Do you do it?
When you’re ‘listening’ to someone talk, do you sometimes start to drift off and day dream into thoughts about something else?
”What should I have for dinner tonight?… She really doesn’t suit that dress… Is he ever going to stop talking?”
We all do it.
According to the Statistic Brain Research Institute, the average attention span of a human has now dropped below that of a gold fish…
The average attention span of a human in 2000 – 12 seconds.
The average attention span of a human in 2015 – 8.25 seconds.
The average attention span of a gold fish – 9 seconds.
So how difficult is it to get someone to actually, properly listen to you these days?
Almost impossible.
And yet…
That’s no reason to give up.
It is still a vital need in our society to be able to communicate a message to another person and have them listen properly.
But how can you do this?
There is a simple trick that can help.
Let me explain.
“So… what exactly do you do?” I am often asked.
“I teach people how to communicate more effectively,” I say.
“Oh, that’s interesting. Well I don’t need to learn anything more about communication. I already know how to talk to people.”
That is the response I hear all too often.
But how good are you at actually getting people to understand what you are saying to them?
How often, are you talking one-on-one with someone and one the following issues occur…
They:
- Look away from you – out the window or somewhere else in the room,
- Interrupt – before you have finished speaking,
- Misinterpret – your words or the intention behind your words,
- React – in a way that you did not expect.
And what about when you have a team to manage and…
- There is too much gossip and talking behind backs,
- Productivity and profitability is not as good as it should be,
- Stand-over tactics or bullying sometimes occurs,
- People will silently sabotage others when they don’t agree with something.
Wouldn’t it be great if there was an easy way to combat these issues?
If you could enter a meeting, or a one-on-one discussion, even a difficult conversation you had to have, and fully understand why those people think and act the way they do?
If you could easily grasp the way in which they want to be spoken to, so that they would listen intently to every word you say?
I’m happy to tell you that there is, and it is REALLY simple once you know how to do it.
So how does it work?
There are four very different communication styles in the world that people use and we differentiate them each with colours (Purple, Yellow, Red, and Blue).
Each of us is strongest in one. But which one?
Is everyone you meet or talk to the same as you?
Short answer – no.
Imagine how a conversation might go if the communication style that you are strongest in, is not the same communication style of the person you are talking to?
Here’s how it could go…
Purple – is always thinking about what’s next, or some future event coming up, and struggles to focus on what needs to be done right now, today. They don’t want much detail, and want to figure things out for themselves.
Yellow – interprets everything you say to them by creating pictures inside their head, if you don’t give them enough detail, they won’t understand your instructions.
Red – gets irritable when you don’t quickly make your point, and will stop listening to you if your instructions are not clear and confuse them.
Blue – needs to understand why you want them to do something, and does not like to make a decision until the situation feels right.
Are you starting to see why some conversations go well and others don’t?
It’s easy to blame it on the other person – they’re just rude, they don’t listen, they have an attitude problem, or they just don’t like me.
But what if it wasn’t them?
What if you simply just weren’t speaking their “language” (their communication style)?
What if you were speaking Yellow, giving them plenty of visual detail, but they were listening as Purple and they didn’t want all that information, and had stopped listening to you long ago to move onto something else?
Don’t let that happen to you!
Learn how to easily determine someone’s communication style by the way they are dressed, certain words they use, or what their office looks like.
Then once you know how they want to be spoken to, you can make small adjustments to the way you communicate with them in order to be understood properly.
How does it work?
The first step is understanding your own unique communication style and how it colours all of your conversations (do you communicate as a Purple, Yellow, Red or Blue?).
Once you know that, we can then show you how easy it is to determine the preferred communication style of the people you meet (how they want to be spoken to) so that you are more successful in getting your message across the right way – every time.
Contact us today to find out how you can become more successful in all of your conversations through the way you communicate with our simple yet effective training.
