Recently I gave a webinar dealing with internal motivation of staff. I had spent weeks preparing for the talk, had created a PowerPoint presentation that was specifically designed for the audience (or so I thought) and delivered it with passion and poise.
When the talk was over, there was not one question.
What could have gone wrong that no one had a question for me afterwards? Certainly, I am not such a good speaker that I covered everything, I thought to myself. So patiently I waited for the evaluations to come in.
What I realized that there was a misalignment of expectations of what I believed the subject matter was vs. what those who signed up for the webinar were expecting.
In my mind, the topic was clear and the direction I would proceed in made all the sense in the world based upon the topic.
Well, I was wrong, and it all came down to differentiated perception and where the customer was coming from.
I presented ideas on what you need to worry about before you start motivating people in a certain direction and they wanted concrete examples of programs that worked.
My thought process was that each and every company needs to motivate staff based upon their individual culture, brand and objectives. They wanted examples of specific programs and why they worked. A true disconnect.
What did I learn?
That understanding the expectations of your audience is vital when providing information. You need to look at things from their perspective and how this information will make things better for them in their specific situation.
Did I know this. . . YES! Do I tell clients this every day. . . YES!
However, in this particular case I obviously asked the wrong questions and came to the wrong conclusion.
Something to think about anytime you are trying to communicate. . . is the person you are speaking to aligned with your thought process or not. If not, it is time to communicate in a way that they can understand and relate to.