What’s your working style?
Choose your fighter: Logical, Detailed, Supportive, or Idea-orientated.
You probably know some of your quirks at work – maybe you’re useless after 3pm, allergic to back-to-back meetings, or the type who needs to brainstorm everything before you commit to an idea. But do the people you work with know this?
Turns out, there are actual frameworks for this. Not a Buzzfeed quiz matching you to a Friends character, just a simple way to see which one you relate to most.
Logical 🔢
Your role in the holiday group chat: Booking the flights and accommodation. The things that will actually mean you have a holiday to look forward to. You also created the group chat.
Strengths: Data-driven, analytical, results-focused. Thrives on tackling problems head-on.
Potential drawbacks: You bulldoze ahead and forget to tell people where you’re going.
If you’re “no fluff” and love a neat graph, this is probably you.
Being data-driven is highly valued, but try collaborating with detail-orientated people to make sure the planning and comms are in tow.
Detailed 🧐
Your role in the holiday group chat: Making a shared note with the agenda, flight times, link to a Google map with the accommodation pinned, so whenever somebody asks a question you can slightly passive-aggressively reply with “it’s in the shared note!!! pinned to the chat x”
Strengths: Organised, strategic, reliable. Likes to bring structure to their projects and teams.
Potential drawbacks: Perfectionism may slow down progress.
If you get a buzz from colour-coding your calendar, or are frequently accused of being a hashtag ad for Notion and Asana, this is probably you.
Hot take: done > perfect. Don’t get so bogged down in the detail that you don’t deliver, or burn yourself out by trying.
Supportive 🤗
Your role in the holiday group chat: Getting everyone excited about the holiday and keeping the vibes high throughout. You’re sending the GIFs and keeping everyone smiling while the Logicals and Detail-orientated are playing mum and dad.
Strengths: Emotionally intelligent, relationship-builder. Great at building relationships and encouraging collaboration and inclusivity.
Potential drawbacks: May struggle with confrontation and be sensitive to direct approaches from co-workers.
If you’re the hype person in your team, bringing everyone’s energy up and getting people to collaborate, this is probably you.
Using your emotional intelligence to build relationships is a fantastic way to build a thriving network. Just make sure you also use it to realise when others just have a more direct approach to you. They’re not mad at you, they just have a different working style *cough Logicals*.
Idea-orientated 🧠
Your role in the holiday group chat: Sending activity ideas that will help everyone experience something new on the trip. You’re sending sky-diving links, matching tattoo ideas and hiking routes, but never booking them or adding them to the shared note. You’re also the one ghosting the group chat for a week before resurfacing with five more ideas.
Strengths: Visionary, energetic, creative. Loves blue-sky thinking and sparking inspiration.
Potential drawbacks: Risks overlooking details and follow-through.
Obsessed with brainstorms and caught saying “let’s zoom out and look at the bigger picture for a sec” a lot? This is probably you.
Innovation is key, and you’ll likely get remembered for your impact. But you might find getting a Logical on your side will help you turn your ideas into results.
So, how do you communicate your working style?
It depends how extra you want to be.
Bring it up in a 1:1
Next time you’ve got a check-in, drop it in.
E.g. “I’ve been reading about working styles and I think I’m [style]. It basically means I’m great at X but need more support with Y. Can we try [solution]?”
Self-awareness + action plan = promotion fast-track.
Drop them an email
Don’t want to waste 1:1 time? Send a message instead. This way they can read in their own time and they have something to refer back to. Something like:
“Hi [manager], I saw an article on working styles and turns out I’m an [insert style]. This means I thrive on X, but struggle with Y. I’m planning to do more of X in [upcoming project], but would love your help with Y, specifically [e.g. working with a specific team/co-worker, presenting work, creating a process]. How does that sound to you?”
Short, clear, easy.
Start the conversation with your team
Lots of personalities in a team = lots of opportunities for clashes. If you want to create a bit more harmony (looking at you Supportives), start the convo about working styles so everyone can have a bit more context of what others think they’re strengths and weaknesses are.
Post your own working style in your Slack channel (give context, but keep it snappy so people actually read it 👀)
Drop a link about understanding your working style (e.g. this Substack 👋)
And, if you’re feeling spicy, start a poll. Then watch Brian say he’s Supportive even though he’s skipped every Rose, Bud, Thorn section of your team meetings since 2020.
Or just keep it chill
Mention it in passing when you’re chatting with someone:
“Hey, I saw this article on working styles and it really resonated. I think I’m [working style] because I know I’m good at X, but I always find Y more challenging. I’m going to try to [something to work on what you find challenging]. Have you ever seen anything around working styles? What do you think?”
Bonus points if you tie it to a real situation they remember — instant credibility, instant bonding.
Working styles aren’t a vibe check, they’re a cheat code. Know yours, and you’ll spend less time clashing and more time actually getting sh*t done.