14 Unique Work Styles That Every Manager Should Understand

While the Great Resignation might have ended, employee churn is still high with three in 10 employees considering quitting in 2024. For managers looking to retain their top talent, any opportunity to boost the employee experience is worth grabbing with both hands.

Could understanding and adapting to different work styles be one such opportunity?

Understanding colleagues’ work preferences might help boost collaboration, job satisfaction, and productivity. And with happy teams leading to 23% higher profitability, it’s worth taking the time to get to know how your team members like to work.

Quick Summary

• There are 14 different work styles, including Independent, Collaborative, Detail-Oriented, and Creative.
• Understanding work styles can help managers boost performance.
• It’s also important to make sure your workspace reflects the needs of your team’s dominant work styles.

What Are Work Styles?

Work styles describe the way individuals prefer to work to complete tasks. Work style preferences can impact how people work with their teammates, organize their work schedules, and feel in their work environment.

Typically, people fall into one of 14 different work styles. A preference for a combination of work styles is also possible. It’s important to note that no one work style is better than another.

Understanding team members’ preferences for how they work is important to getting the most from that individual and the wider team. This is especially important in a remote or hybrid working environment, where peoples’ preferences may be less obvious.

Asking people to work outside of their preferences can reduce productivity, create workplace conflict, and reduce employee engagement and satisfaction.

What Are the 14 Most Common Work Styles?

Recognizing different work styles and enabling team members to work within them boosts efficiency and improves motivation. Here are the 14 most common.

1. Independent Workers: Typically self-motivated, independent workers prefer autonomy and are irritated by micro-management. They are happy to contribute to team projects but generally prefer to complete tasks themselves. Examples may include freelancers and researchers.

2. Collaborative Workers: People with this work style thrive in a collaborative team environment. They love bouncing ideas off their colleagues and happily build on the suggestions of others. Collaborative workers can struggle to find the motivation to complete tasks independently and may become maudlin if they have to work alone for too long. Examples may include members of advocacy groups and product development teams.

3. Detail-Oriented Workers: Team members with a detail-oriented work style sweat the small stuff and their colleagues love them for it. Precision is important to them, and they want all of the “i”s dotted and the “t”s crossed. Typically, they uphold all workplace rules and are frustrated by others who are less robust in their vigilance. Examples may include auditors and editors.

4. Big-Picture Thinkers: Big-picture thinkers are the driving force behind the vision of any organization. They’re strategic-minded individuals who excel at long-term goal-making and rely on others to deal with the nitty-gritty of implementation. Examples may include business leaders and strategists.

5. Analytical Workers: Analytical colleagues love data. They’re happiest when crunching numbers and using data points to inform discussions and support decision-making. Individuals with an analytical work style are fantastic at supporting business proposals and providing information to drive or refute change. Examples include financial analysts and data scientists.

6. Creative Workers: Unlike their analytical colleagues, creative workers can find data constraining. They’re incredibly imaginative and a blank sheet of paper is a delightful opportunity rather than an issue. Once their juices are flowing, it can be hard to corral them and they may be protective over their artistic creations. Examples include writers and designers.

7. Strategic Workers: Strategic workers tend to focus on longer-term business outcomes. They’re interested in macro-environmental factors and how they might affect the business. Involving colleagues with a strategic work style is a fantastic choice when considering how to change or grow the business to deliver future success. Examples include executives and business continuity planners.

8. Supportive Workers: Supportive workers are wonderful team players. They really enjoy helping others and contributing to the team’s success. Colleagues with a supportive work style often put the needs of the business or group ahead of their own. Examples may include charity workers and HR professionals.

9. Action-Oriented Workers: Action-oriented workers are quick to act and are focused on the end result. They firmly believe any decision is better than no decision. Colleagues with an action-oriented work style can be bored by lengthy meetings and frustrated when discussions appear to go round in circles. Examples may include operations managers and sales executives.

10. Innovative Workers: Innovative workers are classic blue-sky thinkers. They’re always looking for things to tinker with and improve and love finding novel approaches to problems. Innovative workers struggle to understand rigidity or an attachment to the status quo. Examples may include entrepreneurs and product developers.

11. Organizational Workers: Colleagues with an organizational work style enjoy routine and efficiency. It’s no surprise that they’re highly organized and thrive on structure. Team members with this work style can become frustrated in a more fluid work environment. Examples include project managers and event planners.

12. Flexible Workers: Colleagues with a flexible work style are adaptable. They tend to be capable of handling a variety of different tasks and enjoy being more generalist than specialist. Flexible workers tend to be resilient during periods of change. Examples may include executive assistants and consultants.

13. Social Workers: Colleagues with a social work style enjoy spending time interacting and collaborating with others. Usually excellent at relationship-building, they’re very at home at networking events where they get to expand their professional social circle. Examples may include public relations specialists and sales associates.

14. Reflective Workers: Reflective workers tend to be thoughtful and introspective. They’re deep thinkers and enjoy stretches of quiet, unbroken time to really mull over a problem or idea. They can perceive rapid decision-making as hasty and large-scale change can be unsettling. Examples may include researchers and philosophers.

Why Is Recognizing Different Work Styles Important?

Recognizing different work styles is important for business success. Supporting employees to work in the way that best suits them can significantly influence productivity, collaboration, employee motivation, and overall workplace culture.

Productivity

It makes sense that asking team members to complete tasks they enjoy and are good at leads to better outcomes. Imagine asking a creative colleague to complete the business’s tax return. Or an action-oriented employee to attend a three-day workshop to decide on a new product name.

Neither is likely to produce the desired result. Asking people to go against their grain can lead to frustrated and disengaged team members.

On the other hand, delegating work tasks that fit with individual work styles or allowing those tasks to be completed in a way that fits with individual preferences is likely to boost satisfaction.

Research from the University of Oxford shows happy employees are 13% more productive. Optimizing the work environment to enable effective team dynamics and to support different work styles will likely lead to improvements in job performance and task outcomes.

Collaboration

Understanding the different work styles in a team can lead to better communication, more efficient delegation of tasks, and improved workforce collaboration.

Without this understanding, colleagues may become frustrated by those whose work style is very different from their own.

Managers who identify the different work styles of their team can more easily spot where conflicts may arise and get ahead of any potential issues. They can ensure the key strengths of each work style and individual contribution are recognized, helping employees to feel valued.

Employee Motivation

Working with employees to both recognize and adapt to their preferred working styles helps them feel acknowledged and seen. Over 50% of employees feel motivated by workplace flexibility and other non-financial rewards.

Engaged employees are less likely to leave, which means businesses retain their talent for longer. Talent retention is incredibly important to business success. As turnover rates and time-to-hire keep increasing, businesses that can hang onto their employees retain knowledge and skills that can differentiate them in the market.

For roles that require a work style that doesn’t suit an employee’s preference, managers should provide support or development opportunities. Skilled managers can also facilitate complementary styles to work together, creating an opportunity for learning and buffering skills gaps.

Optimal Workplace Culture

Ultimately, recognizing and supporting differences leads to an inclusive work environment and drives a positive company culture. Happy and motivated employees mean higher productivity levels and an improved bottom line.

Businesses should consider optimizing where and how people work to drive high performance. Providing opportunities for remote or hybrid working can suit independent or reflective workers, for example. Social and supportive workers may appreciate in-office spaces designed to facilitate effective collaboration and creativity.

How Are Different Work Styles Identified?

Different work styles are identified in three main ways: observation, assessment, and self-reflection.

In observing the different ways their colleagues work, peers and managers are often able to identify their work style.

Managers may be able to track what type of environments seem to get the best from their team members. For example, do more tasks get completed when they’re at home tackling work alone or in the office working with others?

There are several tools available that can help workers identify their personal work style. Work style assessments such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, DiSC, and StrengthsFinder can provide insight into preferences for how, when, and where work is done to maximize employee productivity and satisfaction.

Individuals can also engage in self-reflection to identify their working style. They should try working in different ways and note down how they felt after doing so. Were they better able to concentrate on the task at hand? Was their output higher? Did they feel more engaged and motivated?

Information gained through observation, assessment, or self-reflection should be shared with colleagues and managers so they can adapt where possible.

Optimizing the Work Environment to Support Different Work Styles

Sixty percent of remote-capable workers want a hybrid working arrangement. Allowing hybrid working provides businesses with an opportunity to meet a diverse range of work styles.

Colleagues with a social work style may thrive on more in-office work or the networking opportunities of a coworking space. Analytical workers may appreciate periods of working alone to focus on understanding data trends.

Creating a supportive work environment that can adapt to different work styles requires some planning, but the benefits can be significant. Policies that allow people to work in a way that suits them can have a significant impact on employee happiness.

Whether businesses support remote, hybrid, or in-office working, the workplace environment can be maximized to support different styles. Spaces for creative thinking, idea sharing, brainstorming sessions, and quiet work can be designed within the available space.

Embrace Diverse Work Styles to Boost Performance

How and where we work continues to evolve.

By recognizing and embracing different work styles, businesses have an opportunity to maximize the employee experience and retain their top talent.

For businesses looking to create a flexible office policy perfect for different work styles, hybrid work software can help.

For, example, OfficeRnD Workplace can help managers optimize their workplace and create places perfect for reflection, innovation, and collaboration.

With it, you can easily book meeting rooms and desks. Collaborative scheduling creates visibility for how and where team members are working and seamlessly brings the team together as needed.

Managers and employees can bulk-send invites for in-office meetings to their hybrid team members, and the smart desk booking system allows coworkers to secure space together to support effective collaboration.

OfficeRnD Workplace also integrates with the most common work tools such as Microsoft Tech Stack, Google Workspace and Slack. So, whatever the preferences of the team, your tech stack is set up to meet them.

Plus, with an analytics and reporting suite, you can monitor space utilization so you can continue to optimize the workspace experience for all work styles.

Want to see for yourself?

FAQ

How Many Different Work Styles Are There?

There are likely as many different work styles as there are workers. In this article, we’ve shared the 14 most common work styles. Team members can have similar or distinct work styles, and no one style is better than the other.

How Do I Know What My Work Style Is?

There are three main ways to understand what your work style is. These include observation, assessment, and self-reflection. Any information gained from these should be shared with teammates and managers so they can adapt to any preferences identified, where possible.

How Do You Manage Different Work Styles?

To manage different work styles, it’s critical to first identify which style team members have. Once colleagues’ work preferences have been identified, it’s important to embrace and support them to get the best from that team member.

Managers should recognize the positives of diverse work styles and set up a work environment that supports success. Remember to periodically check in with team members about how well current ways of working suit them and make changes as necessary.

How do I Define my Working Style?

To define your working style, start by reflecting on how you approach tasks, communicate with others, and manage your time. Consider whether you work best independently or collaboratively, thrive under structure or prefer flexibility, and how you handle deadlines and multitasking. You can also assess your problem-solving strategies, such as whether you take an analytical, creative, or practical approach.