A Brain New Way to Work

How profitably could your business operate if one-third of your clients wore blindfolds? What if you or one-half of your coworkers stuffed earplugs in before every communication?

In fact, over 50 percent of people’s brains are hardwired with a dominant visual information style and they are not really ‘hearing’ much, while nearly 30 percent are hearing predominant and they are not ‘seeing’ as much. Kinesthetic or ‘body and feeling’ dominant people are active do-ers, and are neither visually nor audio oriented.

Have you interacted with a colleague or customer and realized, “Not only are they not doing it the way I do, they’re not even thinking about it the same way!” We may be speaking the same language; but we’re not hearing the same words or seeing the same pictures.

When one person leaves irate voice mails and another responds with flaming emails, a personality conflict is not the most likely reason. Every day, brain-based misunderstandings steal your time as well as sabotage your professional expertise.

Our brains have had no major changes for 50,000 years. Meanwhile, scientists report that over the last century the information that we process multiplied by a factor of thousands. We are simply not designed to deal with it all. According to the American Medical Association, over eighty percent of all medical conditions are related to stress!

Knowing how your brain is hardwired gives you a real performance edge at work and in life. Everyone has a dominant sensory style: Visual, Auditory or Kinesthetic. Simply put, auditory people can’t see the forest for the trees and visual people can’t see the trees for the forest.

My brain quizzes show that I am 50 percent Auditory, 30 percent Kinesthetic and 20 percent Visual. Here are three celebrities as examples of sensory brain style characteristics. Plus brief tips on how to interact more successfully with different brain styles. Do you recognize your brain styles?

Visually predominant:

Receive info best: they are seeing the big picture-not details. So SHOW them.

Indicative words: Look, View, etc.

When accessing info: Eyes move rapidly up - glancing & squinting

Speaking style: Rapidly with broad gestures. Inflection varies.

Celebrity: Jay Leno

Quote: “I see what you’re saying.”

When talking to a visual thinker, show them, use a whiteboard or piece of paper to make overview points. They may take the pen and draw over your marks to explain their side. Ask questions like, “How does this look to you, so far?”

Auditory predominant:

Receive info best: they are listening for facts. So give them details and How-Tos.

Indicative words: Hear, Sounds like, etc.

When accessing info: Eyes move steadily left-right to ears.

Speaking style: Modulated pace with minimal gestures.

Celebrity: Ellen DeGeneres

Quote: “I hear what you’re saying.”

For a hearing learner giving them facts as details like when, what, where and whom is best. Using lists and numbered items helps them focus on your message. Ask questions like, “How does this sound to you, so far?”

Kinetic predominant:

Receive info best: they are having feelings & physical sensations.

So give them experiences FEEL THIS.

Indicative words: Regarding, Touch, Grasp, etc.

When accessing info: Eyes move down and stay there

Speaking style: Slowly with pauses, deep breaths & no gestures

Celebrity: Oprah Winfrey

Quote: “I get what you’re saying.”

With kinesthetic learners, slow your speech down while explaining a task. Explain while demonstrating or physically modeling the task. If needed, do it once yourself (or do it with them once). If complex, also coach them through doing it on their own the first time. Ask questions like, “Got a handle on it, so far?”

A Vice President of Operations recently exclaimed to me, “This explains years of misunderstandings between me and my team!” By reducing mistakes and misunderstandings, you and your team can invest more time in professional and business profits.

Please send me your best tips or stories on managing time, whipping paper piles and making email work for you. When I share your tips in my column, you win my book, How to Do Space Age Work with a Stone Age Brain tm.

But you don’t have to win my book to discover how to take advantage of your own unique hardwiring. Free and easy online brain quizzes await you at: http://www.ABrainNewWaytoWork.com/assessments.html Do not hesitate to send me questions about challenges you are facing on the job or in your business. The reason I write this column is to help every working American save an hour a day.

Here is to more time for life, by using your brain to get higher quality work done in less time while reducing stress.