Tina Kuhn - The Manager’s Communication Toolkit: Tools and Techniques for Leading Difficult Personalities

Praise for The Manager's Communication Toolkit

Tina has written the how to book on not only managing difficult personalities but also building productive relationships. Every manager from the CEO down to the most junior personshould read this book and keep it close for reference. A must-read.

SID FUCHS, defense industry CEO and author of Get Off the Bench

Workforces are complex and diverse living organisms that are essential to an organizations success. Anyonemanagers, senior staff, and new employeeswho wants to understand and improve their interactions with colleagues and the workforce in general needs to first read this book and then adopt it as a reference guide on how to identify the different personalities that comprise their workforce, the types of communications strategies they could tailor to their particular situation, and the tools they could use to achieve successful outcomes. Tina Kuhn shows readers how to develop a vibrant and productive workforce.

LESLIE LEWIS, PHD, consultant and recognized expert on strategic and business planning for the government and industry

Whether youre a novice supervisor or a seasoned executive, this book is for you. The core of personal and professional success is effective communication. Tinas instruction in using the ten models of personality types gives realistic context to her book. You can easily translate her examples to your everyday work environment and may find yourself sorting your peers, managers, and employees into one of the ten personality types. Her practical leadership advice is a terrific annual checklist to remind us of how to be our best manager self.

JILL SINGER, Vice PresidentNational Security, AT&T

Once you read The Managers Communication Toolkit you will never approach a tricky workplace communication scenario without it! This is the best tactical communication reference guide I have ever read.

YOLANDA CLARKE, CEO/Founder of Powder River Industries (PRI)

Tinas book, based on her personal management success, provides a comprehensive discussion on how to effectively communicate with all the types of personalities you are sure to encounter during your career. Make sure you have plenty of post-it notes handy while you read it, as youll want to mark many of the pages for reference.

GARY ROSEN, President, Engineering Solutions, Inc.

"Tina Kuhn's book is in a league of its own! Tina has the unique capacity to explain best practices to communicate effectively in challenging scenarios and does so with great clarity. Her insights and tools provide invaluable advice to overcome even the most difficult encounters."

ABIGAIL WENNER, President & CEO of Executive Consulting International LLC

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher and author are not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Published by Greenleaf Book Group Press

Austin, Texas

www.gbgpress.com

Copyright 2019 Christina Kuhn

All rights reserved.

Thank you for purchasing an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright law. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the copyright holder.

Distributed by Greenleaf Book Group

For ordering information or special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Greenleaf Book Group at PO Box 91869, Austin, TX 78709, 512.891.6100.

Design and composition by Greenleaf Book Group

Cover design by Greenleaf Book Group and Chantel Stull

Cover image Sergey Korkin, 2018. Used under license from Shutterstock.com.

Publishers Cataloging-in-Publication data is available.

Print ISBN: 978-1-62634-589-8

eBook ISBN: 978-1-62634-590-4

Part of the Tree Neutral program, which off sets the number of trees consumed in the production and printing of this book by taking proactive steps, such as planting trees in direct proportion to the number of trees used: www.treeneutral.com

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

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First Edition

I dedicate this book to every project lead, manager, and leader who is working to create good communication and unity within their team.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Why Read This Book?

Do you have difficult people in your life? Do you sometimes feel frustrated by others behavior or choices? Do you ever struggle when trying to communicate or work with a colleague, team member, boss, or customer? Do you have problems that remain unresolved despite your best efforts? Do you avoid dealing with issues because of fear of conflict? Do you want to become a better leader?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this book is for you.

Communication is the core of all management and leadership. Effective communication unites teams and provides a framework for a vision and goal to be met. Noted program manager authority Rita Mulcahy states, Project managers spend 90 percent of their time on communication-related activities. I would extrapolate from that and say that all good leaders spend 90 percent or more of their time communicating.

To be a good leader, you must be able to communicate effectively to all different types of people, using different styles and mediums. Keeping your organization or team focused on goals and avoiding the mire of drama and frustration depends on successfully dealing with even the most difficult people. This book teaches you how to present yourself, how to listen and respond to others, how to recognize stress in yourself and others, and how to resolve conflict. You will learn strategies for dealing with the ten most challenging personality types. These include the Manipulator, Gossiper, Naysayer, Controller, Perfectionist, Yes-Man, Drama Queen, Recluse, Whiner, and Liar. You will receive advice on how to adapt your communication to work with these difficult individuals and resolve conflict in a way that fosters greater teamwork and keeps everyone moving forward for the good of the organization.

As a senior executive with thirty-five years of expertise in organizational transformation, I have seen the results of good communication techniques and the consequences of poor ones. The ideas presented here come from years worth of notes, gathered as I grew and learned how to be a better leader and communicator. I have worked in environments spanning the cybersecurity, defense, intelligence, government, and commercial industries. The businesses might have differed, but the communication issues I witnessed were remarkably similar from organization to organization. I have tackled dysfunctional teams and made them more unified, productive, and happy. It is an amazing feeling to see how some simple changes in communication make a huge difference in team unity, morale, productivity, teamwork, and happiness.

I am excited to share my knowledge of overcoming personality and communication issues to help you create a better working environment. The communication techniques described in this book draw on wide experience and interviews with leaders in numerous industries. From the information in this book, you will be able to understand and communicate with the diverse individuals in your organization, as well as identify their varying needs, their preferences, and the styles of communication that will be most effective for them.