If your delivery doesn’t match the person’s preferred intake method, you may be fighting a losing battle, says Ethan F. Becker, Ph.D., president and senior coach and trainer for The Speech Improvement Company and coauthor of Mastering Communication at Work: How to Lead, Manage, and Influence
Inductive vs. Deductive Listening
You can discern how a person thinks by paying attention to how they present information
- Form your presentations or asks based on how their tendencies are revealed
- Example: If your CEO is an inductive thinker, simply flip the conversation around and start with the price of the exhibit and then back up with reasons why it’s a good idea to attend
Listening and Emails
Emails should almost always be deductive.
- An inductive email can be frustrating, and the receiver either doesn’t read it or doesn’t understand it. You can usually take your last line, paste it at the top, and delete the rest.
Shifting in Real Time
If you use the wrong form in the beginning, it doesn’t mean you blew it
- Sometimes circumstances in the moment may impact the best way to deliver your information
- Your goal is to present your ideas in a way where the listener can best understand and comprehend so they don’t hear something out of context that sends them on the wrong tangent
