Focus on this key lesson to build a great team

I have always found it fascinating to see how people learn.  Do you know your own learning style?   I was only familiar with Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic styles.  As I have done additional research, I have found that there are actually 7 styles.  In addition to the ones that I named, the others are Verbal, Logical, Social, and Solitary.

Here is a list of the styles and descriptions of all of them:

1. Visual – you learn by what you see in pictures and images
2. Auditory – you learn by what you hear through sound or music
3. Kinesthetic -you learn by what you can touch
4. Verbal – you learn by words, either speaking words or writing
5. Logical – you learn through logic and reasoning
6. Social – you learn best with groups and other people
7. Solitary – you learn best by yourself and through self-study

It is important for a leader to know how their team members learn.  Why is this important?  As you can see by the 7 different styles listed above, there are many ways to learn.  I am personally a visual learner.   I would always use pictures and lots of colors in the things that my team and I presented.   I also thought about the audience that we were presenting to and how to include things in the presentation for them as well.  I wanted to make sure they would hear the message.  I have worked with people who are verbal processors.  They are actually processing the information while they are talking through things out loud.   Some other people may need to see the logic in the decisions or discussion before they can align with you.

My advice is to ask your team members how they learn best.  Do this in a one on one situation and not in front of the group.  Now you can make sure that your communication takes their learning style into consideration.  If you would like to take a test to see what your style is and get more information about learning styles you can check out this link: http://www.learning-styles-online.com/overview/

I have been successfully working with individual leaders and their teams to help them function as high performing teams.  If you are interested in having me help you, please click this link and set up time with me: http://susanmbarber.com/schedule-an-appointment/