For communication to be powerful it must be fueled with energy and emotion to present as interesting and sincere.  Remember in school the teacher who was monotone? How was that person described? Boring!  Very little information can be extracted when speech is uninteresting or difficult to process.  For professional delivery there must be energy to maintain the listener’s interest.  If your energy level is low so will the level of interest be for your audience.

Consider basic physics. Momentum creates momentum so therefore energy creates energy! Having energy is critical for keeping someone’s attention.  It is not necessary to be the life of the party, considered to be extroverted or outgoing to use energy.  Having energy in your voice can be a learned skill.

If you are considered to have low energy features it may feel unnatural bringing energy to your voice.  The truth is, the steps applied for fueling energy into your voice will be natural and pleasant for the listener.  When people are acutely aware of a specific characteristics in someone’s voice it is usually due to a negative feature such as the speaker being boring, sounding nasal or difficult to understand due to a heavy accent.  Adding energy to your voice  is positive and people will automatically respond to your message and not be distracted by the mechanics behind it.

Real World Practice

Strategy Training

1. Speak with Bright Eyes

   Affect relays mood. Having a flat, boring or cranky affect will be reflected in the tone of your message.  Speak with a pleasant affect so the tone of your voice will sound warm and pleasant. The message will be heard through your voice, particularly when you are on the phone with professional and business calls. 

• Visualize your eyes being bright, open and filled with energy.  Your face will automatically engage in a small smile and the energy in your tone of voice will naturally reflect a positive message.

2. Talk With Your Hand

   Gesture with your hand in a subtle circular motion.  This will help keep your thoughts flowing and will add power and energy into your voice.

3. Speak with a Smile

   Studies demonstrate the difference on how people perceive messages when said with a smile versus a straight face without specific emotion. This can be done in a way where you do not feel like a perky cheerleader. Simply, speak with a small smile on your face and the tone of your voice will reflect more energy. This skill is particularly important for phone work. Try this technique with a tape recorder.  You will be pleasantly surprised by the difference. 

4. Understand Emotion

   Acquire a feel on how different emotions reflect mood and energy.  Say the line, “The woman walked to the hospital cafeteria to grab a quick lunch.”  in a tone of voice that reflects each of these moods: sad, angry, happy, confident, funny and monotone.  There are clear and recognizable differences in your voice. When bringing more energy into your voice image it is important to understand recognizable differences in how tones and moods affect voice and are perceived by the listener.

To captivate someone’s attention, it is necessary to hear energy in your voice.  Experiment with some of these strategies and determine what works for you that will naturally fuel energy into your voice.

This is how I plan to remember to use these strategies:

With friends:

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At work:

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Strategies to use while on the phone:

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The plan for implementing phone strategies:

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Community Training

These are some locations and activities where I can practice my strategies to establish new habits.

1. Ordering coffee or lunch.

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