During a conversation last week, Angelo told me a funny story about his father. A university graduate who generally acted quite proper and never swore, he once spent some time working on the floor of a factory with some workers who were anything but proper. During dinner one night, several weeks into this job, Angelo's father excused himself from the table to "take a piss."
Angelo was shocked; he had never heard his father come even close to cursing! So he asked his dad why he had used that language. And he was even more shocked to find that his dad hadn't even realised what he'd said! Several weeks into being on the floor of this factory, he had picked up the language of his peers and it had subconsciously become part of his vernacular.
Upon hearing this story, my mind went to two articles I'd read recently. The first, A Mentor's Advice: Timeless! by Brett McElhaney on the Aspire-CS blog, tells the story of a young engineer in an architecture and engineering firm who had to learn to tailor his language in order to communicate with the drafters. The second, Learning to Adjust Your Altitude by Art Petty, provides some useful suggestions for adjusting your communication style based on your audience.
Angelo quickly related all three of these examples to The Platinum Rule.
Most of us have heard of The Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you'd like to be done unto yourself." When it comes to building relationships, this is a great mantra to follow. If you want to be treated fairly, then so should you treat others.
But The Platinum Rule is all about communication: "Do unto others as they would be done unto." You take yourself out of the equation, empathise with the other person so you understand what they need to hear and how they need to hear it, and then deliver your message in the most appropriate way. For people in any line of communication – leading, selling or anything else – or if you'd simply like to improve your communication skills, this is the rule to follow, as it will help you work more effectively with, and influence, others.