Ask the Business Coach Joyce K. Reynolds is an expert Business Coach who works with CEOs, Sr. Execs, entrepreneurs and countless others providing knowledge, solutions, motivation and support that assist her clientele in successfully meeting workplace challenges. Find out more about Joyce's coaching practice. Communication Issues Question: Joyce, I'm a layout designer who is responsible for all areas of communication in my area. My problem is this, I talk in images and I see problems in images. When it is time to communicate with others I find myself speaking in parables that to me sound very descriptive, yet the listener seems to find humor. On the flip side, I have trouble understanding the concepts that are presented to me in the written format. Is this just something I'm going to have to compromise or shall I work on sharpening the left side of my brain to be more on par with whomever I'm communicating with? R. Answer: Communicating accurately and successfully – understanding and being understood – is probably one of the world’s greatest challenges. Having identified and defined the flaw in your communications style gives you a real leg up in correcting the problem. This is a very important challenge for you to meet for a variety of reasons. One brain expert contends that our left brain has an ego problem and is jealous of the right brain's artistic abilities. It uses its language advantage to keep the right brain in a secondary position. It wants to be in charge of everything and tries to run the show. If we translate that concept to the workplace, it is understandable that highly creative people - who fall predominately into the right brain category - often avoid supervisory or management roles. They, like you, think in more metaphorical, aesthetic terms leaving them out of sync with the more logical, focused and scientific style of the left brain individual who can more easily take charge. The dominance of the left hemisphere of the brain certainly does show up in the business world where language – which certainly favors the skills of the left brain - is the dominate form of communication. In fact, in our culture, 90% left brain and 10% right is considered equilibrium. This makes clear how you might find yourself diminished in your position if you don’t bring to life your now dormant left brain skills, particularly, because you have been assigned a leadership role. Frankly, while metaphor exists in our everyday life and is apparent in organizations, it is largely ignored as a productive form of language interaction. I am not suggesting that you give up entirely on your image-oriented communication style - which can be regarded as a new ‘language’ that is fresh and creative – but you will have to utilize your left brain in order to make the translation to your colleagues. As you’re developing your left brain, invite your co-workers to expand their right. When you want to use a metaphor, search for one that is familiar or well-known – e.g. the V-formation that geese fly in contains many metaphors for leadership, compassion, loyalty. Once you’ve attempted this type of communication, keep the discussion serious and focused by asking your listeners if they understood the translation and ask if they got the message. Invite them to see things in your artistic, intuitive terms. Ask them to participate in the process so that they can begin to see things in a broader way. Talk openly about wanting to use the best of both the language and image worlds to convey a message. If you get a communiqué that you don’t understand, ask for a ‘translation.’ Make it fun – not funny - for people to try to come up with a symbolic, imaginative version of their thinking. But, don’t push this concept as you don’t want to threaten those who don’t have the interest in or potential to develop their artistic side. While some scientists think there is no such thing as a whole-brain thinker, I have found that individuals can, indeed, enlarge either right or left brain functions to move them into a more balanced way of coping with business and life. If you are patient and continue to stress that you’d like to share another, unique way of thinking and analyzing with your co-workers as you work to better understand their methods, you will all be stretching in a more whole-brain, growth-oriented direction. Also see: • Ask Joyce your workplace questions • More questions • One-on-one business coaching Disclaimer: The information in this column is intended to provide the reader with general ideas or concepts to be used as part of a broader base of knowledge they collect to determine their own best course of action and solutions most suitable for solving their workplace challenges. The information in this column is not guaranteed to be the appropriate solution for each individual.