In all situations, your self-awareness transitions into situational awareness, and autoregulation, when you recognize and adapt to your respective audience.
Your audience changes based on your role, what you’re doing in that role, and the composition of the audience itself.
At work, you take on the role of a professional. What you’re doing is … well, work. And your audience can range from coworkers, to employees, to managers, to clients, to vendors, and, ultimately, to any other relevant stakeholders.
When you meet your husband for a date night after work, you take on the role of a spouse. What you’re doing is connecting with your husband and cultivating your relationship with him. And your audience is … your husband.
After you and your husband return home from your date, you take on the role of a mother. What you’re doing is tucking your kids into bed, reading them stories, and transferring your love and care to them. And your audience is comprised of your kids and husband (presuming your husband assists in putting the children to bed).
On the weekends, you meet your girlfriends for brunch. You take on the role of a friend. What you’re doing is nourishing both your stomach, and your soul, with enriching conversation and interactions with like-minded individuals. And your audience is comprised of the friends you meet for your weekend brunch.
In addition to your work and your relationships, you enjoy fitness and attend CrossFit classes four times a week. You take on the role of a CrossFitter/health enthusiast/exerciser when you attend class. What you’re doing is disciplining yourself and taking care of your body. And your audience is your CrossFit class, comprised of the coach and other class members.
There are many other roles and activities, individual to you, that I’m sure you can derive from the above methodology.
Great … now we have a list of different roles, activities, and audience members. What’s the point of all this, might you ask? Here are three key takeaways that will underpin the importance of knowing your audience:
1) Knowing your audience gauges how well you know yourself.
This is where self-awareness comes into play. Do you know how to read an audience, and how to address a particular audience? What level of impact do you maintain on your audience? You must understand your own role and actions (in other words, your impact on the audience) before addressing a specific audience. As you become more self-aware, you can better understand how you fit into the overall framework of your roles, actions, and various audiences.
2) Knowing your audience gauges how well you connect with others.
This is where self-awareness transitions into situational awareness. When you are aware of yourself and the situation at hand, you can better connect with, and relate to, others. What situation do you find yourself in? How does that relate to what your audience is experiencing? In bridging the gap between your needs, and your audience’s needs, you become situationally aware and can better look out for your audience, in addition to yourself. Self-awareness regards your own interest, whereas situational awareness addresses the interests of you and your immediate audience. This transition is crucial in both delivering your message and effectively influencing your audience.
3) Knowing your audience gauges how well you adapt to the situation, and audience, at hand.
This is where situational awareness transitions into autoregulation. Over time, as you adapt to various situations, and audiences, you enhance your ability to align yourself with your various roles, actions, and audience compositions. Autoregulation represents your consistent and prolonged adjustments to both your needs and the needs of all your audiences, in all of your roles. Situational awareness, extended to different situations and different audiences, facilitates your complete transition from self-awareness to autoregulation, which transforms a self-oriented outlook to an us-oriented outlook, regardless of circumstance. As a step above situational awareness, autoregulation provides continual learnings and feedback for you as you traverse different roles, actions, and audiences throughout your life.
Know your audience. Plain and simple. In knowing your audience, you can better understand yourself, better connect to your audience, and continually adapt to different situations and audiences. And never forget – no matter how well you deliver a message, it will always fall flat if you don’t communicate in a way that resonates with your audience. Why bother delivering a message that isn’t heard? Make sure to know the minds, hearts, and ears of your audience before opening your mouth to them, and you will immediately become a better listener, communicator, and leader. Transcend your self-awareness, and situational awareness, by becoming a master autoregulator … which ensures a perpetually growing knowledge of your own needs, the needs of your various audiences, and your level of connectedness with your respective audience.
