Excerpts from the book of Thomas Erikson
Everything you say to a person is filtered through his frames of reference, biases, and preconceived ideas. It may feel depressing knowing that you have so little control over what your listener understands. You simply can’t change how the listener functions.
No matter what method you choose to communicate with, as an individual, you will always be in the minority. No matter what kind of behavior you have, the majority of people around you will function differently from you. You can’t just base your method of communication on your own preferences. Flexibility and the ability to interpret other people’s needs is what characterizes a good communicator.
Some people are opposed to the idea of sorting people into different behavior types. Maybe you believe that you shouldn’t categorize people in that way, that it’s wrong to pigeonhole people. However, everyone does it, perhaps in another way than I do in this book, but we all register our differences nonetheless.
Behavior is a function of Personality and Surrounding factors. Behavior is that which we can observe. Personality is what we try to figure out. Surrounding factors are things that we have an influence on.
If everyone were a driven leader, there would be no one left to be led.
Introverted doesn’t mean silent; it means active in the inner world
The best advice I can give if you really can’t analyze the person you meet is to shut your mouth and start listening.
Anger is one thing. Stress is another. Sometimes one is a consequence of the other, but not always. Some people become angry because of stress; others become stressed because of anger.