Understanding Yourself And Others® An Introduction To Interaction Styles 2.0

by Linda V. Berens

Like leaves of many colors, we each have a different energy. Each colored leaf excites the senses in different ways and evokes a different emotion just as each of us impacts and influences others in different ways. This energy is driven from within by our predispositions and yet influenced by our interactions with others. There is a richness and variety in the many ways we have of expressing who we are. The four interaction styles are patterns of behavior that have been described by many over the years. Each style has a theme-centered internal drive that helps set the boundaries of our comfort zones in the chaotic world of interpersonal relationships. If we can recognize our own style, we can better match our energy and know how to adapt and flex when necessary to reach goals and meet others at their view of the world. Understanding Yourself and An Introduction to Interaction Styles reveals the four fundamental interaction style patterns for you to try on in your search for understanding yourself and others. Within these patterns are clues to the how of our behaviors. Find out how you consistently seem to fall into certain roles in your interactions with others and how you can shift your energies to take on other roles when necessary. The Understanding Yourself and Others Series offers you powerful and insightful tools to help you achieve your professional and personal goals whether you're the leader of an organization striving to build better teams or an individual wanting to better understand yourself and the people with whom you interact. The series presents the essential elements of personality through three overlapping and complementary temperament theory, interaction styles, and cognitive dynamics, all of which support systemic learning and application. Exploring these models helps answer questions about how and why we do what we do, and provides hands-on guidance through showing you potential paths for growth and development. The books in this series are written by experts and are based on proven methods for effective learning and application. Edition 2.0 includes content on the 4 variations of each interaction style which is gives us the 16 personality types.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction

48 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2008

Reviews

[Gold Dust · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short book about the work-related personality typology invented by Linda Berens. On p. 2, she mentions several other work-related typology systems that came before her which also described four possible types, “best viewed as a whole pattern, not a cluster of traits” (6). These types were focussed on observable outer behavior, not inner states as Carl Jung’s typology was (2, 33). But like Jung, Berens believes that type is inborn (4).

Not sure why Berens felt the need to make her own system when it just gives new names to the same four personality types other people invented. One possibly unique thing about her system is that she attempts to correlate her four types to the 16 MBTI types. But when I read the profiles of her four types, they seemed like certain MBTI types in particular, not 16 of them:
*In-Charge: social, strong, leads with confidence (E), big picture thinker (N), straightforward, efficient, businesslike (T), decisive, responsible, plans, prepares, orderly, productive, works hard (J). ENTJ.
*Get-Things-Going: social, enthusiastic, expressive (E), comes up with stories/analogies/metaphors, doesn’t like being average (N), empathetic, cooperative, sensitive (F), casual, playful, humorous, indecisive (P). ENFP.
*Behind-the-Scenes: quiet, calm (I), focussed on details (S), accommodating, helpful, supports others (F), flexible, slow, goes with the flow, gathers everyone’s opinions/input (P), easy going/phlegmatic (10). ISFP.
*Chart-the-Course: quiet, independent, reflective, distant (I), observes (S), questioning and foreseeing (N), analytical, straightforward, aloof, critical, systematic, doesn’t like small talk (T), focussed, organized, strategic, plans, decides, productive, accomplished (J). This is the only one of Berens’ types that could be more than one MBTI type (ISTJ and INTJ).

Berens describes how each of the four types acts when stressed, but it’s basically different ways of saying the same thing (30):
In-Charge: checks out or gets demanding
Get-Things-Going: selective avoidance or gets overly expressive
Behind-the-Scenes: avoids conflict or gets rigid
Chart-the-Course: withdraws or gets insistent

Berens also categorizes her types into these dichotomies:
*Initiating (extraverted) vs. responding (introverted)
*Control (hurry to the goal) vs. Movement (slow progress, can act without thinking of consequences)
*Abstract (ideas, meaning) vs. concrete (experiences, observations)
*Affiliative (agreeable, harmony) vs. pragmatic (independence, expedience)
*Direct vs. Informing - basically giving direct orders vs. giving indirect suggestions to convince someone to do something without explicitly asking for it. Berens admits that which one we take on often has to do with the hierarchy we’re in; we’ll be more direct if we’re in a leadership/boss/parent role, and be more informing if we’re on the lower end of the hierarchy (20). “Most people use both at different times but have more comfort with one” (33). Positive parenting books tell parents to be more informative rather than direct, because informative sounds nicer and less bossy, but it risks the child not doing what you want, and it also indirectly teaches the child that the parent is not the boss but instead an equal or inferior that the child *can* say no to.
*Structure (order, control) vs. motive (why people do things, manipulating) - sounds the same as above.

She said that people are either BLM (Be Like Me) or BLT (Be Like Them). A BLM blames others because they fail to be like her. A BLT feels not good enough because she is not like others (1). (A self-esteem issue IMO.) The point of Berens’ typology is to show people that they are okay just the way they are, to understand others who are different, and to get along better in a work environment (1).

“No instruments that rely solely on self-reporting are completely accurate. They must all be accompanied by a validation process, preferably involving self-discovery. Many instruments have standards that require face-to-face facilitated feedback with a qualified professional” (2).

Research that went into Berens’ system: The descriptions of the types “have been circulated and tested in workshops and with family and friends for over a year. Each piece of feedback has been run against a filter of ‘Is this something that comes from their temperament pattern and their full type pattern or would each of the four types who share the interaction style agree?’ Then the descriptions were edited and tested again” (iv).

MBTI: “A difficulty remained in how to determine which mental process was dominant in the personality and which was auxiliary. Myers reasoned that we can more readily observe what we do externally, so she decided to add questions to try to find which preferred mental process individuals used in the external world. If they used their preferred judging process to order the external world, they would be likely to make lists and structure their time in advance. If they used their preferred perceiving process to experience the external world, they would avoid such planning and structuring and prefer to keep things open-ended. Thus, the Judging-Perceiving scale of the MBTI was born” (34). And based on this THEORY, the function stacks were assembled!

Some other work-related typologies:

In the DiSC system, you can be one of four types: Official DiSC: Dominance, influence, steadiness, conscientiousness.
Dominance: confident, place emphasis on accomplishing the bottom-line
Influence: more open; influence and persuade others
Steadiness: dependable, cooperation, sincerity
Conscientiousness: quality, accuracy, expertise, competency
(Source: https://www.discprofile.com/what-is-disc )

Free DISC test at Truity.com version: Drive, Influence, Clarity, or Support.
Drive: takes charge to get things done. Makes decisions and takes action. Correlates with Dominance.
Influence: Engages others and shares enthusiasm. Correlates with Influence.
Clarity: Works steadily within systems. Focuses on order, accuracy, and precision. Correlates with Conscientiousness.
Support: Is helpful and shows care for others. Looks for ways to assist and serve. Correlates with Steadiness.
(Definitions from truity.com)

1960s: Merrill’s Social Styles
Driver - active, productive, results, efficient, decisive
Expressive - innovative, creative
Amiable - needs, motivations, teamwork, feelings, beliefs, values, self-development
Analytical - facts, figures, policies, organization, planning/forecasting, analysis, control
Source: https://agilityportal.io/blog/merrill...

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful and a must read to understand the Interaction Styles of the 16 Personalities.

[Jay Ahn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty cool system. Interaction styles are more observable than Keirseyan temperaments, and I like that the book has strategies for interacting with each type.