Tell People What They Want To Know

"Daddy," a little boy asked "where did I come from?"

The father gulped and realized that this was the important question he had anticipated since his son was born. He then went into a long-winded explanation of  "the birds and the bees" doing his best to explain the miracle of birth in words that his young son could understand. When he was done, he asked his son, "what prompted you to ask about this today?"

"Oh, well there's a new kid in the neighborhood and he's from Nashville, and I just wondered where I came from."

The lesson here is to tell people what they actually want to know, not what we think they want to know.  So often we give people information they do not need or want, and it doesn't help us or them.  There's an expression I always liked, "before you put your tongue on the accelerator put your ear in gear." So be sure to listen and actually hear what it is that people want to know and respond to them with that information.