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Your Audience Matters

About nine years ago we started the Team Leadership Group for captains of various school groups - sports teams, academic clubs, and various groups in the arts. We would meet once a week for about forty-five minutes before school. We covered a variety of leadership topics while also allowing students the opportunity to collaborate in order to solve issues they were facing on their own teams. It was great. Students opted into the group and were very engaged, curious, and helpful to their classmates.

At the prompting of administration the Team Leadership Group eventually turned into two elective leadership classes. While the semester courses go into much greater depth on many of the topics, the basic content being delivered did not change much. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the audience. 

For the first five years of the leadership class, students were very similar to the ones I observed in the Team Leadership Group - active, thirsting for the information on how to live and lead more purposefully and intentionally. But, of course, they chose to be there. In the last two years there has been a significant change in that desire to learn and want for the information. We now have more students simply taking the class for elective credit rather than a genuine interest in growing as a leader. They are existent and compliant, but certainly not compelled.

The audience has changed - different passion, different intent.

Why Should We Care?
Our message as a leader is often much more like a dog whistle than a megaphone. We like to think everyone will get it if we just say it loud, or often, enough. But, the reality is only those that want and connect with the message are benefitting from it. In order to maximize our impact as leaders we either need to find the right audience or craft the right message - both are equally important, but the message is usually what gets most of our attention.

The message is obviously critical and is the focal point for most leaders. We have been led to believe that if the message is crafted well enough and is inspiring enough, then the composition of the audience is virtually irrelevant. That’s not the case. Some people simply are not interested, see no value in it, or are not ready for it at that point in their life. 

In an effort to appease the audience, we usually revert to changing the message. And, though we should constantly be reflecting and evaluating the delivery and content of our message, the issue is not always found in our message. Sometimes the audience is the problem.

“If you are talking to everyone, you are talking to no one.”

The some messages we share will not resonate with everyone. Yet, we are offended when people don’t agree with us or even condemn our opinion. It’s okay. We share a message because we believe in it or we’ve witnessed the truth of it in our own life. Some audiences won’t appreciate our position. Some audiences will completely disagree with our position. And, some audiences won’t care at all what our position is. 

All of those are okay. We just need to find the right audience.

The right audiences share our passion, desire to grow in the areas we are working in, and care deeply about the group. They don’t have to agree with everything we say and do; but they do need to care, have some curiosity, and desire growth.

REAL TALK - Action Steps
Of course, sometimes we don’t get to pick our audience. In those cases, the message needs to be crafted to appeal to that specific group. Although we rarely are in a position to hand-select our entire team, we will have opportunities to choose team members from time to time. Here are a few ideas to keep in mind in that selection process:

• The Power of Choice 
  
  • Anytime we can allow team members to opt into something rather than engaging them through a directive we should do it. The power of choice is a powerful one. For one, you immediately cut right to the team members that have an interest and passion for the task. We lose virtually all benefits from forcing or coercing team members into things. At best we are left with compliance, which is not a path to excellence.
    

• The Narrow Path
  
  • In an effort to reach more people we attempt to broaden the message, widen the path, so no one is offended. Well, some people probably should be offended if we’re sharing a message worth sharing. It’s not for everyone. If it’s not for you, then stop reading or listening and go find something that is for you. Really, widening the path isn’t an option - it’s a different message, a different path, all together.
    

• It’s Not About You
  
  • Get over yourself. If your message isn’t being received well, then find a different audience or find a different way to deliver your message. As a leader, our role is to impact those we lead. Either find people you can impact or find a way to impact the people you’re leading.
    

Alignment is critical in several aspects of life. Audience and message is one of those aspects. All messages are not for all audiences and all audiences are not for all messages. When leading we are looking for the pairing that offers maximum impact.

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