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Personnel. Cimino has spent years evaluating employees’ professional potential based on their communication skills and says there is a big difference between being enthusiastic and being “over the edge” in your communication. Says Cimino, “What a speaker, be it a presidential candidate or the manager of a workplace team, needs to convey to people is a confidence in his message without being shrill. In his speech, Howard Dean lacked a real sense of understanding that his message was being communicated not just to a group of supporters, but to the entire country via television.” Any speaker, but particularly one in such a high-visibility position, must understand who their audience is and how that audience is likely to perceive their message and the delivery of it. So here’s the deal. If you want to be enthusiastic in your communication, that’s great, just do it without screaming. Screaming has no place in campaigns or in business. It also has no place with teachers attempting to motivate students or parents trying to change a child’s behavior. The only place screaming may work is on the football field, and I’m not so sure about that. Just know that even though we are sometimes tempted to scream and yell at the top of our lungs, when we actually do it, we pay a hefty price. For if we are too loud for too long, our audience may not hear what we are saying because they are so turned off by our approach. Chapter 27 WHY KERRY DIDN’T CONNECT Massachusetts senator John Kerry lost the 2004 presidential race for a lot of reasons. One of the biggest was that he never really “made the connection” with many Americans. Kerry was smart and knew the issues. He was a better debater than President Bush and he spoke the English language more effectively than the president. Still, Kerry never really connected on an emotional and personal level. He just wasn’t that likable. 56 MAKE THE CONNECTION Here are the reasons Kerry missed the mark: • Kerry rarely showed human emotion and vulnerability. He seemed so focused on attacking President Bush that you didn’t get to see who he really was as a person. Most people need to see you in this way, particularly if you are not the incumbent. Kerry never gave people the chance to get to know him. He never really opened up. What’s ironic is that he was at his best in his “concession” speech the day after the election. He seemed genuine and not at all in“campaign mode.”Clearly he was disappointed, but he seemed at peace. He spoke in a softer, more conversational and accessible style. One wonders why he couldn’t do it sooner. • Most of Kerry’s speeches were just too long.He got into this terrible habit while pontificating on the floor of the U.S. Senate. It wasn’t all that effective there,but who was going to tell him? But it was worse on the campaign trail.Kerry never mastered the art of brevity.He always seemed to use more words than he needed. • Kerry didn’t smile enough, and when he did it seemed a bit forced or staged. In order to truly connect, people need to see you have the ability to smile easily in a variety of situations. Senator Kerry just seemed too serious, if not somber, too much of the time. • Teresa didn’t help. Teresa Heinz Kerry is a smart, articulate, and very independent woman. Not to mention obscenely rich. But it didn’t help her husband’s candidacy when she cursed at a reporter, talked about their sex life (who cares?), and then committed the cardinal sin of criticizing Laura Bush, saying she has never had a“real job.”We like Laura Bush. She is a terrific first lady and in fact spent many years as an educator and librarian and then as a mother. Those sound like real jobs to me. Teresa Heinz Kerry never really connected, and that made it only harder for her husband. Some people say her accent didn’t help. I say her accent only became an issue because she wasn’t that likable in the first place. If we liked her more, her accent would have been irrelevant. Most people, regardless of ideology or politics, were turned off by Teresa. The Power of Passion and Connecting with Others 57 [3.17.150.163] Project MUSE (2024-04...

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