In the morning, evening or at night? Kidding! Although some people would say, “Let’s not communicate until I have my morning coffee!”

One of the things most overlooked in communication is that we all have a preferred way of communicating. Similar to learning styles, our preference for giving and receiving communication, impacts the way we perceive and process information. To complicate matters, everyone around us has their own preferred way of communicating, and naturally, we’re inclined to interact with others through our own preference, which may or may not be their preference. AHHHHHH! No wonder our signals get crossed so often!

VARK

What is VARK? Visual. Auditory. Reading/Writing. Kinesthetic. If your preferred way of communicating is visual, you gravitate towards diagrams, photographs, infographics and charts. You will use words such as “see” or “look”. If you’re auditory, you like hearing a voice and likely enjoy listening to audiobooks. You’ll use words like “hear” and “sounds”. If your preference is for reading/writing, you take some time to process information and express yourself through the written word (hello long emails). You might use words such as “learn” or “think”. If you’re kinesthetic, you’re a feeler and like to be in experiences. Words you may use are “touch” or “make contact”.

If you’re not sure about your preference, there are free online tools to help you find out what it is. Complete this questionnaire to start, because once you know what your preference is, you can ask for communication in the way you like it, and you can begin recognizing other people’s preferences and communicate with them in the way they like it. Win-win!

Challenge for the week

Complete the questionnaire and begin to pay attention to the words you use when you communicate. Do they correlate? Start noticing the words other people are using and see if you can figure out their preference for communication. Imagine what it would be like to not have signals cross so often. 😊

In our next post, we’re going to tackle the beast of fears and limiting beliefs. Hands down, it’s the biggest unconscious influencer on how we communicate. You won’t want to miss it!