How to avoid an epic fail: Balance your communication

In some situations, you shine. You’re inspired, confident, and in the groove. Those moments highlight YOU, at your best.

But then, in other situations… well, it’s not so good.

We call this your “Double Trouble” mode.

It is triggered by stress, and it happens to the best of us.

When your communication slides into Double Trouble, you are seen at your worst. Your relationships with clients spoil faster than milk on a hot day. Your co-workers get on your nerves, and vice versa.

In less than 2 minutes, I’ll describe what Double Trouble is, so that you can avoid it and focus on being your most fascinating self.

If a maverick leader works with another maverick leader, it can start to become confusing because there’s so much creativity and this is what’s called a double trouble.

If you look on your Archetype Matrix, you’ll see that there’s a line, a diagonal line that goes down the side here. These are not archetypes, these are modes of communication that happen when a group has too much of one advantage. If a group has too much passion, then the group slides into a mode called the drama, where they’re theatrical, “Oh, my God…” Everything is sensitive, everybody gets too touchy-feely, people get upset, and there are tears and gnashing of teeth.

On the other hand if you have too much achievement… Let’s take a look here at the “Imperial”. If you have too much Prestige then the group becomes arrogant, cold, and superior. The culture becomes brittle and people get demoralized and they quit because they don’t have a quality of life. If you have too much detail orientation and people can’t see the forest for the trees because they’re are so honed in on the minutia, that’s called the control freak… affectionately of course.

You might see yourself, in some areas your advantages helps you succeed, to make more money, and to attract exactly the right type of people into your life, but there are sometimes where you become stressed, or nervous, or hungry, or out of whack. In those cases you’re sliding into your double trouble and you see this happening with your employees. When you have a star employee who starts to fail you can begin to see why, because they’re moving into their double trouble mode and it’s your job to help pull them back.

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About the author

Sally Hogshead

Sally skyrocketed to the top of the advertising world in her early 20s, fascinating millions of consumers for clients such as MINI Cooper and Coca-Cola. Since then, she’s published two New York Times bestsellers on the science of fascination, and is one of only 172 living members in the Speaker Hall of Fame. Over a million professionals have taken the Fascination Advantage® personality test to discover how others perceive their communication.

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