 Business Connections - Making LIGHT
of the Situation
By Barbara Minken of Sol Rhythms
Regardless of what you’re selling, communicating in business is about
connections and relationships. As small business owners and entrepreneurs, our networking
and selling efforts oftentimes take us to various places and spaces when we are meeting
with prospective clients, collaborative partners, or investors. Whether we are aware of it
or not, the physical environment of our meetings affects our ability to connect
authentically with whom we are meeting. Understanding the ‘communication
environment’ is important because the more conscious you are of it and how to use it
effectively, the more you will be able to make authentic connections and develop quality
business relationships that ultimately fatten your bottom line.
While often overlooked, the communication environment is an important
strategic element to remember when selling your ideas or service. A communication
environment consists of everything from lighting, table shapes, chair positioning,
temperature, windows locations, indoor or outdoor locations, noise, décor, colours, and
so on. Anticipating your environment doesn’t have to be a stressful time consuming
activity, however certain scenarios may require a thorough investigation of details
beforehand.
Consciously paying attention to your communication environment is the
first step to being proactive about using it advantageously. Arriving early will give you
time to assess the environment and be flexible in creating solutions that directly benefit
you. This article explores how lighting can interfere with efforts to make authentic
business connections.
Outdoor lighting - People will trust you more readily and connect with
you more authentically if they can see your face and eyes clearly and under natural
conditions. While scheduling a meeting on a bright sunny day on an outdoor patio may sound
appealing, wearing sunglasses will act as a communication barrier. This barrier inhibits
authentic connections from being established. Developing trust is more difficult when you
are wearing sunglasses because there is a feeling of aloofness and distance created by
hiding the windows of your soul.
In business and in life, we all want to interact and connect with real
people. Not machines, not pre-recorded messages, not facades, but real people. Wearing
sunglasses keeps the people we are trying to connect with in our meetings at an arms
length. Those little pieces of plastic nonverbally send the message, “I will do
business with you, share a meal or a drink with you, but I don’t want you to know who
I really am.” When you are trying to build solid business relationships, there is
something covert and mildly unsettling about that nonverbal message, now isn’t there?
As Oriah Mountain Dreamer captures in her poem, ‘The Invitation’, “It
doesn’t interest me what you do for a living, I want to know what you ache for.”
Human beings hunger for truthful relationships and long for authentic connections even
when we’re just spending a few dollars on a cup of coffee. We are relational beings
who seek and appreciate truth. The physical barrier created by wearing sunglasses is easy
to avoid. Just remove them.
Indoor lighting - Two roomy chairs situated directly across from each
other, nestled beside a cozy fireplace; the ‘perfect’ meeting place. But what
about the window directly behind your favorite chair? Have you ever considered that your
regular coffee house meeting spot isn’t effective from a communication perspective?
The light from the window behind you may enable you to see the person sitting directly
across from you clearly, but their ability to see you is a different story. In reality,
that light ends up competing with you for attention, thus creating a communication
barrier. It is strange to think that your communication efforts are being challenged by
something as intangible and friendly as light. Yet I have spent numerous meetings trying
to see the eyes and face of the person that I am meeting with in this exact scenario.
Forget about making connections and building relationships; how is that possible when all
you can see is a darkened face, shadow pockets for eyes, and a blinding halo of light? The
struggle to overcome this communication barrier and discover “who am I speaking
with?” takes precedence over actually connecting with them.
Notice the lighting in your ‘perfect’ coffee house meeting
spot next time you’re there. Does it work for or against you? Choosing a different
seat may be a profitable move.
Barbara Minken, B.A., of Sol Rhythms facilitates drumming
& rhythm playshops. Visit for additional articles & program info, visit www.solrhythms.com |
