How to: Work with Different Working Styles
After more than half a decade of working in professional services, I can confidently tell you that one of the biggest stressors in the modern workplace is working with someone you don't get along with. This can occur for many reasons, but in my experience the most common reason is a difference in working style. Even if two coworkers have similar interests and can get along well outside the workplace, their workplace relationship will be defined by how they interact with each other while getting their jobs done. This is why you may know someone that you have difficulty working with, but also somehow love going to happy hours with. Over the course of your career, you will interact with many coworkers and clients, each with a different working style that will either facilitate or complicate getting your job done. Today, I'm going to show you how you can work with people with different working styles than your own.
What is Working Style?
Working Style is simply how you prefer to get your work done, and includes:
How you communicate with others
The preferred amount, extent, frequency of direction given to or taken from others
How you prioritize tasks when getting a job done
One person might prefer a set of detailed instructions provided in writing with a daily check-in call to go over any questions while another person could prefer calling immediately to address questions as they come up. No working styles are inherently better or worse than others. However, complications can arise when you put two people together who have conflicting working styles.
For example:
A manager that likes to jump around from project to project throughout the day might not work well with someone who needs to stay focused on one project for an extended period of time to be efficient.
A client that likes talking on the phone to address issues might not work well with someone who wants to stick to emails
A new person on the job who will need more frequent feedback to improve may not work well with a team that is not available for questions.
How Do I Work with Someone With a Different Working Style?
With so many different working styles out there, it is inevitable that you will one day work with someone that just doesn't match your style. In fact, if you are like me and end up working with multiple teams and clients throughout the year, you will need to address differences in working styles quite often. Here are the steps I take to ensure that the work gets done no matter who I am working with.
Step #1 Understand Your Own Working Style
To properly communicate your needs and also address any differences between you and your coworker/client, you need to understand how you work. Take some time to figure out your ideal working conditions when it comes to communicating and completing tasks with your coworkers/clients. Through this process, you may discover that some small details can make a big difference in your productivity such as keeping a to-do list or having regular check-ins to stay on track. Once you understand how you work, you can communicate your needs and preferences to others while working to find an agreeable arrangement.
Step #2 Communicate Your Needs Up Front
If you know that there is something you absolutely need to be successful, you need to communicate that as soon as possible so the other person can work with you effectively. This could be things as simple as "I work best with a priority list; can you please list out what we need to get done so I can move on to the next thing if you're too busy to take a question?" Or "I'm not too good at thinking on my feet, would you mind giving me a 15 minute heads up before we have an update call so I can gather my thoughts?" By communicating these things up front, the other person can make the proper preparations to accommodate where possible.
Step #3 Ask About the Other Person's Style and Preferences
The other person has their own working style and needs, just like you. You taking the time to accommodate their needs can be just as important as them accommodating yours. A great example of this is the time when I was working with a client who had lots of different obligations. I sat down with the client and told them our timeline and asked what we can do to make sure we stay on track. This client responded by saying that with everything going on, it would be a great idea to have daily calls to help them prioritize the requests that were causing bottlenecks. My team did not need these update meetings to stay productive, but the client did. As a result, my team taking the 30 minutes to 1 hour of their day helped the client stay on track and as a result, everything got done on time.
Step #4 Find the Best Solution for Everyone
Depending on the nature of your work or the project you are working on, playing to the strengths of one party's working style may be very important to getting the job done. It's important to remember that most of the time, everyone involved in a project is intent on working towards the same goal, and achieving goals requires everyone to be working efficiently. Creating a process that will allow this might require some compromise, but it is well worth it!
Important Things to Remember
Now that you've learned a little bit about working Styles and how to effectively work with others with different working styles, here's a few things to keep in mind.
No working style is perfect
Some working styles work better for certain projects and circumstances than others
Having a different working style does not mean someone is incompetent
As long as you're working with other people, understanding the concept of working Styles and how to manage differences in the way people get their work done will be a skill that is critical to your success. Good luck!