Created by Ryan Jenkins on
"Know thyself", an ancient Greek aphorism, is one of the Delphic maxims and was inscribed in the pronaos (forecourt) of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi according to the Greek periegetic (travelogue) writer Pausanias. has had a variety of meanings attributed to it in literature. The Suda, a tenth century encyclopedia of Greek knowledge, says: "the proverb is applied to those whose boasts exceed what they are," and that "know thyself" is a warning to pay no attention to the opinion of the multitude.[1]
One of the first things you'll learn if you've ever had to take a public speaking course, or any communication class for that matter, is know your audience. If you know who you are speaking to or communicating with you can better prepare your message to fit the needs of the audience. Pretty self explanatory. However, when we stop and think about how we communicate in the real world on a business level the first course of action you should be focusing on is know who you are first.
What makes an organization succeed or fail all boils down to whether or not they have a clear understanding of who they are first before they try and cater to their prospective customers. What makes you who you are? What brought you to where you are now? What values do you stand for? Organizations need to stop and think about this in great depth. An organization that is sloppy in it's definition of self is going to communicate poorly without a doubt. I like to call this type of communication "identity crisis." You try and do too much while missing a single objective that may produce higher results or rewards. Don't try and be what you're not. It's OK to narrow down who you are and what you stand for. Essentially you're eliminating all the other noise for your customers to perceive and streamlining them with what they need to know or hear and this helps build relationships faster.
Once you figure out who you are don't be afraid to stick by it. Afterall, you chose to exist in this way. Successful organizations find their groove and stay with it. True there will be modifications along the way as nothing can stay on target 100% of the time without a little realigning and adjusting, but the goal is always the same. If your organization tends to shift thinking to re-invent itself quite often imagine the confusion you are presenting to your customers or end users? Communicating becomes trecherous because the message is constantly changing.
Know thyself first, declare your identity, build relationships with more targeted communications and enjoy success.
[1] Wikipedia