Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko
Have you ever thought about your personal work style?
Are you widely considered to be a team player, or are you more of an independent thinker? Do you tend to be a big-picture thinker or do you prefer to zero in on the smallest details?
Understanding your work style is a huge advantage as you progress through your career. Identifying the ways you work alongside colleagues, how you handle obstacles, and what perspectives you bring to the workplace can inform how you move along your career trajectory.
For example, an early career employee might have a more learning-forward work style as they enter their first work environment. A seasoned entrepreneur, however, is likelier to have an independent and confident work style—after years of on-the-job education, problem-solving, decision-making, and work experience.
Table of Contents
- What is a Work Style?
- Benefits of Knowing Your Work Style
- Work Style #1: The Independent Worker
- Work Style #2: The Student
- Work Style #3: The Details Employee
- Work Style #4: The Big Ideas Worker
- Work Style #5: The Supportive Worker
- Work Style #6: The Confident Leader
If you're wondering what your work style might be, we have you covered. We turned to some of our most trusted professional blogs and experts—and combined their insights with our own experiences.
After profiling different characteristics, personality traits, and work tendencies, we identified six work styles.
In this article, we'll profile these six different styles, their typical preferences, how they work best, and how to work alongside each work style.
What is a Work Style?
Before diving into each working style, let's address the term.
Work style describes how one approaches tasks and best works with others: how they solve problems, communicate, make decisions, and their ideal work environment.
Knowing your work style translates into knowing what work environments allow you to thrive. Work styles inform how you deal with emotions at work, how you prefer to work on projects, how (and whether!) you share new ideas, and your overall behavior at work.
Benefits of Knowing Your Work Style
Maybe you've never thought much about your work style, which has suited you just fine. However, there are huge benefits to knowing (and communicating!) your work style. Here are a few!
1. You clearly understand the work environments in which you thrive. This will help you ask thoughtful questions in a job interview, identify red flags, and identify work environments that suit you.
2. You have a deep understanding of your strengths and your weaknesses. It is so important to know both your strengths and weaknesses. For example, someone with a "big ideas" work style might not have the attention to detail that the "details" worker does, which brings us to our next point.
3. You can build (or join) the perfect team. It's never a good idea to fill one workplace with a work-style prototype. A company full of big ideas people is unlikely to execute those big ideas. By combining "big ideas" people with "details" workers, everyone can work to their strengths.
4. You can encourage everyone to get to know their style. Once you've identified your work style and unlocked all the foresight that comes with this knowledge, encourage your coworkers to get to know theirs. This way, everyone can work to their own strengths while simultaneously knowing their role amidst the different work styles on their team.
5. You can communicate openly + effectively. Imagine being part of a team where everyone has identified their optimal work style. On this team, you know how to communicate, delegate, and brainstorm with each colleague according to everyone's strengths! It's a dream!
Work Style #1: The Independent Worker
Who They Are:
The independent worker thrives while wearing a pair of noise-canceling headphones and working on deep, solitary work. The independent worker takes instruction well, asks questions upfront, and proceeds to take care of business—literally.
While they might not excel at collaborative projects, independent workers have the gift of motivation and almost superhuman focus. Engineers and developers tend to be independent workers. They can complete complex and lengthy projects by themselves with little or no instruction.
Their Pros + Cons:
Pros: Independent workers are typically highly skilled individuals hired to complete tasks and projects that require specific and rare skill sets. They can take instruction well and easily complete analytical projects, or so it may seem!
Cons: Independence can sometimes come at a cost. Sometimes, this work style does not lend itself well (or at all!) to collaborative projects. Independent workers may also struggle with communication and feedback from leadership.
How They Best Work:
Independent workers work best when given a clear set of linear tasks to complete in a distraction-free zone.
Words Used to Describe Them:
Logical, smart, focused, diligent, analytical, linear, data-focused, quiet
How They Collaborate:
We want to avoid exaggerating or misrepresenting independent workers, but they prefer to steer clear of collaborative projects.
How to Support Them:
Leave them to do their best work. If they need support, they are likely to ask. Otherwise, let them focus their energy on their output.
Work Style #2: The Student
Who They Are:
The Student worker describes the newest hire, often on their first "real" job—and they are so excited to be a part of the organization. The student is poised to learn and grow as they use their first position to figure out where they want to go, what skills they want to develop, and who they might want to be in their career.
The student is ready to raise their hand to try something new, to shadow a manager, or to take on a pet project that nobody else is interested in completing. The student is looking for mentorship, hands-on experience, and the opportunity to make an impact.
Their Pros + Cons:
Pros: The student is green and ready to go. They aren't burned out or jaded and are more prone to look at every new task as a new learning opportunity. Utilize this energy, but don't take advantage of it.
Cons: We mean this with so much love, but the student might sometimes be a little pesky. While curiosity and ambition are great assets, they cannot be foisted on everyone. Sometimes, the student needs to be pushed to create their own path and find the bravery to create work without second-guessing themselves and emailing their boss for approval at every step.
How They Best Work:
The student works best on something new!
It doesn't necessarily need to seem like an exciting task or project. The student is invaluable when there are mounting tasks requiring different skills and energy, especially in smaller organizations or startups.
Give the student a chance to prove themselves, and they won't disappoint. Even if they "fail" at a task, they will learn a valuable lesson from the experience—and they can't wait to tell you all about it!
Words Used to Describe Them:
Learners, curious, green, motivated, self-aware, open to feedback, resourceful,
How They Collaborate:
Students are typically other work styles in training.
This means that they are in the process of learning how they work best. The student will likely be excited to collaborate with their colleagues to learn about their coworkers. They also may love a set of independent tasks to prove their worth.
How to Support Them:
Work Style #3: The Details Employee
Who They Are:
Break out your to-do lists and spreadsheets, and get ready to triple-check everything. The details employee is here to bring accuracy and a sense of order to almost everything.
If you want an error-free presentation, the details employee is your person. Id you need someone who can forecast and preemptively fix any potential problems, it's the details employee.
Their Pros + Cons:
Pros: The detail-oriented employee puts care into everything they do. They are meticulous, precise, and obsessed with the seemingly insignificant. Sometimes, the difference is in the details.
Cons: The details employees can get lost in their own perfectionism, which can slow things down. Sometimes, it's better to move forward than to be forever bogged down in details.
How They Best Work:
Details employees work best when they are feeling focused and motivated. These employees would never press send on a press release or an email with a spelling or grammatical error. They can produce flawless spreadsheets, manage intricate projects, and they never (ever) miss a single detail.
Words Used to Describe Them:
Data-oriented, scheduled, meticulous
How They Collaborate:
Details people work well with other details people. However, they also collaborate well with employees who complement their work style, like the big ideas thinkers we'll cover next.
Think of detailed workers as the employees who run a fine-tooth comb over everything. They are the employees prepared to put every aspect of every project under a powerful microscope.
Work Style #4: The Big Ideas Worker
Who They Are:
While the details worker inspects everything with their microscope, the so-called big ideas worker is checking on everything from 35,000 feet in the air. They are looking at the full scope.
The big ideas person comes to the workplace with ideas that change an organization's entire landscape.
Their Pros + Cons:
Pros: The big ideas workers are usually higher-level employees in leadership roles. Their strengths are in identifying innovative solutions to cumbersome problems. They bring change and excitement to the workplace.
Cons: What they possess in vision, big ideas workers sometimes lack in execution. These types of workers rely heavily on their colleagues to execute their vision. Another potential con of big ideas thinkers is having too many big ideas—without any real follow-through.
How They Best Work:
Idea-oriented workers work best in high-level creative roles where brainstorming and big ideas are an integral part of the role.
Words Used to Describe Them:
Bigger picture, innovators, visionary, pioneers, mission-oriented
How They Collaborate:
Ideas people are prepared to put their ideas into motion to create change. However, they need different types of workers to put their ideas into motion. This is where the ideas workers gather their detail-oriented coworkers and make magic happen.
The big ideas workers create the buzz and excitement while relying on their colleagues to draw up step-by-step plans to make it happen.
How to Support Them:
Big thinkers work best with folks who can help them realize their dream—and maybe make it even bigger and better than they imagined.
Support a big ideas worker by finding ways to make these ideas happen, but don't shy away from reality checks, feedback, and input.Some ideas are simply too big for smaller teams (with smaller budgets) to handle.
Work Style #5: The Supportive Worker
Who They Are:
This worker lives by the adage, "Teamwork makes the dream work."
The supportive employee is the glue that holds the team together—usually regarding our work and personal lives. This coworker remembers everyone's birthday, offers help and support before you might even realize you need it, and brings the heart to work.
Sometimes known as integrators, these professionals often facilitate the foundation of healthy teamwork.
Their Pros + Cons:
Pros: If you are lucky enough to have a resident supportive worker, you're likely reaping the benefits of feeling supported, uplifted, and seen. These types of workers are more important than we give them credit for!
Cons: We can't really think of a downside to working with someone who is caring and empathetic—especially when they have great boundaries.
We love the supportive worker, but there is one potentially large downside to being a supportive worker. It's burnout. As supportive workers strive to uplift everyone around them, their own work might suffer or they might experience burnout.
How They Best Work:
Employees with supportive work styles can thrive in a variety of workplace scenarios. However, their superhero empathy skills come into play when they are needed to facilitate communication and team building. With their deep listening skills, they are usually acutely aware of everyone's needs and preferred modes of communication—both spoken and unspoken.
Words Used to Describe Them:
Collaborative, mentor, reliable,
How They Collaborate:
Collaboration is basically a supportive worker's favorite word!
They collaborate best when they feel needed. Supportive workers have an intuition when it comes to helping out, providing feedback, and bringing teams together (or back together in hairier situations) to get to the finish line.
Work Style #6: The Confident Leader
Who They Are:
Before we get into this working style, we must mention that you don't need to hold a management position to be considered a confident leader. Just like supportive workers, confident leaders can hold any position.
Confident leaders are prepared to forge ahead on tough ideas and problems—and they have no time to waste on impostor syndrome or second-guessing. This type of confident energy can be infectious on a team, no matter what role this worker holds!
Their Pros + Cons:
Pros: Confident leaders can improve morale and set the tone in the workplace when starting a new project, taking on a new client, or tackling a project that might otherwise seem too daunting.
If you identify as a confident leader, look deeper into the leadership style that suits you.
Cons: Regarding confident leader types, potential cons can include too much confidence or an unwillingness to accept input or change directions. Confidence is good. Cockiness is not.
How They Best Work:
This work style really thrives in challenging times, stressful crossroads, or when a team is experiencing disagreements or bottlenecks that prohibit forward movement. Words Used to Describe Them: doer, leader, problem-solver,
How They Collaborate:
Confident leaders can pull their coworkers out of panic, reassess, and create a plan to move forward cooperatively.
