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Healthcare Training Institute - Quality Education since 1979

Section 4
Track #4: How to Build Working Relationships

Table of Contents | NCCAP/NCTRC CE Booklet

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Note-Taking Exercise

What are five strengths of an Amiable?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5. 

What are five weaknesses of an Amiable?
1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 
5. 

Transcript of Track 4

On the last track, we discussed the teamwork style of the Expressive.  If you recall, Expressives were open with their opinions, quick to make connections with other team members, and have the ability to add passion to projects that they have had a hand in creating.

If you haven't found yourself yet as being a driver or an expressive , on this track, we will examine the strengths and weaknesses of an Amiable.

Do you like to be the unsung hero of any team project?  Do you volunteer for tasks that other team members might not like to do?  If so, you’re exhibiting some of the main characteristics of the Amiable.  Although similar to the Expressive in their ability to communicate with others, the Amiable is much less assertive than the Expressive.  They prefer to stay out of the limelight, keeping team unity by taking much of the weight on their own shoulders.  Does this sound like you or someone in your department or another department in the facility?

#1 Strengths of the Amiable
The Amiable teamwork style in your facility, like the Expressive, is a team player.  Let’s look at five of the strengths of an Amiable in your facility.
First, Amiables tend to have an easy-going likable manner so they tend to build relationships more easily than most people.  Expressives, which were described on the last track, like to talk to other people, but that does not necessarily mean that they are building a relationship with that person.
Secondly, to support these relationships, Amiables utilize empathy.  Can you see how this quality alone makes an Amiable a great team member?  Often, Amiables are more interested in hearing others concerns, unlike the Expressive, more than they are expressing their own.  Generally, people choose to confide in Amiables more than any other thinking or communicating style.
Third, unlike the Expressive, the Amiable prefers to function in a stable and structured environment.  However, Amiables often prefer that someone else sets goals and plan the work before hand.
You might also find that Amiables are more emotional than others.  If you can win an Amiable over into believing in the validity of your goal, the Amiable can use the relationships they have built to bring in more people to a task than other team players. Can you see how the Driver needs an Amiable on his or her team to rally support; as well as the more assertive Expressive to creatively infuse passion?
Finally, in addition to being likeable, empathetic, liking a structured environment, and using relationships with others to support team goals; Amiables prefer to maintain a procedure or project rather than create it.  Often, Amiables are best in routine tasks, but like connections with people.  As you will see, the Analytical, to be discussed on the next track, prefers routine tasks, but is less people-oriented.  When you hear the musical tone, turn your CD player off, and think about yourself or another facility staff member who might be an Amiable, and a valuable team resource to facilitate building working relationships.  MUSIC

#2 Weaknesses of the amiable
Here are five weaknesses of a team member in your facility that you might be defining as an Amiable.  Remember, all four communication or thinking styles have both strengths and weaknesses.  Each style is just different from the others, and all four styles are needed to have a strong team.  No one style is innately better than another.
First, as mentioned on the first part of this track, Amiables tend to give more time and energy to their relationships with other people rather than to the task at hand.  You could say that a possible weakness of an extreme Amiable is that he or she overdoes the friendship factor.
The second weakness of an Amiable occurs if an Amiable feels as though he or she is being mistreated.  Can you see how a Driver who may be unaware of others feelings can unknowingly offend an Amiable on his or her team?  Unlike Expressives, Amiables usually will usually not express their displeasure, even when the unwanted behavior persists.  However, as a result, Amiables hold grudges and will sometimes go to a third party and complain rather than give criticism to the staff member who they feel has offended them.  Does this sound familiar?  Are you an Amiable?
Also, a third weakness in addition to lack of a task focus, overdoing friendships, holding grudges, and complaining to others, is that conflict is one of the worst environments for an Amiable.  Although too much conflict can be harmful to any project and disliked by all for communication or thinking styles; some confrontation needs to take place when dealing with a controversial or ambiguous decision.  In these situations, the Amiable likes to smooth things over when in actuality the altercations should perhaps be allowed to flourish.  The Amiable's model is "peace at any cost, even if it is not a lasting peace, or even one that makes sense."  It's as if they are saying to themselves, "let's do anything to make things seem ok, and we'll deal with the consequences later."  However, for the Amiable, later never comes, because he or she will always avoid conflict due to their empathetic nature.
A fourth weakness of the Amiable is, even in the event that criticism would help another person in their department, the Amiable prefers to keep their own opinions under wraps and to themselves.  Again, as mentioned earlier, when they don’t express their opinion about another employee’s performance, they will take their disgruntlement or opinion to a third party and complain. 

Fifth and finally, the Amiable, like the Analytical, who we will discuss on the next track, can be indecisive.  Both Amiables and Analyticals can be afraid to make a decision that may harm the unity of a group, the Amiable will take a long time in making a controversial decision, faced with the dilemma of responsibility versus the possibility of causing  team disharmony.  Ultimately, whichever decision the Amiable chooses, he or she will still feel uncomfortable with their decision because they were forced to sacrifice a component they cherished greatly.

On this track, we discussed the strengths and weaknesses of an Amiable.
 
On the next track, we will examine the strengths and weaknesses of the last of the four communication or thinking styles, that of the Analytical.