Time to expand … hang on though! That involves recruitment! How do we know we’ll get the right person(s)? Will it be a cost that doesn’t reap the returns?
Swiftly we go from a positive outlook to that of uncertainty and even question if it’s the right thing to do! Suddenly that step forward becomes less attractive! Has this raised questions within your own company I wonder?
We’re not recruiters but what we do know is people are your biggest investment and, as importantly, your biggest asset. So what happens when you take the plunge and bring on these new people?
Often we see how organisations expect people to be up and running straight away and forget it takes some people a little longer to settle in (but the long term gain will ultimately be very beneficial). Others may seem to take longer to get their heads around areas of business, but when they do, they inevitably become the fountain of knowledge on that subject!
Additionally, they simply don’t seem to understand WHAT you’re telling them and this might be because of HOW you’re telling them!
Consider the following 7 Learning traits that we all fall into. See what your preferred style is and then how you go about understanding those coming on board thus helping/teaching the new recruit(s) according to ‘their’ thinking. Stephen Covey’s habit #5 (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey) depicts “Seek first to understand… Then to be understood”, master this and you will lead the way to communicating with those important assets that are your employees.
VISUAL (SEEING):
- Prefer colour, layout, and spatial organisation in your relationship with ‘Visual’ words in your dialect (eg not just “It was large” but “It was as big as a hot-air balloon”).
- Use images, pictures, colour and other visual media.
- Where possible, replace words with pictures and use colour highlighting major/minor associations.
AURAL (HEARING):
- Use sound to provide a background aiding visualisations.
- When creating reminders, make the most of rhythm and rhyme. Set them to/create a jingle.
- Use sound, rhyme, and music in your teaching.
VERBAL (LINGUISTIC):
- Use role-playing to teach verbal exchanges such as negotiations sales or cold calls
- Record your teachings using a tape or digital audio recorder, and use it later for reviews
- When you read content aloud, make it dramatic and varied
KINESTHETIC (FEELING-TACTILE-PHYSICAL)
- Introduce writing and drawing of diagrams in your teaching
- Use physical objects as much as possible
- Use role-playing, either singularly or with someone else, to practice skills and behaviours
- Describe the physical feelings of your actions.
LOGICAL (MATHEMATICS)
- They may find it challenging to change existing behaviours or habits
- Create systems thinking to help understanding the bigger picture
- Create and use lists by extracting key points from the teaching material
SOCIAL (INTERPERSONAL):
- Sharing key information with others in groups aiding understanding by exploring all variations on a theme.
- Ask they share ideas and/or present to other people.
- Introduce role-playing whether one on one or with a group of people
SOLITARY (INTERNAL-EMOTIONAL):
- Modelling is a powerful technique to help them associate themselves internally with others.
- Thoughts have a large influence on performance.
- Align objectives/goals with their beliefs and values.
- Self-study and solitude learning is preferred.
The most important thing is to understand that we are not all the same and people aren’t being awkward or belligerent, it’s just that they may not see things the same way as you (oops! That’s just given away my thinking style! Did you spot it?).
Coaching to Success use a myriad of tools to help get messages across to employees through their workshops and one-to-one sessions, should you be in a position to undergo employing new members of staff, contact Neil on 07761 187238 or email neil@coachingtosuccess.co.uk for an informal conversation to see how we can help increase the productivity of new staff or other matters concerning business development.
Having read this, why not check out Neil too by watching our YouTube video HERE.
