The other day I was listening to my friend Gene’s podcast. He was talking to a former UPS executive Ron Wallace in this episode. Early in the podcast Ron said something amazing, “communication is good, connection is better.” He was referring to how he frequently went out to the warehouses to talk with the workers on the front line.

I think about communication a lot. Good communication is critical in business and our personal lives, and the older I get, the more I realize how bad most of us are at communicating. Last week is a great example.

Last week one of our team members and I were set to meet with my friend Jeff. I was ready and looking forward to the meeting. Then, my team member asked me about the meeting on next Friday. I was confused and was 100% confident that I had communicated that the meeting was this Friday. But, on going back and reviewing what I wrote to my team member, it was confusing and implied the meeting was next week. I had miscommunicated, we had not connected.

Communication is presenting information to one another. Connection is syncing information between one another. There is a huge difference between the two.