Today I’m going to talk about the importance of understanding the VAK. The V.A.K., V represents visual, what you see, A represents auditory, what you hear, and K represents kinesthetic, what you feel. This is very important in the art of communication because only 20% of people are auditory, 40% are kinesthetic, and 40% are visual.
Auditory is all about people listening and what they hear. Visual is all about what the person is seeing, that’s why we use props or pictures in presentations. Kinesthetic is all about feelings so it’s valuable to tell stories that connect with people to tap into their feelings.
Now, there’s a statistic that every leader needs to know that if not understood is costing the US economy billions of dollars in lost productivity every year. That’s a lot of money being left on the table because of this lack of understanding of the VAK.
That important statistic is that only 20% of people are auditory. What does that mean? That means only two out of 10 people are really listening. Think about it; if you as a leader have a morning meeting and give 10 people instructions without asking them to write it down, without asking them to repeat it back to you, without asking them, “What course of action are you going to take to get this done?” If you just tell them what you want done and don’t ask any of those questions, when you have your follow-up meeting to ask who has it done, how many are going to have it done? Most likely, two because only 20% of people are auditory. Statistically, only two out of 10 would have followed your instructions because only two out of 10 by the odds were really listening.
Now, what does that mean as far as lost productivity? You as a leader are now thinking, eight of them don’t have this done. Do they not care? Are they not accountable? Do they have no ownership? Should I fire them? What needs to happen? Drama is created and you start feeling differently about your team. This all causes a lack of productivity and stress on your part as a leader, all because you didn’t know a simple statistic of the VAK that only 20% of people are auditory, which means only two out of 10 are actually by the odds listening.
For all you leaders out there, please take this to point. Most people are visual. They need to be shown a task. Most people are kinesthetic and are connected to their feelings. Tell them a story. Ask them questions and get them to feel it. But knowing that only 20% are auditory, make sure when you give instructions that they repeat it back, give you the action course of what they’re going to do to get it done, and make sure you both walk away knowing fully that they got it because if you haven’t made sure of that and they don’t, you’re all going to pay a price.
COACH MICHAEL DILL is an Award-Winning Certified Business Coach, global speaker, and published author. He is a proud Action Coach Franchise partner as well as the President of Power & Ice Wealth Creation a strategic leadership company that works with business owners, leaders, teams, and entrepreneurs to both develop a systematized and structured organization while accelerating their mindset, efficiencies, and effectiveness to grow both personally and professionally to achieve extraordinary results. He brings more than 40 years of business and entrepreneurial experience in his leadership, team training, and mentoring practice. Businesscoachmichaeldill.com