The Platinum Rule

=Behavioral Styles=

Historical, as well as contemporary, research reveals more than a dozen various models of our behavioral differences, but many share one common thread: the grouping of behavior into four categories. The Platinum Rule™ focuses on patterns of external, observable behaviors using scales of directness and openness that each style exhibits. Because we can see and hear these external behaviors, it becomes much easier to ‘read’ people. This model is simple, practical, and easy to remember and use.

As you read the descriptions of each style below, think about your new insights into your preferences. You might prefer relationships to tasks, perhaps you act slower rather than faster, or maybe you like to tell people what you think rather than keep it to yourself. Then think about the people around you in the office or at school… what style do their behavioral tendencies reflect? The following descriptions and adaptability guidelines will help you get on the same wavelength with each of the four styles.

Keep in mind that no one style is better than another. Each has its’ own strengths and weaknesses. Remember, however, strengths pushed to extremes can also become weaknesses. Here’s a quick overview of the four behavioral styles and a brief description of how extreme behaviors may be perceived by others.

Here are the four Platinum Rule primary behavioral styles:

The Director Style
The Director Styles are driven by two governing needs: the need to control and the need to achieve. The Director Styles are goal-oriented go-getters who are most comfortable when they are in charge of people and situations. They want to accomplish many things now, so they focus on no-nonsense approaches to bottom-line results.

The Director Styles seek expedience and are not afraid to bend the rules. They figure it is easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission. The Director Styles accept challenges, take authority, and plunge headfirst into solving problems. They take charge in a crisis. They are fast-paced, task-oriented, and work quickly and impressively by themselves, which means they become annoyed with delays. They are willing to challenge outdated thinking and ideas.

The Socializer Style
The Socializer Styles are friendly, enthusiastic "party-animals" who like to be where the action is. They thrive on the admiration, acknowledgment, and compliments that come with being in the limelight. The Socializer Styles just want to have fun. They are more relationship-oriented than task-oriented. They would rather "schmooze" with clients over lunch than work in the office.

The Socializer Style’s strengths are enthusiasm, charm, persuasiveness, and warmth. They are gifted in people skills and communication skills with individuals as well as groups. They are great influencers. They are idea-people and dreamers who excel at getting others excited about their vision. They are optimists with an abundance of charisma. These qualities help them influence people and build alliances to accomplish their goals.

The Relater Style
The Relater Styles are warm, supportive, and nurturing individuals. They are the most people-oriented of the four styles. The Relater Styles are excellent listeners, devoted friends, and loyal employees. Their relaxed disposition makes them approachable and warm. They develop strong networks of people who are willing to be mutually supportive and reliable. The Relater Styles are excellent team players.

The Relater Styles are risk-averse. In fact, they may tolerate unpleasant environments rather than risk change. They like the status quo and become distressed when disruptions are severe. When the Relater Styles are faced with change, they need to think it through, plan, and accept it into their world. The Relater Styles, more than the other behavioral types, strive to maintain personal composure, stability, and balance.

In the office, the Relater Styles are courteous, friendly, and willing to share responsibilities. They are good planners, persistent workers, and good with follow-through. Relater Styles go along with others even when they do not agree because they do not want to rock the boat.

The Relater Styles are slow decision-makers because of their need for security, their need to avoid risk, and their desire to include others in the decision-making process.

The Thinker Style
The Thinker Styles are analytical, persistent, systematic people who enjoy problem solving. They are detail-oriented, which makes them more concerned with content than style. The Thinker Styles are task-oriented people who enjoy perfecting processes and working toward tangible results. They are almost always in control of their emotions and may become uncomfortable around people who are very out-going, e.g., the Socializer Styles.

In the office, the Thinker Styles work at a slow pace, allowing them to double-check their work. They tend to see the serious, complex side of situations, but their intelligence and ability to see different points of view endow them with quick and unique senses of humor.

The Thinker Styles have high expectations of themselves and others, which can make them over-critical. Their tendency toward perfectionism – taken to an extreme – can cause “paralysis by over-analysis.” The Thinker Styles are slow and deliberate decision-makers. They do research, make comparisons, determine risks, calculate margins of error, and then take action. The Thinker Styles become irritated by surprises and glitches, hence their cautious decisionmaking. The Thinker Styles are also skeptical, so they like to see promises in writing.

The Thinker Styles’ strengths include an eye for detail and accuracy, dependability, independence, persistence, follow-through, and organization. They are good listeners and ask a lot of questions; however, they run the risk of missing the forest for the trees.

We generally develop our behavioral style in our childhood. It is the result of some possible genetic predisposition and our early life experiences. Everyone has a primary style that we tend to use most of the time. Although each of us has his or her own primary style, only a small percentage of the total population can be understood clearly by just these four primary styles. Each primary style also contains four substyles. We all use some of the behaviors of the other styles in our daily lives to some greater or lesser degree.

=ADAPTABILITY=

This document will help to identify ways that you can apply your style strengths or modify your style weaknesses in order to meet the needs of a particular situation or relationship. This is called adaptability. Social scientists call it ‘social intelligence.’

There’s been a lot written lately on how your social intelligence is just as important as your Intelligence Quotient (IQ) in being successful in today’s world. In some cases, social intelligence is even more important than IQ.

It makes sense when you think about it. Often, when we do what comes naturally we alienate others without realizing it. Why? Because that same behavior may not be natural for them. It’s essential that we become aware of our natural tendencies – and their natural preferences! Then we can defuse extreme behaviors before we sabotage ourselves. We do this by quickly identifying the individual needs of others based on the behavioral signals they will send to us, and then adapting our own behavior to make them feel comfortable. Your ideas don’t change, but you can change the way you present those ideas. And the best part of it is – people will teach you how to treat them if you know how to read the signals their behavioral styles will send you!

A study was done at the famous Bell Labs think tank near Princeton, New Jersey. They surveyed teams of electrical engineers. They were asked to name the most valued and productive engineers on the teams. Surprisingly, those who were named were not the people with the highest IQs, or the highest academic credentials or the best scores on achievement tests. The most valued team members were the people whose social intelligence, or adaptability, was highest.

HERE IS THE VALUE OF ADAPTABILITY…
It can’t be overstated. It’s a linchpin of The Platinum RuleTM and the key to building successful relationships of all kinds. Adaptable people realize there is a difference between their self (who they are) and their behavior (how they choose to act). Adaptable people consciously decide whether and how to respond to a person, a situation, or an event.

Less adaptable people, on the other hand, respond in a more habitual manner, regardless of whether the response is likely to be appropriate or effective. But even if you are a person who’s been wedded to your own ways of thinking and doing for a very long time, there is hope.

You can commit to learn to be more adaptable. When you understand each of the four styles, how to recognize them in others, and how to adapt to them in key ways, you can have command of almost any interpersonal situation.

Whether someone is male or female, young or old, part of a Western culture or some other, our behavioral style is often evident. Let’s face it, we may all be created equal, but we surely do not all act the same. And we don’t all want to be treated the same. What may be a good response or reaction toward one person may be all wrong for the very next.

Now, it’s true, we don’t always act the same. You might behave differently with your best friend than with your boss. You don’t act at a cocktail party as you do at church. While your style may have its own particular twist, like a song that’s interpreted differently by various artists, it’s still clearly one of the four basic styles. You’re constantly sending out signals revealing that style, through the words you choose, body language, the speed and rhythm of your speech, how you dress, how your space is organized, how fast you walk.

Imagine the benefits of understanding how to treat people the way they want to be treated! Your interactions with people can change dramatically. Shaky relationships can suddenly become good ones. Good relationships can now be even better than before. If only for the stress it eliminates in interpersonal relationships, this profile is worth its weight in …platinum!

= THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF THE PLATINUM RULE… =

is personal chemistry and productive relationships. You do not have to change your personality. You do not have to roll over and submit to others. You simply have to understand what drives people and recognize your options for dealing with them. The key objective of this whole concept is understanding your own style, understanding and being able to quickly and accurately identify the style of others, and then adapting so that you treat others the way they want to be treated.

These are powerful life-skills that will serve you well in all your relationships: work, friends, school, spouse, and children. Improved relationships create infinite possibilities.

Remember, at the introduction to your Platinum Rule™ Behavioral Style Self-Assessment Report, I reminded you that you can’t expect to change a lifetime’s habit patterns overnight. But you can begin to change, if you are committed. Your investment of time and resources into this assessment shows that you are on the right track.