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In this episode of the Speak in Flow podcast, we dive into the impact of communication styles on leadership and how understanding your team’s unique preferences can take your leadership to the next level. By adapting your leadership style, you can foster a more connected, motivated, and high-performing team.
In This Episode, You Will Learn:
The 4 Communication Styles
We’ll explore Cool Blue, Earth Green, Sunshine Yellow, and Fiery Red, and how recognizing these styles can help prevent conflict and improve your team communication strategies.
Tailoring Your Leadership Style
Discover how adjusting your communication approach can deepen your connection with team members and enhance your leadership effectiveness.
Leveraging Team Diversity
Learn how a mix of communication styles leads to better decision-making and stronger project outcomes.
Real-Life Example
Melinda shares a story about a leader who used these insights to transform a struggling team into a high-performing unit.
Memorable Quotes:
“I encourage you to use a tool, some tool to understand the communication preferences of your team members.”
“A lot of times we need to go to where our people are. Recognizing your own communication strengths as well as blind spots and those of your team members.”
“Knowing that each person has their unique strengths and differences can help you too. Then, therefore adapt, and connect to the members of your team.”
Resources Mentioned:
A powerful tool to help you understand and work with diverse communication styles.
About Melinda:
Meinda Lee is a Presentation Skills Expert, Speaking Coach, and nationally renowned Motivational Speaker. She holds an M.A. in Organizational Psychology, is an Insights Practitioner, and is a Certified Professional in Talent Development as well as Certified in Conflict Resolution. For over a decade, Melinda has researched and studied the state of “flow” and used it as a proven technique to help corporate leaders and business owners amplify their voices, access flow, and present their mission in a more powerful way to achieve results.
She has been the TEDx Berkeley Speaker Coach and has worked with hundreds of executives and teams from Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Caltrans, Bay Area Rapid Transit System, and more. Currently, she lives in San Francisco, California, and is breaking the ancestral lineage of silence.
Website: https://speakinflow.com/
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/speakinflow
Instagram: https://instagram.com/speakinflow
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mpowerall
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Welcome. Dear listeners, to the speak and flow podcast where we dive into the art and science of effective communication to help you and your team achieve maximum potential and flow.
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Melinda Lee: My name is Melinda Lee, and I'm your host today.
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Melinda Lee: This episode is for our aspiring team leaders, or if you're already a team leader and want to lead a top performing team.
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Melinda Lee: This episode is for you.
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Melinda Lee: and we're diving into communication styles and preferences.
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Melinda Lee: Why.
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Melinda Lee: when we can understand the nuances of each communication preference.
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Melinda Lee: You're going to be able to move from managing
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Melinda Lee: or even overlooking your team members
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Melinda Lee: into more inspiring
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Melinda Lee: and leading and getting the results that you want.
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Melinda Lee: I'm going to take you to. A couple years back
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Melinda Lee: I was working with the team leader and this team leader, very bright and talented, could not understand why the team was slowing down. The morale was low, and the project had been solved.
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Melinda Lee: so I was brought in to diagnose the issue
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Melinda Lee: and and then working with the team really quickly, I found that each member of the team had different communication styles.
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Melinda Lee: Now each style was so different, but yet nobody understood, recognized, or even celebrated, celebrated the communication differences.
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Melinda Lee: and when you have different communication differences, they are. They actually started to have lot of conflict.
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Melinda Lee: They started getting frustrated with each other, could not understand why they could not hear each other out.
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Melinda Lee: They started talking over each other.
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Melinda Lee: and they couldn't get anywhere. And so then the project started stalling.
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Melinda Lee: Then we use a tool called Insights Discovery.
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Melinda Lee: And this tool is powerful because it's science backed. It's research that is dated all the way back into Hippocrates.
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Melinda Lee: And it's been researched, validated for reliability over decades. I encourage you to use a tool, some tool to understand the communication preferences of your team members
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Melinda Lee: in at insights we found that there's 4 color energies, 4 communication styles.
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Melinda Lee: cool blue.
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Melinda Lee: earth, green
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Melinda Lee: sunshine, yellow and fiery red. Now, I like insights because we're using colors right? Colors are visual and they're sticky. They're easy to remember. There's other tools such as Disc or Myers Briggs.
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Melinda Lee: that just use a tool so that each member of your team has a common language to talk about communication styles and communication preferences.
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Melinda Lee: So today I'm going to break down each of those 4. And as I break down the 4, I want you to listen carefully.
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Melinda Lee: Proof which
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Melinda Lee: out of the 4
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Melinda Lee: do you resonate? With
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Melinda Lee: which do you find are easy for you to use, and you use them quite a bit.
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Melinda Lee: and which are you have used before, but maybe you're not so comfortable. Maybe you don't prefer to use them. Just really ask yourself these questions.
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Melinda Lee: It's not right or wrong. It's just a little self reflection exercise right now.
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Melinda Lee: Here we go.
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Melinda Lee: Here are the 4.
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Melinda Lee: The 1st one is
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Melinda Lee: cool blue. So think about that cool blue color. Cool blue is the energy that we use to analyze.
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Melinda Lee: to to think about the data, to be cautious
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Melinda Lee: on a project team. This cool blue energy will gather all the facts.
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Melinda Lee: put them into a logical manner very structured
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Melinda Lee: before making a decision.
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Melinda Lee: Second, energy. Earth, green earth. Green, has a collaborative nature.
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Melinda Lee: democratic nature and an Earth green energy is used on a project team to go around to each member
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Melinda Lee: to ask for their opinion.
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Melinda Lee: And then earth, green energy is a great listener.
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Melinda Lee: so they'll listen to every member on the team because they care
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Melinda Lee: about what people think and feel.
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Melinda Lee: The 3rd energy sunshine, yellow, enthusiastic, dynamic visionary on a project team. The sunshine yellow will have the big picture thinking they're going to connect the dots, and they're going to get people excited about it.
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Melinda Lee: They'll probably end up throwing a fabulous party afterwards, too.
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Melinda Lee: Now, finally, fiery red, determined results. Oriented action oriented
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Melinda Lee: on a project team. The fiery red energy will look at all the tasks, assign deadlines, and make sure each one of them are done.
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Melinda Lee: Did you think about which ones which color energies you prefer to use
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Melinda Lee: having this heightened awareness will serve you when you can recognize
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Melinda Lee: that each of them you've used them.
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Melinda Lee: You probably prefer to use some more than the others. But notice how each of them on a project team are important.
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Melinda Lee: the fiery red energy. When you have a lot of fiery red energy you probably have met those people that are taking a little bit longer. It could be that they're leading more with the cool blue energy.
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Melinda Lee: So just remember that when you're talking to someone with more cool blue energy.
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Melinda Lee: it's not that they're hesitating or resisting you. It may be more that they're just considering
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Melinda Lee: the data.
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Melinda Lee: They're considering the facts
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Melinda Lee: before moving forward.
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Melinda Lee: If you're a person that leads with more Earth green energy, and you're talking to someone with a lot of fiery red. The fiery red energy is has lots of great points, and they're communicative.
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Melinda Lee: And as the Earth green energy, you're going to want to listen
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Melinda Lee: and and listen to be, to understand others versus to be understood.
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Melinda Lee: And it's not that you don't have valuable insight or opinions. It's more that you're just listening.
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Melinda Lee: and that is a strength.
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Melinda Lee: So, remembering that each of these energies.
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Melinda Lee: when we discussed them, they all had
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Melinda Lee: their own value to add on a project. All of them are important.
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Melinda Lee: None of them are better than the others.
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Melinda Lee: recognizing the differences, and also the strengths and blind spots of each.
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Melinda Lee: can make such a huge impact on your team
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Melinda Lee: going back to the team that I was working with.
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Melinda Lee: We did find out that the manager, the leader, had a lot of fiery red energy, and once the leader recognized the strength of the cool blue energy. The leader gave the cool blue energy more time to evaluate the data.
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Melinda Lee: more time to let them do what they did best.
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Melinda Lee: which is really taking the facts into consideration.
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Melinda Lee: And when the cool blue energy recognized the strength of the fiery red.
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Melinda Lee: the cool blue energy
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Melinda Lee: delivered the data more succinctly, concisely and quickly.
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Melinda Lee: and the Earth green energy. They went around and asked for the opinions of all the members building each other, and when they all work together so cohesively like that, leveraging the strengths of each.
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Melinda Lee: valuing the strength of each, they became a more cohesive team, moving forward toward progress and success
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Melinda Lee: as a leader.
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Melinda Lee: A lot of times we need to go to where our people are
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Melinda Lee: recognizing your own communication strengths as well as blind spots.
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Melinda Lee: and those of your team members.
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Melinda Lee: knowing that there are 4 different communication styles, preferences, cool blue earth, green sunshine, yellow and fiery red.
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Melinda Lee: and each of these energies have varying levels of intensity, meaning some have a lot more than others, so, knowing that each person has their unique strengths
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Melinda Lee: and differences
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Melinda Lee: can help you to. Then, therefore.
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Melinda Lee: adapt.
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Melinda Lee: connect to the members of your team, and when you adapt and connect, you move from just managing people
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Melinda Lee: to leading and inspiring top performing teams.
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Melinda Lee: I hope you've taken away some nuggets from this episode.
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Melinda Lee: If you liked it, comment, share it.
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Melinda Lee: and until next time, remember, I am your sister. In flow. May prosperity flow to you, and through you to others always.
