There is a mature and an immature side to each behavioral style. Let us examine the Emotive style to illustrate this point. People with this style are open, personable individuals who seem genuinely friendly. The natural enthusiasm displayed by the mature Emotive is refreshing. On the other hand, an Emotive person who is too talkative and too emotional may have difficulty building rapport with some customers; this is the immature side of the Emotive communication style.

You recall that we use the words “industrious” and “precise” to describe the Reflective style. These are words that apply to the mature side of the Reflective person. We also use the words “aloof” and “stuffy.” These words describe the immature side of the Reflective. The good news is that we all have the potential for developing the mature side of our communication style.

It is a fact of life that your greatest strength can become your greatest weakness. If your most preferred style is Reflective, people are likely to respect your well-disciplined approach to life as one of your strengths. However, this strength can become a weakness if it is exaggerated. The Reflective person can be too serious, too questioning, and too inflexible. Robert Haas, former CEO of Levi Strauss & Company, is known for extraordinary (some say obsessive) attention to detail. Those who work with him say an offhand conversation can sound like a lecture. This Reflective, however, has the ability to flex his style. Levi’s employees were fiercely loyal to Haas and describe him as compassionate to a fault.24

People with the Directive style are open and frank. They express their true feelings in a direct manner. In most cases, we appreciate candor, but we do not like to be around people who are too straightforward or too blunt in expressing their views. Steven Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014, was known as a very demanding executive during his early years with the company. His explosive temper was legendary and he often put the fear of God into his staff members. He once needed throat surgery because he yelled so much. Later, he became more diplomatic and less domineering.25 When people come across as opinionated, they tend to antagonize others. We should avoid pushing our strengths to the point of unproductive excess.26

To illustrate how strengths become weaknesses in excess, let us add more detail to our communication style model. Note that it now features three zones that radiate out from the center (Figure 5.9). These dimensions might be thought of as intensity zones.

Zone one People who fall within this zone display their unique behavioral characteristics with less intensity than those in zone two. The Emotive person, for example, is moderately high on the dominance continuum and moderately high on the sociability continuum. As you might expect, zone one communication styles are more difficult to identify because there is less intensity in both dimensions (dominance and sociability).

Zone two Persons who fall within this zone display their unique behavioral characteristics with greater intensity than persons in zone one. The people identified earlier in each of the styles represent zone two behaviors. The zone two Reflective, for example, falls within the lowest quartile of the dominance continuum and the lowest quartile of the sociability continuum.

The boundary line that separates zone one and zone two should not be seen as a permanent barrier restricting change in intensity. Under certain circumstances, we should abandon our most preferred style temporarily. A deliberate move from zone one to zone two, or vice versa, is called “style flexing.”

Excess zone The excess zone is characterized by a high degree of intensity and rigidity. When people allow themselves to drift into this zone, they become very inflexible, which is often interpreted by others as a form of bias toward their style. In addition, the strengths of the inflexible person become weaknesses. Extreme intensity in any quadrant is bound to threaten interpersonal relations and excess zone behavior frequently destroys relationships.

We are apt to move into the excess zone and exaggerate our style characteristics under stressful conditions. Stress tends to bring out the worst in many people. Some of the behaviors that salespeople and customers may display when they are in the excess zone follow: