This document discusses social styles and the importance of understanding your own social style as well as others' styles. It identifies the four main social styles - amiable, driver, analytical, and expressive - which are determined by combinations of assertiveness and responsiveness. Understanding social styles allows for effective communication by adapting your style to fit others, leading to better relationships. Self-awareness of your style helps communicate well at work.

1. Be Aware of Your Own and
Others’ Social Styles
Amber Joffrion
Group 1: Relating to Others at Work

2. Social Style
A pattern of
communication
behaviors that
others observe
when you
interact with
them

3. Identifying Your Social Style:
Your social style is a combination of two primary dimensions.
Assertiveness Responsiveness
• The capacity to make • The capacity to be sensitive
requests; to actively to the communication of
disagree; to express positive others, to be seen as a good
or negative personal listener, to make others
feelings; to comfortable in
initiate, maintain, or communicating, and to
disengage from recognize the needs and
conversations; and to stand desires of others
up for oneself without
attacking another

4. Identifying Your Social Style:
Four Quadrants
• Amiable- relationship • Driver- control
specialist, high on specialist, low on
responsiveness and low responsiveness and high
on assertiveness—helping on assertiveness—
professions, such as a controlling
teacher professions, such as
• Analytical- technical managers
specialist, low on both • Expressive- social
responsiveness and specialist, high on both
assertiveness—isolated responsiveness and
professions, such as assertiveness—attention
accounting professions, such as
musicians

5. Identifying Others’ Social Styles:
Self-awareness is important, but what you do with it is even more so
• It is important how • Other people do not
other people communicate with
perceive your social who you perceive
style, as it affects the yourself to be, but
communication who they perceive
between you. you to be.

6. Adapting to Social Styles
• Style Flexing- a process • When people adapt to
of adapting your others’ social
communication to how styles, effective
others communication and
communicate, or, tailori thus better
ng communication relationships are the
between you and result.
another person’s
processes

7. Be Aware of Your Own and Others’ Social Styles
Becoming aware of your own and others’ social styles
encourages relationships to fit perfectly together.

8. Social Styles
Connection to Previous Learning Discussion Question
• “People who communicate • What is your social
effectively do well on the style, according to the text
job“; we influence others (page 29)? (Further results
through our communication are on page 30 and 31.)
(Beebe 3, 13). This is why it • Do you agree with the
is important to learn about results/analysis? Why or why
social styles so that we can not?
effectively communicate with
others--especially in the
workplace--in order to be
strong leaders.

9. Be Aware of Your Own and Others’ Social Styles:
Works Cited
• Beebe, Steven A. and Timothy P. Mottet.
Business and Professional Communication.
Boston: Pearson, 2010. 27-32. Print.
• “Handshake.” Clip Art. Microsoft Office 2007.
• “Jigsaw Teamwork.” Clip Art. Microsoft Office
2007.