Note the environment in which your subject works, lives, or otherwise spends time. That may give you a number of immediate clues. How (if you should have the opportunity to see it) is the person’s office decorated and arranged? What is on the desk, walls, and bookshelves? What is the seating arrangement between you and this person?

The “Environmental Clues” chart summarizes a number of indicators that relate to the office environment. For instance, if you entered a client’s office and noticed family pictures on the desk and walls, nature posters with personal relationship motifs, a round desk, and a separate seating area with four comfortable chairs, what would be your first impression of that client’s behavioral style? If your client then stood to greet you personally and sat with you in the easy chairs in order to discuss the purpose of your visit, would that confirm or change your initial impression? By comparing these clues against those presented in the “Environmental Clues” chart, you can get a fairly good initial indication that (in this case) you are indeed dealing with a Steady Style.

Try another: This time you enter the office and notice on the walls: diploma, an achievement plaque, and a poster that says, “Why not?” On the desk: several jumbled stacks of papers in piles, a chaotic appearance. For seating: two overstuffed chairs and a small table close to the open side of the desk where two people can join in a discussion.

You also notice a bookcase with books and stacks of folders intermixed and a plant on the file cabinet. Check the information in the “Environmental Clues” chart. From the environment, what kind of style does the person in that office appear to be? (The disorganization, wall decorations of achievements, stimulating personal comments that go beyond specific projects, and the comfortable and accessible seating mark this as the office of an Influencing Style. Get the idea?)

These environmental indicators are only one kind of clue to behavioral style. Caution: Do NOT use this as the sole determinant. The person may have had little control over the environment you see or may have changed the environment in order to meet other needs (e.g., an intense workload and a special visitor). Of course, many times your first contact with someone, and your first opportunity to get a feeling for their behavioral style, will not be a face-to-face encounter. It may be over the telephone, or through a letter or an e-mail.