Developing Your Personal Work and Communication Style

The changeover of a calendar year tends to be an introspective time. Daylight hours are fewer, we tackle our stack of books to read while cozying up under a warm blanket, and we connect with friends on goals for the new year. This January, I connected again with four IR/E leaders on the topic of developing personal work and communication styles. How do IR/E leaders develop and define their styles? And how do these styles evolve over the course of a career? The five of us engaged deeply on this topic.

IR/E Leaders

• Erika Farfan, Associate Vice President for Institutional Research, Kenyon College

• Adrea Hernandez, Executive Director for Institutional Research, University of Notre Dame

• Laura Palucki Blake, Assistant Vice President of Institutional Research and Effectiveness, Harvey Mudd College

• Lindsey Palumbo, Data Analytic Specialist, Franklin & Marshall College

Define and stand by your work style and values.

Is it a positive thing to be a chameleon? Or does it make you feel like you are in a state of flux as you move through your day of meetings with organizational stakeholders? While there is value in adaptation (more on that, below), intentionally defining your work and communication style can help you work in a way that feels comfortable to you. It can help others know what to expect when they work with you. And it can help you prepare for more challenging tasks, or times when you encounter colleagues whose communication style tends to dominate interactions. Adrea shared with us that a supervisor of hers received positive feedback on Adrea’s work style, which prompted them to ask her to share more about what works well. Adrea took the time to outline her engagement strategy. She refers to it and shared it with this group as part of our discussion, prompting the rest of us to think about developing our own versions. Documenting our own styles and identifying the styles of colleagues we view as successful communicators and collaborators can help us reflect and improve.

Adapt to organizational culture (and subculture).

What is the communication and work style of your organization? Can you identify it? Laura shared that the culture of her current organization is vastly different than that of her previous employer. She therefore spent time at first learning the culture and adapting her style, within her level of comfort, to help her more effectively communicate with her colleagues. Think about your setting. Are folks wordy or concise in their emails? What are the communication tools available in your setting and how are they used (or not) by colleagues. 

IR/E professionals often serve in a consultancy role within an organization. Our work is cross-functional. We therefore succeed best when we work across units, and sometimes these units each have their own subculture, which can be quite different from the overall culture of the organization. Faculty members in data-heavy fields may be more interested in the methodology you used in your analysis and may need more from you in terms of context setting. Student Affairs colleagues may feel quite comfortable with the literature on student success and would value more explanation from you when you conduct sophisticated quantitative analysis. Make mental (or physical) notes as you engage with different individuals and units to ensure you are maximizing your communication effectiveness.

Complement your style with those of colleagues.

When an IR/E team has multiple staff members, consideration can be made for the multiple communication and work styles of team members. Each IR/E leader shared examples of situations where they and their IR/E team were thoughtful and intentional about which member of the team would serve as representative in different situations. Consider having the whole team document their styles, as outlined above, and reflect collectively on how best to deploy team members. Of course, we all need the experience of working across the organization and we should do so whenever possible, but strategically thinking about team member styles can expand the reach and success of the IR/E unit. As a starting point, use each other as sounding boards by running tricky written communications by one another to craft the best communication possible from IR/E.

Appreciate and make space for the styles of others.

How do we identify and understand our own communication and work styles while also appreciating those of our colleagues? We know that research tells us diverse teams develop the best outcomes. But isn’t it easier, sometimes, to talk with people whose styles match ours? Lindsey challenged us to reflect on privilege and whether professionals with longer tenure and/or higher titles are most likely to be able to define their styles and less likely to adapt. And this challenge really got us talking about our responsibilities to ourselves and our colleagues. Ideas generated during this part of the conversation included:

• Make mental note of the person in the room with the least power and ensure, as much as possible, that they have a voice in the conversation.

• Consider culture from multiple lenses – how do people’s identities impact their communication? When is it important to share stories and when is it important to check off items on an agenda? Can everyone’s needs be accommodated?

• Understand your processing timing and style and that of your colleagues. Use and encourage soft phrases with one another, like “I’m talking this through out loud” or “I’m processing this” to allow for different levels of introversion/extroversion and processing times.

• Erika shared with us the power she feels in vulnerability. This is part of her work and communication style. Step up and let others know your honest motivation. Sharing that you are driven by the success of students can help others open up and remind the group of commonalities. This vulnerability can fast track cooperation and can prevent posturing by others.

The success of an IR/E function can partly be measured by whether organizational colleagues want to work with us. The five of us reflected on how we thrive on that validation. It also got us reflecting on how much that leads us to adapt our style. We like to be liked. We like to be needed. But what if we aren’t chameleons, changing our colors to fit every situation? What if we have a set of colors we are comfortable with and adapt those shades for the good of the organizational mission? Maybe folks want to work with us precisely because we have a confident, vulnerable, defined style that means they know what to expect. They can count on us. That is a color spectrum that might work for all.

Gina Johnson, PhD

Principal & Cofounder, Data EmpowerED Consulting