Leveraging PCM For Effective Teamwork In Freelance Projects

Irene Yu is a leadership and career coach who works with a communication model called PCM, the Process Communication Model. At Freelance Unlocked 2024 she presents it as a tool for freelancers: when you know someone's style, she says, you can approach clients and team members better and settle conflicts. She traces the model to a psychologist working with NASA in 1978.

What the talk covers

• The six styles, in her words. Thinkers are logical and want data and facts. Persisters are value-driven and speak in opinions ("I believe"). Harmonizers are empathy-driven and respond to inclusive language and appreciation. Promoters are action-driven, energetic and charismatic. Imaginers are inward and visual and need time and clear instructions. Rebels are creative and playful, and she says many freelancers are rebels.
• How to work with each: give thinkers accurate information, persisters clear expectations and goals, harmonizers listening and "we", promoters success stories, imaginers space to reflect, and rebels fun and room to improvise.
• Everyone has all six styles with one or two dominant. She says a style can shift over a career. She herself is a persister who learned to act like a thinker to lead engineers.
• An example conflict: a promoter manager focused on the big picture and a thinker who wants details. She suggests that the promoter brings data and the thinker shares success stories, and that both listen without interrupting and look for common ground.
• Stress changes behaviour, she says: a stressed thinker turns critical, a stressed promoter focuses even more on themselves. Learning this takes practice or a course.

From the Q&A

She does not call any style a hindrance for freelancers, and sees the more flexible communicator as the better leader. She worked mostly in Germany and sees differences in directness more than in style by culture.

Who it's for

Freelancers who work in teams and want a simple framework for communication.