Figure 1: Wearing Many Hats Source: blackenterprise.com (2011)
‘Wearing many hats’ is a common metaphor describing how people adapt their personalities and communication styles to a new social environment or situation. Sometimes the ‘hats worn’ in life are so disparate that when ‘changing hats’ it could appear to be a different person all together.
As a mostly unconscious reaction a new persona can appear instantly. Communication styles in particular non-verbal characteristics including voice tone, gestures, posture, facial expressions (Phillip Cenere, 2015) and even mood and language can change spontaneously.
Clint Grossmann, this blog author and father of three children knows all to well the spontaneous transition that takes place from work to home life.
“As a Sales Manager my communication with staff at work was factual and direct. Walking through the door at home I would instantly become Daddy, making faces and fart sounds to my 6 month old daughter, hoping to evoke a gummy smile and baby giggle.”
Naturally humans will adapt their communication style to mirror the people they are with as way of connecting and enabling an effective platform for communication. The science of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) calls this mirroring behavior, rapport.
“Rapport is essentially meeting individuals in their model of the world”. (Joseph O’Connor, 2013, p. 24)
Establishing rapport is dependent upon the willingness and the ability of the individuals to establish communication, and can easily be broken. The occupation of a Professional Sales Person is built on the skill of establishing rapport, without it a relationship and therefore a sale is unlikely to succeed. Clint Grossmann reflects on his experience …
figure 2: Police Officer Source: renuevame.com
“After 8 years in the South Australian Police Force, I had developed an authoritative, assertive and sometimes aggressive communication style. Enthusiastically I entered my new career as a Professional Sales Person and couldn’t sell. I soon discovered that when I stopped being the Policeman with my customers and communicated as the friendly, authentic person I am, the sales started to flow.”
Reference List
Untitled illustration of a Police Officer. Retrieved March 14, 2016 from http://www.renuevame.com/wpcontent/uploads/2015/07/rsz_inspire-health-be-a-cheerleader-not-a-policeman.jpg
Joseph O’Connor, I. M. (2013). Principles of NLP: What it is, how it works (Revised ed.). London, United Kingdom: Singing Dragon.
Phillip Cenere, R. G. (2015). Communication Skills for Business Professionals (First ed.). Port Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press.
Wearing Many Hats. Retrieved March 22, 2016 from http:www.blackenterprise.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2011/06/Wearing -Many-Hats-620×480.jpg
SEEKHANA 
