Your Voice: An Instrument to Business Success

www.AccentOnBusiness.net

As an entrepreneur or an employee, your average day is filled withinteractions with others. Depending on your role and the particular day, youmight find yourself involved in telephone calls, a formal speech, a trainingsession, media interactions, numerous dialogues with colleagues and customers,and even networking

While some of these interactions may vary in terms of formality and theamount of preparation required on your part, the common denominator is thatthey each represent an opportunity to make an impression and have an impact onothers. The impressions we make are all too often long-lasting ones, and as thesaying goes, we don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.

Having said that, this seems like an opportune time to reflect for a fewmoments on your events of the past week. As you either thumb through your dailyplanner or scan through your PDA, review the contacts you’ve made and thenconsider if any of the following issues have come up:

You were asked to speak up. You needed to repeat yourself. Your message wasmisunderstood You received incorrect information in response to something you“thought” you said. Your message was perceived in a way other than how it wasintended. You couldn’t get the full attention of your audience. You didn’t getthe results or reactions you had anticipated. You didn’t make the sale or closethe transactionYou walked away thinking the customer just wasn’t too sure aboutyou.It took several attempts to get your team to understand the goals you hadset.

These phenomena are actually quite common in the course of the typicalbusiness day, but ironically most people describe themselves as havingeffective communication. If however, one stops to ponder the cause and effectbehind these types of concerns, it becomes apparent that there is room forchange. When it comes down to improving how one communicates, take a look atspecific behaviors and the skills that are required to create change. If we usethis tactic with the list stated above it would end up looking like this:

speaking with too rapid a rate of speech Speaking with too low of a volumelevel Slurring your words, or mumblingNot sounding confident and authoritativeSpeaking without organizing your thoughts Lacking eye contact or othernon-verbal body language to support your message Failing to buildrapportSpeaking too much and listening too little

As you look even more closely at these damaging speech behaviors and theresults (or lack of results) they produce, the impact on your success as abusiness professional is actually quite staggering. If you take this samesituation and apply it across your company and other employees, theimplications are profound.

Since we’re evaluating the impact of the voice on your success in business,it would be an oversight to not consider the importance of also maintaining ahealthy voice. It’s quite easy to forget that our voice is a muscle that oftengets a rigorous workout as we perform our jobs. But remember that your voicehas to last a lifetime and therefore warrants appropriate care and maintenance.Here are some classic voice care tips:

Avoid excessive throat clearing Sip water frequently throughout the day toensure sufficient hydration Whenever possible, breathe through the nose ratherthe mouth Use a humidifier during winter months to combat the effect of heatdrying out the voice Get adequate sleep and rise 2-3 hours before voice use isrequired Discontinue smoking and avoid exposure to smoke-filled environments(second hand smoke) Avoid speaking over noise (e.g. planes, loud equipment, andloud parties) Avoid straining the voice at recreational events (e.g. concerts,sporting events) If you get laryngitis or a sore throat, avoid whispering asthis causes excess strain Be aware of tension points in the body and avoidspeaking through clenched teeth

Are you using your voice as an instrument to business success? Seekprofessional coaching from a qualified voice and speech coach to fine tune oneof your busiest instruments, your voice.

Accent On Business founder and CEO Ellen Dunnigan is a nationally-recognizedand proven coach with specialized training in voice, speech, and Englishimprovement. She holds a master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology and hasbeen certified as clinically competent by the American Speech-Language HearingAssociation.

In addition, she has spent several years in corporate settings as anoperations leader and strategist. Ms. Dunnigan has devoted her entire career tohelping people improve their personal and professional voice and speakingskills.

For more Information about Accent on Business and what we can offer youplease visit www.accentonbusiness.net or contact usby phone at (317) 218-5111.

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