What communicators know that other people don't know (Part II)

We have established預ctually, I have simply said it, making it, at least in my blog, an unassailable truth, unless, of course, my readers choose to assail it葉hat, however great the "communication" knowledge of a professional communicator, no one in the organization will ever credit him or her with true expertise in this art.

So what does the truly successful communicator do? He or she reminds people of specific facts that they already know about communication.

Facts that all parents, all teachers, all cocktail party raconteurs know � facts that businesspeople and politicians know, but often need to be reminded of in the gentlest and humblest of ways, by their speechwriters.

Facts like:

� People love to hear the sound of their own voice and they want desperately to be heard. (So let them talk.)

� People like stories. (So tell them.)

� People need to be shown, not told. (So give them examples.)

Things like that. Things a smart fifth-grader knows.

Do communicators really deserve to get paid just for remembering all that basic stuff that our colleagues seem to forget in their desire to protect the company, protect their careers, make themselves look big?

No. We deserve big bucks only to the extent that we use our precious communication expertise to communicate to our clients, first.

We deserve big bucks only if they "get it." As long as they don't get it, we deserve the small bucks we usually get.

Meanwhile, as we puff ourselves up with claims of strategic expertise and demands for invitations to high-level meetings, it seems to me we should simultaneously cultivate genuine humility.

What do we know that nobody else knows? Not too damned much. And that is a fact we need to be reminded of frequently.

(And luckily, we are.)