Although it’s not Spring, our Building Management has asked us to consider disposing of unnecessary paper during a semi-annual shredding event.   I was surprised to uncover some Notes I kept from my position in Legal Management when I attended a Seminar on Communication.  The date of the handout is 1996.  What’s surprising is that I heard a presentation on the same subject this Summer in 2014.   It’s known as the Tell or Ask personality style.  If you Tell, you are likely to tell and control  — you are Pragmatic; or you Tell and show as an Extrovert.

Perhaps you Ask as an Analytical  person who asks and controls, or you Ask and show, being Amiable.  So your Personality choices in this exercise are Assertive, Non-Assertive, Emotional or Practical.  

Tell or Ask, or is it Ask or Tell?   Present-day questions might be:  What personality style in your career shows up in you most of the time?  How often would you say you really are a blend of both, Ask or Tell?  Who do you relate to more easily, a person who Tells or a person who Asks?  How do you handle the situation if someone is opposite of how you act? What would you like the opposite person to know about you, that he or she does not already know?   While this exercise is fun, please consider how you want someone else to know what this labeling means to you and perhaps your team as you handle your day-to-day interactions.

Enjoy your career week as you Choose Who You Want to be Known As.

“Jo Ann” M. Radja, Career Management Coach and Change Agent.

Note:  Julie Paradise of Communication Strategies Company, “Getting Your Message Across in Tough Times, or… How to Soften the Blow.”  Presentation to the Chicago Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators on June 11, 1996.