# Work styles, and how to describe yours in plain sentences

Source: https://decka.dev/ideas/work-styles

Work styles explained: six type labels, what a type cannot tell a colleague, thirty work style examples in plain sentences, and how to write yours.

One way to describe how you work is to pick a type: the analyst, the collaborator, the driver, the supporter, the one with the ideas. You pick the closest, read the paragraph about yourself, and nod.

A type is a fair place to start thinking about how you work. It is a poor thing to hand a colleague. "I'm a collaborator" doesn't say whether to call you or message you, when you do your best thinking, or what your silence in a meeting means. A sentence can: "Message me for anything that can wait an hour. I'm heads-down until noon."

This page covers those types and what each one leaves out. Then come thirty work style examples a colleague can act on, and a better answer to "what is my work style?" than a quiz.

## Types of work styles, and what each label leaves out

Here are six labels you can sort yourself into, with what each one tells a colleague and what it leaves out.

- The analyst, or detail-oriented. It tells people you like evidence and time to think. It leaves out how much time, and whether you want the numbers before the meeting or in it.

- The ideas person. It tells people you like starting things. It leaves out who finishes them, and how you want an idea of yours to be challenged.

- The driver, or doer. It tells people you move fast and like decisions. It leaves out what happens when you're slowed down, and how to tell you.

- The supporter, or collaborator. It tells people you like working with others. It leaves out whether that means a call, a shared document or a desk next to theirs.

- The independent worker. It tells people you want to be left alone. It leaves out for how long, and how they'll know when you're stuck.

- The proximity worker. It tells people you like having others nearby. It leaves out whether you want to talk to them or only to hear them.

Each of these is true of most people some of the time, which is the trouble. The same person can be the analyst on Monday's budget and the driver on Friday's deadline.

## Why a work style type tells a colleague so little

The closest thing to a test of style labels comes from education. Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer and Bjork reviewed the evidence on learning styles in 2008, when tests built on them had become [a thriving industry](https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/psy_facpub/1765/). They found [ample evidence](https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/psy_facpub/1765/) that people will say how they prefer information to be presented. They found [virtually no evidence](https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/psy_facpub/1765/) that matching the teaching to the stated style made people learn better, which is the result the whole idea depends on.

The authors are careful to add that many versions have [simply not been tested at all](https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/psy_facpub/1765/), so this is a gap rather than a verdict. It is also classrooms, not offices. Take it as a warning about labels rather than a finding about work: the preference is real, and a label built on it is not yet an instruction.

Time of day shows why a label is too blunt. Hernandez and colleagues at Microsoft Research logged the computer activity of [65 software developers](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/triple-peak-day-work-rhythms-of-software-developers-in-hybrid-work/) for a month. Activity peaked at 10am and 2pm, and again around 9pm. That evening peak went with [higher perceived productivity during remote days but increased stress](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/triple-peak-day-work-rhythms-of-software-developers-in-hybrid-work/) on days spent onsite or hybrid.

Same hour, different day, different experience. A type called "night owl" can't hold that. A sentence can: "I catch up after dinner on home days. A late message from me never needs a late reply."

## Work style examples you can actually use

Each example below takes the idea behind a type and turns it into an instruction. Borrow the ones that are true of you, change the details, and drop the rest.

The ones about channels and timing earn their place first, because the volume is real. Microsoft's telemetry for its report on the infinite workday puts the average worker in its data at [117 emails](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/breaking-down-infinite-workday) a day and [153 Teams messages](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/breaking-down-infinite-workday) a weekday. It also reports that [meetings after 8 pm are up 16%](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/breaking-down-infinite-workday) on the year before.

A filled page in the Glossy style. The name Maya Okafor is set in a large black serif beside a painting of two people passing a key between them. Her first answer sits in a pink pull quote, and seven more run in columns under magenta headings.

### Focus and time

- I do my best thinking before noon. Book me in the afternoon if you can.

- I block Wednesday mornings for focused work. If something can't wait, call me and I'll pick up.

- I'm slow to start and fast to finish. Send me the brief early, even when the deadline is far off.

- I catch up after dinner on home days. A late message from me never needs a late reply.

- I need a run of uninterrupted time to write. Two short gaps between meetings are not the same as one long one.

### Messages and meetings

- Chat for anything quick, a doc for decisions, a call when it's tense.

- If you need a decision from me, put the question in the first line.

- I read email twice a day. If it's urgent, it isn't an email.

- I'd rather have one call than ten messages about the same thing.

- Send me the agenda the day before, or I'll spend the meeting catching up.

- My camera stays off for the first few minutes of a call. It's me, not you.

### Working with others

- Give me the goal and the deadline, then leave me alone until Thursday. I'll shout if I'm stuck.

- I think out loud. The first thing I say in a meeting is a draft.

- I work best next to someone, even if we're on different things. On office days, sit with me.

- If I've gone quiet in a shared document, I'm writing, not ignoring you.

- Ask me for the detail when you need it. Left alone, I'll give you the headline.

### Decisions and change

- I need to see the numbers before I agree. Send them before the meeting, not during it.

- I decide fast, and I'll change my mind if you show me something new. Please do.

- A change of plan is fine. A change of plan on a Friday afternoon, with no reason given, is not.

- When I say "let me think about it", I'll come back within two days. Chase me if I don't.

- Bring me the options with your recommendation attached. I decide faster with something to push against.

### Feedback and disagreement

- Tell me the same day, in private, and be specific.

- I take criticism better in writing first, then in a conversation.

- I'll disagree with you in the meeting. It's about the idea, and I'll still have lunch with you.

- I go quiet when I'm upset. Give me an hour and I'll come back to it.

- If I've been too blunt, tell me. I won't always notice.

### Habits people misread

- I take notes by hand and photograph them. I'm not ignoring the shared doc.

- I ask the same question twice in different words. I'm checking, not doubting you.

- I'm loud when I'm excited. It isn't anger.

- I reply in one word when I'm busy. It means yes, not that I'm annoyed.

## What is my work style? Six questions that beat a quiz

A quiz gives you a label. These six questions give you sentences, which is what the people you work with need. Answer each one about a real week, not an ideal one.

- When did you last do your best work, and what was around you? The time of day, the place, who else was there and how long you had. That's your focus sentence.

- What interrupts you that you never mention? The message at five to five, the meeting with no agenda, the quick question that isn't quick. That's your channel sentence.

- Which messages do you answer first, and which do you leave? The honest answer tells colleagues how to reach you.

- How do you want bad news? Straight away or once there's a plan, written or spoken, in private or in the room.

- What do you do when you disagree? Argue it out, go quiet, write it down. Then say what helps you come back.

- What do people misread about you? The silence that looks like sulking, the bluntness that looks like anger, the question that looks like doubt.

Write a sentence or two for each, in your own words, and you've described your working style better than any of the types above.

## How to describe your working style on one page

Put those sentences on one page and the page already has a name. People call it a personal user manual, a Manual of Me or a "how to work with me" page, and it's the same document whichever you use. Our guide to the [personal user manual](/ideas/personal-user-manual) covers it in full, with a template and five filled-in examples.

The template in Decka's Communications Manual has eight prompts, and they cover everything the six questions above do:

- My best strength as a communicator

- What I'm working on

- How I like to communicate

- My cultural & language norms

- What I value at work

- Giving & receiving feedback

- Conflict & tension

- My idiosyncrasies

An empty page in the Swiss style, ready to fill in. A black block holds the name Maya Okafor over the line Your role or team, between an empty round photo frame and a drawing of a man balancing on a compass. Below, eight red headings each sit over a question in grey.

Keep it to one page. Lead with the sentences a colleague will need in their first week, and cut anything that only describes you.

## Work preferences across a whole team

One person's work preferences help the people who read them. A whole team's help more, because the friction lives between people. The early starter and the late one, the one who calls and the one who messages, the one who argues and the one who goes quiet. That only works if everyone writes a page and everyone reads the others.

Decka's Communications Manual is built for that. Each person gets one page with the eight prompts on it. People join from a link or an email invite with a free account, read first, and tap "Add my page" when they're ready. Everyone can read every page, react to it and comment on it.

A magazine-style cover in the Riso Zine style, printed in pink and blue ink on cream. The masthead reads Platform team communications manual. Five people sit around a table under a web of empty speech bubbles, and the cover line reads Inside: Maya Okafor, Sam Lee and 10 more.

The first page is a magazine cover that names who is inside and updates as people add their pages. The last is a closing page with the names of the people who have added a page and, once they've added one, their photos; a large team's ends with "and N more".

A closing page in the Botanical style. A linocut frieze shows five people waving as they walk through ferns and leaves, one of them in a wheelchair, above the words Now you know us a little better. Below, twenty-three names sit in three rows, each with a small round picture or initial, ending with and 17 more.

It's free for you and for everyone who joins. If your team is four people who sit together, a shared doc does the same job. The manual earns its place once there are more pages than anyone will chase by hand.

## Frequently asked questions

### What are work styles?

The ways a person prefers to work: when they focus best, how they like to be contacted, how they make decisions, and how they handle feedback and disagreement. They're sometimes described as types, such as the analyst, the supporter, the driver and the ideas person.

### What are the different types of work styles?

The common lists name the analyst or detail-oriented worker, the ideas person, the driver, the supporter or collaborator, the independent worker, and the proximity worker, who likes people nearby. They're a starting point. A colleague gets more from one plain sentence than from a type.

### What is my work style?

Answer six questions about a real week. When did you do your best work, what interrupts you, and which messages do you answer first? How do you want bad news, what do you do when you disagree, and what do people misread about you? Your answers are your work style, in words a colleague can use.

### What are some work style examples?

Sentences a colleague can act on. "I think best before noon, so book me in the afternoon" is one. "Put the question in the first line if you need a decision from me" is another. A type label can't tell anyone either of those.

### What is the difference between a work style and a personality type?

A personality type describes you. A work style, written well, tells someone how to work with you. "Introvert" is a type. "Message me before you call, and I'll be quicker to say yes" is a work style.

### How do you describe your working style to a new team?

Write one page: your name, your role and a sentence or two each on focus, communication, feedback and conflict. Share it in your first week and ask your new colleagues for theirs. That page is often called a personal user manual or a Manual of Me.

### What are work preferences?

The practical half of a work style: your hours, your channels, your meeting habits and how much notice you need. They're worth writing down because they're the part colleagues otherwise have to guess.

## Activities