A key role and responsibility of any manager is to develop those people who report to them. Often, when developing subordinates through delegation or training activities, managers may fail to take into account that each person has different learning preferences.
Answer each of these questions:

When putting something new together, do you:
A.Read the instructions
B.Ask for an explanation
C.Go ahead on your own

When contacting a person for the first time, do you prefer:
A. Meeting face-to-face
B. Talking on the phone
C. Doing an activity together

When you have a complaint about something you bought, do you:
A. Write a letter
B. Call on the phone
C. Take it back to the store

When shopping, do you prefer:
A. Having a written brochure to read about the product
B. Having a salesperson tell you about the product.
C. Being able to touch and try the product.

Your answers to these questions give an idea of your preferred learning style. The answers indicated by “A” are indicative of someone who is a visual learner, the “B” answers are indicative of a auditory learner, and the “C” answers are indicative of a kinesthetic learner.

This is a shortened version of an assessment that examines learning preferences, so the results are just for discussion purposes rather than a totally accurate assessment of your style. If all of your answers, were the same letter, it is an indication of a very strong preference. Most people tend to be a mixture of styles, depending on the situation. I know I am about 50% visual and 50% kinesthetic, with very little auditory. I have a very difficult time remembering people’s names if I only hear it. However, if someone gives me a list of names prior to meeting people, I am pretty good at associating names with faces. This is why I always try to get a roster of people attending a workshop ahead of time.

When developing employees, knowing their learning preferences is important. For example, imagine you delegate tasks to a person just by telling him what to do-auditory-and he is primarily a visual learner. He will have difficulty executing because it is inconsistent with this style. He needs to see for himself what it is that you are talking about.

Unless you give each subordinate an assessment to determine his or her learning style, or you are exceptionally perceptive at evaluating a person’s style through observation, the best approach to development is to employ all three styles in development activities.

I recommend a three step approach. The first step is auditory which means telling the person what you need them to know or do. When communicating to someone with a strong auditory preference, not only the words are important, but also the tone and volume. Auditory learners also respond to sounds and music.

The next step is to provide visual support for what you have told the person. This can mean written instructions, handouts, pictures, demonstrations, or anything else that conveys what you want a person to learn or do in a visual manner. I have found myself guilty of ignoring this visual need when I do speaking engagements. My worry was that people would be reading the handouts instead of listening to the wonderful message that I was bringing. But I recognized that this personal bias was ignoring the need of those who are visual. I had to stop worrying about me, but rather how do I effectively get the message across to everyone.

The third step addresses the kinesthetic preference. After you have told people what you want, and shown them visually what you want, then they need to experience it in some way. Confucius wisely said, “What I hear I forget, what I hear I remember, and what I do I understand.” So the third step is to let the person do what you want them to do or learn, observe them, and then give positive feedback.

The next time that you have a task to delegate to one of your subordinates, remember the three learning preferences. Avoid the temptation just to tell them what you want them to do. Take time to show them or give them something in writing. Then , let them perform the task while you observe and give feedback. If you follow this process, you will me much more effective in delegation and ultimately spend less time with people following up to make sure that they perform the task correctly.

Author Bio: Ryan Scholz works with leaders whose success is dependent on getting commitment and high performance from others. He is author of Turning Potential into Action: Eight Principles for Creating a Highly Engaged Work Place. For more information, visit his web site at www.lead-strat-assoc.com.

Category: Leadership
Keywords: learning preferences employee development delegation