 Can't get your team to master that new skill? Do you understand their learning styles? Welcome back and congratulations on taking one more step towards becoming one of the great leaders of tomorrow. All this month we've been talking about getting back to school and upping our education game to become the best leaders we can possibly be. One of our most important jobs as leaders is to train and educate the members of our team. This can be a real challenge sometimes because everyone learns differently. Today we're going to talk about the seven different learning styles and how you can apply your understanding of them to help your team grow to their full potential. The first of the seven learning styles is visual learning. Visual learners have a preference for using images, pictures, colors, and maps to organize information and communicate with others. Visual learners love to use whiteboards or other tools that let them explore their thoughts visually. They're often heard saying things like, let's look at it differently. I can't quite picture it or let's draw a diagram or map. Ways you can help visual learners are by using color, layout, and spatial organization when talking with them and using visual words like see, picture, perspective, visual, and map. Oral learners like to work with sound and music and have a good sense of pitch and rhythm. This can be helpful because music evokes strong emotions and oral learners can be tuned into the emotions of others. Oral learners often say things like, that sounds about right, that rings the bell, or that's music to my ears. You can help oral learners by using sound, rhyme, and music when training them. Using sound recordings to provide a background and help them visualize and when creating mnemonics or acrostics, make the most of rhythm and rhyme, or set them to a jingle or part of a song. Verbal learners find it easy to express themselves both in writing and verbally. They enjoy playing on the meaning or sound of words such as tongue twisters, rhymes, and limericks. They know the meaning of a lot of words and regularly make an effort to find the meaning of new words. Phrases that verbal learners often say are, tell me word for word, the word you're looking for is, and let me spell it out for you. To reach verbal learners effectively, incorporate speaking and writing and techniques. Encourage them to talk themselves through procedures or use recordings of content for repetition. Use rhyme and rhythm in your assertions where you can, and be sure to read important ones aloud. Mnemonics, acronyms, and scripting are powerful tools for verbal learners. Physical learners use their body and sense of touch to learn about the world. They like sports and exercise and other physical activities such as gardening or woodworking. Physical learners typically use larger hand gestures and other body language to communicate. They might use phrases like, that feels right to me, that doesn't sit right with me, or my gut is telling me. To reach physical learners, use physical objects as much as possible and use role playing to practice skills and behaviors. Logical learners like using their brain for logical and mathematical reasoning. They recognize patterns easily as well as connections between seemingly meaningless content. Logical learners typically work through problems and issues in a systematic way and like to create procedures for future use. You might hear a logical learner say, that's logical, follow the process, or there's no pattern to this. You can help logical learners by making use of systems thinking to help understand the links between various parts of the system and understand the bigger picture. Social learners typically prefer learning in groups or classes or like to spend one on one time with a teacher or instructor. They heighten learning by bouncing thoughts off other people and listening to how they respond. Social learners often say things like, let's work together on this, let's pull some people together to discuss, or let's explore our options. Leaders can help these people learn by letting them work with others as much as possible and using tools like role playing, mind maps, and system diagrams. Solitary learners prefer to work on problems by retreating to somewhere quiet and working through possible solutions. They may sometimes spend too much time trying to solve a problem by themselves that can be more easily solved by talking to others. Solitary learners often say things like, I'd like some time to think it over or I'll get back to you on that. You can help solitary learners by helping them set clear goals, objectives, and plans and guiding them to align those goals with their values and personal beliefs. A potential pitfall to avoid when learning about these learning styles is that we want to avoid making judgments about people based on their learning style. It's important not to assume that someone won't be good at a certain task solely because of their learning style. We don't want to assume someone might not be good at creating visuals for a presentation just because they aren't a visual learner. We also don't want to let others use their learning style as a crutch to avoid new situations. We shouldn't let someone say, I can't take notes at the meeting because I'm not a verbal learner. The reality is, most people use a combination of the learning styles when they learn, so combining elements of each style can be really helpful especially when working with a group of people. The important thing is to pay attention to the styles that the people around us use and to use the appropriate elements of those styles to communicate effectively. We got a lot of information for this video from learningstylesonline.com, so go check them out if you'd like to learn more. You can even take an assessment on their site to figure out what your own learning style is. If you found this helpful, please share it with a friend or co-worker, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and click off on that globe to the right. That'll get you to subscribe to our email list and that'll bring all of our content direct to your inbox. If you have any leadership or business questions you'd like us to answer, reach out to us on social media or email us at info at evilgeniusleadership.com. Thanks for watching, I really appreciate it, and remember, the future is out there. Lead the way.