After my college days, as a young man, I took time to pursue my passion for Theatre in the city of Mumbai which at that time was known as Bombay.
As I watched men and women acting on the stage, I asked these questions to myself, “What differentiates a good actor and not so good one?” “What makes the good ones so effective? How come some are so intense and why we are moved with their acting beyond words?”
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that “Communication per se, does not have any power. It draws it power when the person who communicates makes it powerful!”
Ever since I understood this truth, I began my efforts to explore as to what would make my communication “Powerful” and what I found out amazed me. For the people to listen to you, you have to first establish a “Connect” with them.
Without connect, all what you talk would go over their head, without connect you would find them getting disinterested in your discourses, without connect you would find them getting bored, without connect, you would find them want to move away from you. Without connect, you find that your communication has Zero effect!
The Connect brings great affinity, the Connect brings eschewed desire in people to open up their hearts willingly for you, the Connect makes them even helping you to strengthen the points you are trying to articulate, the Connect makes them go out of the way to even give you supporting ideas and at times speaking on behalf of you!!
The Connect would make them smile at you, the Connect would make them to nod their heads in agreement with you, the Connect would lock their eyes and hearts with you and more importantly, the Connect would make them….and make them willingly at that, do what you want them to do for you.
To connect with the person you are speaking to, you need energy and that energy is provided by the Attitude you laboriously display while speaking one on one or to an audience on the stage.
The Connect happens when you show that you care, the Connect happens when you communicate the purity of your intent, the Connect happens when you exhibit good behavior, the Connect happens when your body language is positive.
The Connect happens when you show and mean that your communication is about the people you are addressing to and it is not about yourself!
The biggest challenge leaders face today are of two kinds; the first is their inability to Connect with their fellow human beings and the second: their lack of expertise to Sustain that Connect.
Behind every collective accomplishment lies the strong relationship with people and relationship cannot be built if you are unable to Connect.
– Shankar Goenka