Building relationships within your company and with your clients is a task every decision-maker must learn to accomplish. But the skill of understanding people is one that’s difficult to master.
According to Stephen Lloyd, author of “Selling From The Heart,” everyone has the ability to connect with others. The problem is not so much whether it’s possible, but how to do it.
“Each of us receives, processes, stores, retrieves, communicates and responds in one of three brain languages,” Lloyd says. “Once your learn the differences, you’ll be able to communicate better with people because you’ll understand them better.”
How can that affect your business? Lloyd says communication in the business world can be crucial. Misunderstandings can kill a deal, doom a business relationship or lead to personnel problems. But all that can be avoided if decision-makers recognize how people think and learn to communicate with them.
Eye movement is a key factor in determining which thinker is which, but the use of words can be just as powerful a signal. Here are signs to look for.
Visual thinker
Visual thinkers move their eyes up and to the left to recall and up and to the right to think or construct thoughts. They also may look straight ahead as if they are daydreaming or looking straight through you.
Visual thinkers may also use words like “appear,” “investigate,” “visualize” or “see,” and may sprinkle their conversations with tell-tale phrases such as “Show me.”
“Visual people appear to take longer to make up their minds,” Lloyd says. “This is because they need to see everything that relates to their decision.”
Auditory thinker
Auditory thinkers’ eyes move laterally toward the left ear to recall and laterally toward the right ear to think or construct thoughts. Their tendency is to look left and right rather than up and down as they ponder what to say.
They’ll use words such as “communicate,” “discuss,” “lingo” and “pronounce” more often than visual words, and include phrases such as “Hear me” or “What does that sound like to you?” in their conversations.
“Auditory thinkers crave feedback,” Lloyd says. “They’re the ones with their self-esteem on the line, offering all or most of the information you ask for and, in the process, leaving themselves vulnerable. They tend to think out loud.”
Kinesthetic thinker
Kinesthetic thinkers move their eyes down and sideways, often lowering their heads during the contemplative thought process. They use words such as “affection,” “compassion,” “sensitivity” and “understand.” Among the phrases they’ll include in topical conversation are, “What does it feel like?” or “I am with you on that point.”
“Kinesthetic thinkers respond best to gentle, sincere demonstrations or attention,” Lloyd explains. “They’re normally nonassertive people and prosper best in nonconfrontational environments that require little use of their communications skills. These are people who prefer to write than use the phone.”
But no matter what type of thinkers your organization has, Lloyd says once you understand your employees, you can better match them with the jobs that fit their skills and needs. And that will go a long way toward increasing productivity in your business. Dustin Klein ([email protected]) is editor of SBN.
