Straight Talker
Type. You name it, you hold it, you keep the person.
You name the problem, you hold your position long enough to test it, and you keep the person. That is the hardest combination in this instrument to score and the one this site is built around. The problem gets named in the first ten minutes, by its real name, with no compliment wrapped around it for padding, and nobody leaves the room guessing what was meant.
The Straight Talker's risk is not the conflict. It is the assumption that everyone else can take it the way you can. You are used to naming things and to being named at. Many of the people you work with are not, and to them the same sentence you find clean lands as an attack, especially the first time. If your team's turnover is higher than you expect or people go quiet after you have been "clear", this is why.
The second risk is speed. Straight Talkers resolve conflicts fast, and some conflicts should take longer, because the other person needs time to say what they have not yet said. Check your Curiosity bar. If it is your lowest, you are naming and holding well and not always finding out first whether you were right.
Here is how I define Nordic directness. You separate the problem from the person. The problem gets named, plainly, in the room, and the blame does not land on anyone. In the Nordic culture I come from, whoever raised the flag was celebrated for speaking up. Directness is about the problem, and it is for the other person's benefit. Bluntness for sport is about you.
It is aimed at a character instead of a behaviour, it is louder than it needs to be, and the person saying it enjoys it a little too much. My test is one question: after you said it, does the other person know exactly what to do next? If they only know how you feel, that was not directness. That was venting.
One change for this week. In your next disagreement, before you name the problem, say the other person's position back to them in one sentence and ask if you have it right. It costs thirty seconds. It changes how everything after it is heard.
If your score is high and your team's psychological safety is low, the two are related. Directness only works when people know you are on their side.
Next step: measure the room with the psychological safety scale.
Next step
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About this result
This is one of 5 results from the Conflict Style Assessment, a free tool that shows the score without an email. Aggregate figures are at the statistics page once 30 completions have been reached. More free tools are at the tools shelf.