Tailoring your communication for influence and maximum impact
Tailoring your communication for influence and maximum impact
5 minutes
Tailoring your communication for influence is the strategic ability to adapt your message, tone, and approach based on who you’re speaking to and what matters to them. It requires three core skills:
- Understanding your influence – Their priorities, motivations, context, pressures, and communication preferences.
- Connecting before persuading – Listening deeply to understand perspectives before shaping your response.
- Choosing language, tone, and emotional cues – Choosing language, tone, and emotional cues that resonate and drive engagement rather than resistance.
This is not about being inauthentic. It is about ensuring your message lands – so what you mean is what others hear, understand, and act on.
You can’t rely on your title to influence others. Your real influence comes from clarity, connection, and being intentional in how you communicate. When you tailor your communication to the people you’re speaking to, you create momentum instead of resistance.
When you do this well:
- Decisions move faster – People understand the why behind what you’re asking and can align more quickly.
- Engagement improves – When people feel heard, they are more open, collaborative, and willing to contribute.
- Accountability strengthens – When expectations are clear and shared, follow-through becomes the norm, not the exception.
- Relationships deepen – Influence becomes something others choose to give you—not something you have to push for.
In high-stakes moments like asking for buy-in, approval, shaping strategy, and aligning with stakeholders, how you communicate often determines whether you build momentum or get stuck.
When you take time to understand people’s priorities, pressures, and communication styles, your message becomes more relevant and easier to act on.
For example: Tailoring your communication for different functions (e.g., Finance vs. Sales) leads to quicker alignment and significantly less rework.
By genuinely listening before sharing your perspective, you build trust and reduce defensiveness. People are more willing to collaborate when they feel heard. Research shows: We are more easily influenced by messages that reflect our own language, concerns, and goals.
By genuinely listening before sharing your perspective, you build trust and reduce defensiveness. People are more willing to collaborate when they feel heard.
Research shows: We are more easily influenced by messages that reflect our own language, concerns, and goals.
Influence isn’t static. Being able to read the room, adjust your tone, or reframe your point helps keep conversations productive. Result: You move from debate to collaboration, even when the stakes are high.
Choose one high-stakes conversation you have coming up. Use our framework to map: their priorities, your message, the tone you’ll use, and where you may need to flex.
