As a young grasshopper, I was advised: (hat tip: Captain Ken Swan)
“People do not care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”
There are dozens of leadership books worth of knowledge contained in these 15 words.
The harsh truth: the content of your message has little impact on the strength of its reception. Same is true of your tone, your timing, and the color scheme of your powerpoint slides.
Above all, your audience’s perception of YOU matters most. That perception is sculpted from the clay of your passion and compassion.
Accepting this truth requires absorbing a blow to our egos.
Huh?
When you are the receiver, do you evaluate messages on the basis of their content? Your ego wants you to say “yes,” mine does too. But honest introspection will reveal that both of our egos are wrong.
We too, “do not care how much someone knows, until we know how much they care.”
Moral of the story: Care about people, care about causees, and care about your craft. Genuine passion and compassion are lions in a field of sheep.
