Sometime between the age of William Shakespeare and the age of texting, I attended the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Romeo and Juliet. Sir Ian McKellen played Romeo. This was Sir Ian’s first season with the RSC. You may know him today as “Gandalf” and one of the greatest actors of all time. The moment captured in the poster above was absolutely stunning.
Romeo has found Juliet (Francesca Annis), and (spoiler alert) thinking she is dead, is contemplating killing himself. Shakespeare’s tragic, beautiful words are spoken. And Sir Ian’s body language communicates so much more: As Romeo, he scoops up Juliet’s limp body into his arms, holds her, embraces her, kisses her; with great intensity expresses absolute love and devastation. Then, behind his back where Juliet’s hand hangs out of his line of sight, at the very moment he resolves to kill himself, the audience sees her begin to stretch her fingers. She is waking up! He doesn’t know! The audience knows!
Painful. Breathtaking. Amazing.
This was the most captivating moment in my life in terms of watching someone communicate.
Returning to our task at hand, building the nonprofit charity organizations we serve, let us engage our best communication skills when we speak with people who may want to support our very important work. Also, let ‘s watch and listen to the people with whom we desire to build relationships.
As promised above, here are 5 reasons to meet our fellow humans face-to-face.
1. Although speaking and writing can be very effective, verbal communication represents only about 7% of human communication (according to Albert Mehrabian’s research). This is why posts on social media that include photos generally get more views. Let people see your body language.
2. About 55% of communication is nonverbal through body language: facial expressions, tone of voice, and stance. Face-to-face communications allow us to better gauge our audience’s response by providing visual and auditory exchange.
3. Tone of voice accounts for 38% of all communications. More than 1/3 of our communication is tone of voice.
4. Visual communication is essential: each party’s appearance and style give clues, too.
5. Finally, for donor solicitations, go out in teams of two. Two-sided messages have been found to be generally more effective in persuasive meetings and have been shown to produce the most favorable attitude response from the message receivers. (Allen, et al., 1990) And, if one member of the solicitation team is a friend or peer of the prospective or current donor, all the better.
The prospective and current donors who meet with you are likely seeking a deeper relationship with your nonprofit organization. Be ready to draw out their reasons for wanting to connect.
As always, I am hoping for your every success!
Elizabeth Fitzgerald, CFRE, IOM
Kronstadt Consulting
Photo: http://www.mckellen.com/stage/romeo/index.htm
Communications Data Cited: http://www.bodylanguageexpert.co.uk/communication-what-percentage-body-language.html
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