Unlock Growth - Lead with Care Then Knowledge
LinkedIn Post
Unlock Growth: Lead with Care, Then Knowledge
(Is this the missing link?)
Do you feel like you’re shouting into the void? 💡
You’ve got a mountain of knowledge but feel like you’re facing a wall of resistance when you share it. The problem isn’t with your expertise—it’s about connection.
The truth hit me like a lightning bolt:
People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.
I’ve felt the sting of being dismissed, not because my ideas weren’t valuable, but because I hadn’t first made it clear that I cared. Expertise can intimidate and even alienate if not shared with empathy and understanding.
✪ Listening over lecturing.
✪ Empathy over education.
✪ Connection over content.
To engage, you must first understand. Active listening, emotional awareness, and speaking their language—these are the keys to unlocking hearts and minds.
I now strive to say, “I get you,” before I say, “I know.” It’s about exploring their challenges, not showcasing my solutions.
✪ Use their words, not yours.
✪ Reflect their feelings, don’t impose yours.
✪ Build bridges with empathy, not barriers with jargon.
It’s about making every conversation a two-way street, where knowledge flows freely because the path of care has been paved first.
Have you felt the difference when someone truly cares? How do you ensure that you’re building bridges of understanding before constructing towers of knowledge?
What ONE way do you show you care in professional relationships? Share below for inspiration! 👇
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Content preparation
While learning about “Lightbulb 1: What is one problem or challenge your customer is facing?” I got hooked by the quote:
People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care
Maybe that is a missing link and can explain, why it is often difficult for me to come across with my topics. Through my journey I learned a lot and can build on a rich fundament of knowledge. But I often face resistance when I want to provide that knowledge. At first I thought that it is just because people are busy and don’t have the mental space to learn and think deeper. Sometimes I also felt, that people might be scared from a knowledge gap. As comparison to others is a problematic topic, I can imagine that working together with someone with more knowledge in a topic could lead to that comparison. And I might be blinded on that topic, especially because I love that intellectual challenge and working with someone with much higher knowledge on a topic helps me to enlarge perspectives and learn from that too. I got rid of that problematic comparison and converted that into an opportunity for growth.
A key learning — trying to impress with the wealth of knowledge first is scaring people off, or just annoys. “People don’t care how much you know”.
So based on the quote, I think that I need to show much more, how much I’m interested in my peer and their challenge. And I might need to hold back my urge to offer a my knowledge and my solutions. To build the connection I need to show how much I care - about the person and about the topic/problem/challenge that person is facing. I need to cover first: I GET YOU.
I can explore the symptoms that are expressed. I can look at ripple effects. And I can build empathy with “It must be hard …”. It is about active listening, emotional awareness and applying my emotional intelligence. And it is about adjusting the language levels - What terms does my peer use? How can I communicate in that system and express my thoughts in a way that it becomes digestable and connects.
And interesting challenge. What is your experience with building connection? What do you associate with: People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care?
Posted on LINKEDIN on 2024-03-13_Wed
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