pouncing on the
quiet ones
Tends to dream and get others
caught up in the dream
Think before you speak Seek to gather information from
all team members
Jumps from one activity to
another
Incorporate facts into your
decisions
Not good with follow-through Encourage decision making with
incentives and stories
Working Style
Strategies
ABC
improvement
iSkills for
Source: People Styles at Work and Beyond – Making Bad Relationships Good and Good
Relationships Better/Robert Bolton and Dorothy Grover Bolton, 2nd ed 2009.

9. Aneurin Bevan Continuous Improvement @ABCiAb ABCi.ABB@wales.nhs.uk
Working StylesABC
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