Connection, not just communication

Last week I attended a women’s lunch run by Westpac and addressed by some business leaders. There was a panel of three people speaking about where women are up to in leadership positions and it really feels to me that this subject is one where there is over-communication and lack of action.

Actually, as I sat listening I heard one of the CEOs on the panel make this statement: “We can never over communicate.”

As I thought this through I realised that I strongly disagreed and as there was no time for me to query his assertion I thought I should do it here.

It seems to me that one of the great quandaries of life today is that while we are all so digitally connected and are blasted every day with communication about everything, we are essentially less and less connected. In fact, we are living almost in a cyber world with less face to face contact and less real understanding of each other.

It is clear for example that our digital connectedness is not making the world a more tolerant place, that the global community is not coming together through this connectedness. So what is going wrong and what can business learn from this?

Well, I for one get very tired of the reams of worthless information I find in my letterbox, on my laptop, on television and anywhere else, where someone or some business is trying to communicate without substance and value.

I don’t want more communication, I want more real connection.

I do want to learn more, I do want to be presented with value adding information, I do want to hear about products that I could be interested in. I do want to be treated as an individual – so why do I continue to receive pages of stuff that I am simply not interested in?

I guess this happens because of the view expressed by the CEO at the lunch I attended and obviously because so many other companies also subscribe to the belief that we can never over communicate.

The challenge for us as individuals and businesses is to listen more carefully, to ask more questions so that we don’t irritate our potential and actual customers and so that we do connect to their real interests and requirements.

I remember when a particular clothing store owner in Melbourne used to call me each season with clothes that she thought I might like, picked out and ready to try. Invariably, because I knew she understood what I liked, I rushed in and bought.  I saved time, effort and energy – and I am sure she profited from her amazing connection to my needs!

I for one want less blah, blah, blah and more “I know you are interested in this” or even “I thought you might be interested in this” – actually some personal connection.

The data is there, defining customer interests and demographics so why do some companies continue to treat us as an amorphous mass?

Does anyone else feel the same way?

Marcia Griffin’s latest book, High Heeled Success (pictured left), is a frank account of building a business from a solitary sales person to a multi-million dollar business with 4,700 sales consultants around Australia and New Zealand. Contact Marcia to purchase. Marcia’s latest venture is skin care company griffin+row.