Berens Interaction Styles

INTERACTION STYLES BASIC HANDOUT

Berens Interaction Styles™

How do you tend to express yourself? How are you driven to interact with others? What is your natural energy and movement pattern? Your preferred Interaction Style is the most easily observed aspect of your CORE since it is embodied in your communications and movements. The Interaction Styles lens helps us establish rapport and greatly affects relationships of all kinds. Interaction Styles is reflective of the long researched work on temperament in children as well as a deconstruction and reintegration of Social Styles and DiSC models.

What's your Interaction Style SuperPower™?

Behind-the-Scenes™  

The theme is getting the best result possible. People of this style focus on understanding and working with the process to create a positive outcome. They see value in many contributions and consult outside inputs to make an informed decision. They aim to integrate various information sources and accommodate differing points of view. They approach others with a quiet, calm style that may not show their strong convictions. Producing, sustaining, defining, and clarifying are all ways they support a group's process. They typically have more patience than most with the time it takes to gain support through consensus for a project or to refine the result.

SuperPower is Synthesizing

• Identifying what is truly needed or wanted
• Seeking internal consistency and reconciling inconsistencies
• Producing high quality results that have been refined and reworked
• Supporting others logistically, emotionally, or with information
• Defining specifications so others can provide a unified result
• Clarifying values so others align with the results
• Searching for commonalities that already exist
• Sustaining efforts to get the needed results
• Encourage participation so important input is not missed

Chart-the-Course™

The theme is having a course of action to follow. People of this style focus on knowing what to do and keeping themselves, the group, or the project on track. They prefer to enter a situation having an idea of what is to happen. They identify a process to accomplish a goal and have a somewhat contained tension as they work to create and monitor a plan. The aim is not the plan itself, but to use it as a guide to move things along toward the goal. Their informed and deliberate decisions are based on analyzing, outlining, conceptualizing or foreseeing what needs to be done.

SuperPower is Intending

• Thinking ahead
• Developing a course of action
• Acting with a deliberate sense of purpose
• Mapping out processes to accomplish the purpose
• Outlining and planning agendas and logistics
• Conceptualizing an end result that keeps intentions focused
• Figuring out what needs to be done to achieve the desired end result
• Articulating how people will respond, shedding light on what is likely to happen
• Monitoring progress and giving guidance    

Get-things-Going™

The theme is persuading and involving others. They thrive in facilitator or catalyst roles and aim to inspire others to move to action, facilitating the process. Their focus is on interaction, often with an expressive style. They Get-Things-Going™ with upbeat energy, enthusiasm, or excitement, which can be contagious. Exploring options and possibilities, making preparations, discovering new ideas, and sharing insights are all ways they get people moving along. They want decisions to be participative and enthusiastic, with everyone involved and engaged.

SuperPower is Motivating

• Moving people to action
• Catalyzing, energizing, and inspiring
• Drawing attention to what people want most
• Facilitating—getting involvement and resolving disagreements
• Making preparations to make things easy for others
• Get people to actions they can buy in to
• Persuading and involving others with either emotion or logic
• Sharing insights and discovering new ways of seeing things that engage others
• Exploring options that get people involved

In-Charge™

The theme is getting things accomplished through people. People of this style are focused on results, often taking action quickly. They often have a driving energy with an intention to lead a group to the goal. They make decisions quickly to keep themselves and others on task, on target, and on time. They hate wasting time and having to back track. Mentoring, executing actions, supervising, and mobilizing resources are all ways they get things accomplished. They notice right away what is not working in a situation and become painfully aware of what needs to be fixed, healed, or corrected.

SuperPower is Steering

• Managing and directing actions
• Leading others to a goal
• Taking the helm with confidence they will succeed
• Supervising—assigning tasks, then checking in to see they are done properly
• Mobilizing resources—spotting the right person for the job, then empowering them to do it
• Executing actions—knowing what to do to get things done
• Accomplish through people—mentoring them in order to accomplish more
• Articulate a vision
• Removing obstacles