The other week, a friend in Canada, Nina Troezkiy and I were trying to talk with a bad cell phone connection.  She made a simple but profound comment, “It’s hard to have a good talk with a bad connection.”  Zing went the strings in my brain.  HOW RIGHT SHE IS.  On every level.

If you want to have a good conversation with a boss, a peer, a vendor, a partner, a subordinate, a client, a customer, etc., the talk will be better if the two of you have a good connection first, and I am not talking about technology.  I am talking about a human connection.

Years ago before businesses were so thinly staffed, I believe that we got to know our co-workers better as people.  We went out to lunch together.  We snuck out of the office to play golf.  We had drinks after work.  We went out with the ad agency at night.  We all understood each other better as people, so when it came time to disagree over a campaign or a recommendation, we could be more direct with each other.  Talk was more productive.  Today, we don’t have such strong connections with those with whom we work, so we have to talk in Politically Correct manners.  It has actually become risky to just say what you think.

Connection is also important for good conversations with spouses, children, friends, etc.

Connection is important to remote communications like advertising copy.  That is what Brand Character is all about.

Connection was first noted as important in 443 BCE when Aristotle wrote the Pinciples of Rhetoric (which in those days meant Persuasion).  He argued that Ethos should be established between the Speaker and the Audience before one moved on to the Pathos and Logos of the argument.

Bottom line.  Your ability to connect with people is probably far more important to your career and to your life than your ability to converse with dazzle.