Since before Socrates described several fellow senators as having a “sanguine,” or social, temperament - one of the four “temperaments” prevalent during his time - people have always been interested in people and our respective commonalities or differences.

This is true whether we discuss personality, communication styles and the influences of our culture or the immediate circumstances people find themselves addressing. Self-awareness leads to situational awareness, one of the critical elements to successful relationships with others.

In previous articles we have examined the Forté Communication Style strengths of dominance/non-dominance and patience/impatience. In this article we will look at the “evolved” understanding of the sanguine temperament.

Today’s lexicon for the sanguine temperament is extroversion and its opposite - introversion. Forté also identifies the sub-dimension of ambiversion (Note: In the Forté Communication Style Profile, strengths will be influenced by three other strengths, which ultimately present the overall communication style preferences of the individual).

Extroverts view themselves as outgoing, friendly, optimistic and persuasive. Introverts tend to see themselves as private, quiet, introspective, serious and reserved in social situations. Ambiverts can move easily between these two strengths, influenced by the current environment.

If it just stopped there, life would be very simple. Yet, life goes on and we learn over time it is not as much who we are as it is how we learn to adapt to differing environments and relationships at home, work and in social settings.

When adapting to the strengths of extroversion, we perceive ourselves as needing or being expected to be gregarious, eloquent, enthusiastic and a good mixer. When adapting to the strengths of introversion we believe we are expected or trying to be creative, introspective and removed from too much people involvement.

The ambivert experiences things a bit differently. Being adaptable is natural for ambiverts, but that adaptability could be a source of misunderstanding for those with whom they are communicating. That’s because the ambivert can move so easily between being drawn to others and actively engaging in conversation and seeking time alone to think things over.

Frankly, we ambiverts – of which I am one – can be seen as moody because of this noticeable shift in communication style. Once the ambivert and others understand ambiversion, that misperception easily goes away.

Ultimately, how we manage the strengths proactively can pay big dividends. If you are communicating with an introvert, keeping it short and to the point works well. If you are communicating with an extrovert, a little excitement and verbal examples of your thinking is well worth it. When communicating with an ambivert, a good read on their body language is
important when gauging whether more or less verbal communication will get the job done.

All this said, we know from the years of research and experience, the best communicator is the best listener. Forté provides a very accurate picture of your communication style strengths and how to best adapt so that how others perceive your current needs are efficiently communicated.

If you would like to experience Forté and see for yourself how to best communicate your message over the next 30 day period, just click here. This will take less than eight minutes, you will have your results immediately upon completion and we will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

C.D. “Hoop” Morgan, III is the founder and chairman of The Forté Institute, LLC, a global behavioral sciences firm best known for developing and providing innovative people, process and interpersonal performance improvement solutions. Forté provides online communication style reports to more than 6,000 corporate clients throughout the globe. To learn more about the company, go to www.theforteinstitute.com or call (910) 452-5152.