Using people styles for interpersonal competence: Encouraging purposeful reflection on communication behaviours

Abstract

This article revitalizes the idea of “soft skills” as an important part of evaluator training by reflecting on use of the People Styles Assessment Inventory as a reflective exercise in a course with Master's- and PhD-level evaluation and measurement students. It provides an overview of recent literature surrounding interpersonal competency in evaluation, highlighting the need for, and lack of emphasis on, interpersonal skills in evaluation training; presents the teaching-practice context for engaging in the People Styles assessment and reflective activity; describes the People Styles model; and reflects on use of the model for training future evaluation practitioners.