by Geoff Sutton
Business communication remains a challenge for many companies. It is something that I keep noticing when chatting to entrepreneurs and business people.
In our culture we are strongly programmed to link business communication that is subject-specific, sector-oriented, often-distant and hardly ever personal.
We find it scary to show ourselves when it comes to business communication. Is it because we are worried that people will find out some weakness about ourselves? Or we need to keep a distance between our business selves and our personal lives?
It really doesn’t make a lot of sense.
People make the business
When we look at a company, it is nothing but a group of people who do something together for another group of people. Without people there is no business.
The power of a good company comes from the power of the people within that company. So why not use that power in your communication?
Every ambitious entrepreneur wants to grow. You want people to connect with your company and become (and remain) a customer.
And people simply connect fastest with other people, not with a logo. Setting yourself up as a person, including all the imperfections and emotions that go with it, makes you a lot more attractive than hiding behind a corporate image.
People remember experiences
If you want to grow as an entrepreneur, you want people to think about you and remember your story. And the best way to ensure that people remember your story is to load it with emotions.
Whether you communicate from enthusiasm, joy, humour, sadness or anger, as long as it is real, others can connect with you. When you are able to do that, they won’t forget you.
When you load an event or story with emotion, you give people an experience. And an experience is not easily forgotten.
I am sure you can remember exactly where you were on 9/11 or when a loved one died. I, for example, can recall every moment of the evening when Arsenal won the League at Anfield in 1989.
You can also remember that enormously cool party and the day that you couldn’t recover from laughing with your best friends.
You never forget those moments, because the emotions of that moment are engraved in your memory.
Show yourself
The next time you work on your “business” communication, show something of yourself without worrying about what people can and cannot think of you. It’s okay to be imperfect. Try showing them your human side.
I can assure you that it works.
