[balabaster]

Being a great communicator equals selling ideas in terms that your audience can easily ingest with the intent for which it was served. Nothing more. It doesn't mean lying, it doesn't mean not lying. Social politics is often grey. For better or for worse, selling an idea often involves playing on the emotions of your audience. Getting buy in means selling your ideas in a way people can relate to.

...and knowing your place in the social hierarchy is irrelevant. Knowing how to speak such that your place in the social hierarchy is blurred enough that everyone assumes you're at their level is the most useful approach. Not having people look down on you because you're socially beneath them, but also not having people write you off because they feel you think they're below you. Being a good communicator is being able to stand head to head with the CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation and discuss your ideas with the respect of equals in terms they can understand, and also speak with the homeless person on the street with the respect of equals in terms they can understand.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men [and women] are created equal"

Believe this, I mean truly believe this and treat people with the respect this statement garners and the rest is easy. You are not above anyone else in the social hierarchy and they are not above you. That huge mansion they live in and the country club they belong too were purchased with the money. Their access to money doesn't make their life more valuable than yours. You hold different jobs because you have different training, social conditioning and peer groups. So I think there is little value to knowing your place in the social hierarchy. All it does is serve to allow society to write your destiny. Is that what you want or would you prefer to write your own destiny?