How effectively do you communicate with others? These can include active listening skills, public speaking abilities, effective writing, awareness of non-verbal communication variables, or even mediation between other people. I tend to think about (and explain) communication with my team members in terms of written vs verbal and formal vs. informal communication. Some examples for each overlapping area are as shown below.
A discussion point that often comes up when talking about the communication part of someone’s Stack is which of these areas do they default to (is most important) and which do they avoid (least important). I emphasize that I believe no one area is more or less important than another and the goal should be, or at least I set for my teams, to be capable in all and improving in each.
Framing communication in this way has another added benefit it makes it easier to connect to either drive or intelligence because some of these communication strategies naturally align with those core areas. I’ll get into crossover goal setting later on but for someone who has communication as their self-identified lowest/weakest area, giving specific examples can help them be less intimidated by the idea of working with “communicators.”
Team Tasking Order: 2/3
Strengths: Open to new connections, Creating multiple variations, Seeking understanding
Challenges: Time management, Prioritization, Decision paralysis when too many inputs present
