#157 - Behavior Styles Review: Analyzers

Speaker A: Foreign. Hey everybody. Ethan Nash here. Folks, over the next several episodes, I am going to go through the four different behavior styles. Now these four different behavior styles, these are similar to the styles you would see in something like Disc or, uh, the colors model. Um, so it's generally a well used model and it's the model that we use in our workshops at Nash Consulting. Now one of the main differences with our model versus other people's models is that, uh, our model is mostly based on how you show up to other people. Meaning it's less around how you personally feel. Now, how you feel and how you show up to others, there's a lot of overlap. But when we do this workshop with people, we actually have other people fill out a survey and do some activities to give you the data on how you're perceived by them, how you show up to them, which we find is really valuable knowledge and information in the workplace, knowing how we show up to other people. So in today's episode, we're going to go through the first behavioral style, which is the analyzer. Now a few notes, um, just for skeptics out there and people that need to hear this stuff. First off, again, there are four different behavioral styles. And of course this is just a model. And a model is a simplified way of communicating or explaining something complex. And in this case that is human behavior, which is extremely complex. So yes, we all know that this is a bit of a crude tool in a sense. We all know that if there's a hundred people in the room, that means there's a hundred different behavior styles in the room. But what is true, what we find to be true, is that we can look at a group of people and observe a group of people and recognize that everybody has a bit of a home base in terms of their behavioral style. Okay. Uh, and I find that when we can understand not only kind of our home base in terms of how we show up to others, but the home base of other people that are in our lives and that we work with, that is a bit of a superpower. So again, it's a model, it's a bit of a crude tool. But just because it's a model doesn't mean it's not extremely useful and practical. And I certainly find that to be so. When we understand the behavioral styles, I think it gives us enough information to recognize our own strengths in terms of how we show up in work, as well as areas that we might need to adjust to better meet the needs of others. And I think the real benefit comes from once we understand these different styles pretty well. We can start identifying them amongst those that we work with. And when we can do that, it allows us to communicate and work with others in a way that is going to maximize your chances of building trust, respect, understanding, communicating clearly, and so on and so forth. You know, for example, once I understand the different styles, I can say, ah, uh, okay, this person I work with, this person just needs to talk, to think, meaning they just need to kind of just like use a lot of words to process their thoughts. So once I get that, I can understand that I am not going to take everything that comes out of their mouth as their truth. This is just their process for processing. And so, you know, I'm going to allow them and just let them kind of spitball here without trying to correct or intervene or anything like that. As. So that's one example. Another example would be once I understand the styles, uh, I really get that, that, you know, this person, when I work with this person and communicate with this person, I need to speak more to the data and the evidence, more so than speaking just to kind of our emotional or gut feeling about a thing. And that's how to best communicate with this person. Or another example would be, hey, this person really wants conciseness and they want straight talk when I present to them. And that's the best way to get through to them. Or, you know, this person needs a little bit of small talk, a little bit of relational touch before, before we start kind of getting down to business. And that's how we're going to best be able to collaborate with each other in the long term. So again, understanding these broad styles gives us the data to tailor our interactions, tailor our communications to others. Now, the last thing I'll just point out here before I, uh, dive into our first style today, is that again, the theory is we all have a home base. So one of these four styles is our home base. And then we also have a secondary style that interacts with that home base. And of course we probably have a threshionary, uh, style as well. Um, but what I find to be most useful is to focus on uncovering, hey, what's probably my primary style and what's my secondary style. And then what's the primary and secondary style of those that I'm working with or interacting with most frequently, uh, in my workplace or in life. And that gives you good information for you, once again, to be effective in your collaboration, communication, build trust and respect. So all of that said, today we are going to discuss the analyzers now by the way, when we teach this workshop, when we do this workshop with teams, um, um, there's a lot of activities and background knowledge and background theory that leads us then into explaining the four styles. But here I'm just going to give you a somewhat uh, concise review and overview of the four styles. So analyzers. With each one of these behavior styles, we have the seven organizing principles of each of the styles. And so think of these as each style's kind of want, needs and expectations in the workplace in terms of how they appear to show up. So with analyzers, first here are the seven organizing principles and then I'll go through each one in a little more detail. This is high expectations, number two, information and details. Number three, accuracy and honesty, number four, time to process. Number five, respect for their inner world. And number six, to be asked and heard. And number seven is stability and consistency. All right, let's do this, let's dive in. So let's talk about high expectations. Analyzers tend to have high expectations for themselves and, and others. Now they may not actually feel that way, but they what? Remember they show up in a way that appears like they have high expectations for themselves and others. And that's a theme across all of this. You may not feel that way, but that's how you show up to other people. So I mean, first off, let's talk about some of the blessings and benefits of someone with high expectations. Maybe state some of the obvious here. Someone that has high expectations, they're going to have a high bar, uh, for quality, they're going to work hard, they're going to motivate others probably to have a high bar, they're going to help us avoid mistakes, right? Making sure that we're dotting our eyes and crossing our T's. Again, they're going to push for quality, they're going to push for excellence. And we need these things in the workplace, duh. So a lot of beautiful gifts that come from this. And with any one of these styles and qualities of the style, everything's a double edged sword, right? Equality, uh, is a strength in one context and maybe a liability or weakness in another context. So where could this potentially get in the way of our analyzers? One way it gets in their way is this vibe of kind of perfectionist if they're not careful. The vibe can sometimes be when you work with an analyzer, you are not going to meet my expectations, which can sometimes land as you are not good enough yet. Now with analyzers you sometimes get this trifecta which Is, you know, the first thing is they're hard to read, they're less emotionally expressive. Okay. And you would now add that they have high expectations. And you add the fact that they, because of these high expectations, they tend to point out the errors and misses more than the wins and successes. Like they don't give praise as easily. And what that can equal if they're not careful is they can come across as a bit critical and a bit hard to please. Just this vibe of uh, you have not pleased me yet. And again, they might not feel that way, but that's how they can come, come across sometimes. And how does it feel to be in a relationship with someone that is hard to please? Not always. Good. And as my dad says when he teaches this workshop, it's kind of this vibe of like, hey honey, I told you I loved you when I married you. I'll let you know when I change my mind. Why do we have to keep rehashing this? Alright, so you can see how this can turn into a relationship issue. If you feel like you can't meet their expectations and you don't give a lot of praise, it can be a relationship issue. And again, this is if they're not careful, we all make adjustments to show up with a lot more emotional iq. And so the adjustment that analyzers might need to make here is yes, keep having high expectations. That's a gift and we need those people around and add in a bit more praise and give more compliments. And what that will equal is people are going to be more motivated to hit your high expectations. So keep pushing for excellence. And when you add trust plus pushing for excellence, that's a pretty powerful combo. All right, so that's all about high expectations. The second vibe or organizing principle of an analyzer is information in details. Tell me more. I need more information. I am not ready to decide yet. I need more data. All right, so these are the people that try to understand and just gather all the information which really helps us avoid errors, helps us avoid redoing work. Okay. They kind of measure twice, cut once and they, you know, in meetings and stuff like that, they, they ask questions that we don't always think to ask or pieces that we didn't know were missing. And this is clearly invaluable. Now the double edged sword here is not having enough information can be stressful which can cause them to slow down even more to gather more information which can sometimes slow us down more than we, that is necessary or could prevent us from just kind of learning as we go so at times they can take too much time to gather information, because not having the information and then needing to go do the thing can be stressful. But we can't always have all the information, can we? All right, but again, this is part of their gift. They help protect us from errors. They help us identify gaps, and sometimes we need to move forward without all the details. All right, so number three for them is accuracy and honesty. Now, this is a weird way of saying this, but they tend to get things right. And I'm not just saying that because I'm an analyzer. I mean, like, they get things right. Not mean, like, not meaning like they know everything, but, you know, they measure twice, right? They collect the details and information. And so given that, it's important that what they say is both accurate and honest. And accuracy and honesty can be the same thing in their mind. So they're going to work hard to be accurate. Which means a big tension point for them might be hearing, no, you're wrong, because they spend a lot of time gathering the information in the details, and they probably wouldn't put out a thought or opinion if they didn't think that they were totally right and had all the information. So hearing you, you're wrong, is a big tension point for them. And with this, it's important that what you say is accurate and honest. So, for example, a promoter, which we'll cover in a later episode, when they say there was 50 people at the meeting, an analyzer might be thinking, well, no, there wasn't their line. There was 42, because I counted. Now you can see how this can turn into a bit of a trust issue when we have two different styles, not understanding that there are just different ways of showing up and communicating in the world. Not everybody communicates with the exact same accuracy as analyzers. Now, given this focus on accuracy and honesty, in a sense, analyzers are the easiest to trust. Meaning just like we can kind of trust what they're saying because they've done the work to make sure it's accurate. And with that, they can sometimes have the hardest time extending trust because they expect accuracy and honesty in a different way than others. Now, quick story here. So, uh, a business partner, um, you know, in m. My. In my life, um, we went through a period of time where I was really just doubting his word. And it kind of got to a place where I started seeing him. And, uh, it's hard to admit this because it's not true, but I started seeing him as a bit of a. A liar like that. Was the interpretation that I put on him. And, uh, when I explored this with myself, why. Why have I got to this negative place with him where I'm just now not really believing anything he tells me. What I realized what was happening was, well, first off, he's a promoter and I'm an analyzer. And he would, when we were in conversation to make decisions, he would try to convince me of something by saying something like, oh, you know, I've talked to a lot of clients about this, and this is what they think. Or, you know, I've heard from a lot of our team members. And then when I would press him on that, he could usually name like 1 or 2 or 3. Now, to me, 2 or 3 is not a lot. That's not accurate. And I interpret that as in, so that's not being honest. So over time, I just stopped believing him, and I was started to operate as if he was a liar. Now, do you think he was purposely lying? No, he was promoting. He just wasn't analyzing it to the same degree that I would. And so we had to go back and we had to restore some trust and respect with each other. And that was on me. That was on me for recognizing that this is just a different way someone communicates. And I need to lean more towards the most generous interpretation of him rather than the least generous interpretation. So again, there can be trust issues when trust and respect are broken, especially when we have the opposite behavioral styles communicating with each other. All right, all right. That was all about accuracy and honesty, which is a big one. Number four is time to process. They analyzers, they want time to decide, time to know what they think, time to gather all the info, time to get all their ducks in a row. Now, I had these two direct reports on my team, um, in the past, and when I would put present a decision that I needed to make to them and asking for their thoughts and opinions, one of my direct reports would almost always say, hey, let me think about that and get back to you. And she would take a day or two and come back to me. My other direct report, she would just kind of talk it out right there in front of me and just kind of spitball and process through words and then kind of land on her opinion and decision right there in the meeting. So just two different styles of coming up with someone's thoughts and opinions. And analyzers, they just need time to process. So one way to think about this is of the four styles, analyzers and listeners tend to think to talk, and conductors and promoters tend to Talk to think. So a big misread when it comes to our analyzers is that they're, we're in a meeting with them or something and they're, and they're disengaged because they're not showing a lot, they're not saying a lot. So we assume they don't care or they don't have anything to add here in this meeting. So we don't check in with them. But the reality is they just need time and space to process. All right, number five is respect for their inner world. Respect for the inner world. Just know that analyzers tend to show up in a way as if they are withholding a lot of stuff, withholding a lot of emotions, a lot of expressions, a lot of words. So again, a misconception we can have with analyzers is we don't know what's going on inside their head. So when there's a gap, we tend to make up negative things. Oh, they just don't get it, or they really don't get how big of a deal this is, uh, do they? Or they just don't care. And this can hurt when people assume this about us. So just remember that analyzers, they actually feel very deeply and they don't necessarily show what they're feeling outwardly. And what really goes a long ways for them is to check in with them, to ask them, hey, what are you thinking? What's going on? What are you feeling? And that shows them respect for their inner world because again, what's happening internally we don't see outwardly. All right, so number six is to be asked and heard. Now of course everybody wants to be heard. So I'm not saying the other three styles don't, I'm just saying that if analyzers have something to say, it can be really stressful if we don't hear them out. So in a meeting, imagine this. We have a 60 minute meeting, we haven't heard anything from this analyzer in the room. And at Ah, minute 47 this analyzer speaks up, it says, hey, I have an idea, what about this? And then we say, oh no, I don't think that will work. Doesn't, that doesn't really make sense. Um, anybody else? Now that might not feel great for a lot of people, but for an analyzer that hurts because that might have been the one time they were going to speak up in that entire meeting. Because again, they're processing, they're making sure what they say is accurate and honest. And that was the one time they were going to speak up and we just kind of brushed it aside. So they think deeply, but they may not say as much. So being asked for their opinion is a sign of respect. Or when they share an opinion, to be curious about that and to ask more questions about that goes a long ways for them. Okay, now last but not least for them, number seven is stability and consistency. Analyzers are indispensable when it comes to things like noticing when we need more consistency or we need more clear processes. Consistency is incredibly important for the workplace. They help keep us out of trouble because of this. They help us stay the course. They help keep us all on the same page, extremely valuable. And what would be the flip side of this? Like what could be some challenges for them? What might they need to adjust? Sometimes I find the analyzers can show up or be interpreted as their change resistant because again, focus on stability, focus on consistency. All right? And because of that they're asking a lot of questions or they're kind of trying to poke a lot of holes in things or that's how it appears. And we say, uh, other change resistant. Now their vibe might be, hey, let's not change just because someone has a brand new idea. Let's not make a bunch of radical changes. Have we thought this through? Now? Can you see the blessing in that? That helps us notice things that we might be missing. But can you also see how an analyzer might need to adjust M they might need to also take a little bit of time to point out what's good about an idea or how it might be a benefit or how it might work. And then when they start pointing to things that we haven't completely thought through or is a bit inconsistent, we're more likely to to hear those and accept those things. There was a guy on my team who was kind of criticized for being just a naysayer when it came to our discussions and decisions. And I mean you could tell that this was kind of getting him down. He recognized that he was being perceived as a naysayer. And so what we decided to do is give him a special role in our decision making process and to announce this to everybody there to say, hey, okay folks, we're going to discuss this. And you know what, this guy over here, I want you, as we're talking like your role is to play devil's advocate. Your role is to just kind of help point out where we're being consistent or where things don't totally make sense or we where you see gaps, because we need that in order to get to the best possible decision here. And so I invited him to play that role. And just so it wasn't totally weird, I invited another person to also play that role in the same meeting. And so he was given permission right there to utilize his, his strength. All right, so there you got there. There, there you got it. There you have it. Analyzers top seven wants, needs and expectations. Now, with each of these behavior styles, I'm going to give you three suggestions on what you should consider when working with an analyzer. To work with them, um, best. And then I'm also going to give you three suggestions on what analyzers should be careful of in order to work best with other people. So three ideas for what others should consider when working for analyzers. This is kind of a summary of what we've talked about here. Number one is give them time and information. Remember, analyzers, they need details, they need context, they need space to think before they're ready to decide or speak. And so, for example, sending them information in advance is helpful. Uh, maybe avoiding pressuring them for instant answers or giving them time to process, all of that shows a lot of respect. Number two is be accurate, be clear, be honest. This is how you speak their language. Analyzers tend to value precision. So when we overstate things or exaggerate things or, you know, things like that, it can sometimes be hard for them to hear. So be specific, be factual, and be willing to clarify. And number three is ask for their input and listen carefully. Again, analyzers don't always jump into the conversation, but that doesn't mean they're disengaged. When they do share, they have often thought deeply about it. So asking for their perspective and taking it seriously will build trust and respect. Now here are three suggestions for what analyzers can be more careful of. Things that they might need to adjust to work well with others or to work better with others. Because remember, we don't all have the same wants, needs and expectations. So number one is remember to balance your high expectations with encouragement. Your high standards are a gift. Lean into those. But if people mostly hear what is missing or what is wrong, they can kind of experience you as just a critical person or someone that's hard to please. So again, keep the high bar. But pair it with praise, pair it with recognition, pair with encouragement, and you're going to build a lot of trust and respect and people are going to be more willing to meet your high bar. Number two is don't let the need for more information slow everything down. Look, details do matter, but sometimes a team just needs to move forward before everything is fully known. So practice asking, hey, do we have enough information to take the next step? Rather than waiting for every detail to be resolved. 3. Just be mindful of how your inner world is interpreted or experienced by other people. Because analyzers are less expressive, analyzers sometimes get misread, and they get misread as disengaged or unhappy or resistant or uncaring. And at times, as an analyzer, we just need to give people more words. We can't expect our analyzers to show more emotion if that's not them. But we can give people more words and let people know what you're thinking, how you're feeling, and that will go along with us. All right, folks, that's your analyzer. Tune in next week and we will be discussing the promoters TA TA.