Know Your Audience – Know to whom you are speaking, but do not talk up or down to anyone. Treat everyone’s time and position with respect.
Within the framework of communication, probably the most important aspect to effectively share information is context. According to the Oxford Dictionary, Context is the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed. While working with clients or coworkers, we need to understand their context before we can begin to expect real communication is taking place.
As consultants and sales professionals we generally have a desire to share information which we believe will either make our customers’ situation better, or as least to clear hurdles which may be delaying progress. If the recipient is distracted by other circumstances or priorities no matter our level of sincerity we will not produce the desired results. In order to be effective communicators we must understand and know our audience.
Sometimes, our audience is the wrong audience. We can provide relief from a situation but our audience has no authority to put our information in play. Or, our audience may have delegated the issue we are addressing and has little knowledge of the issues at hand. In every case, understanding who our audience is, or should be, increases the likelihood of our communicating the correct information to the correct recipients. Only then can we be effective agents of change.
