Your Voice is Your Verbal Image

Sharlene Vichness, PresidentLanguage Directions LLC

Christine S. Filip, Esq., PresidentBusiness Development Partners

What You Say and How You Say It Influences Your Success and Your Career1

W.H. Auden was partially right when he said that, "All I have is a voice." As a professional, one's success is heavily influenced by one's physical appearance, but one's voice is the song of persuasion and a game changer. Your voice, like a great tune, has composition, rhythm, melody, phrasing and emotional content carried by words that move the listener. Highly acclaimed songs persuade us to listen, affect our feelings and sometimes make us dance. In truth, each of us sings a different tune.Being successful at work requires our best "song" of persuasion in various settings, one to one, to a crowd, up the chain of command, down the chain, to insiders, outsiders, foes and friends. It matters dearly that we get that song right. Business voice is almost always a negotiation: multiple people with differing concerns trying to reach a useful solution that involves money.

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Our Goals: Enhance Success in 3 Areas2

Enter the Internet age, globalization and migrations of people to new places of work and life. Vast gulfs of bilingualism, culture and multiple generations of just plain English permeate our work and personal lives, and are obstacles to communication. To be a successful professional, to persuade and negotiate, which is what most business speak is, you must pay attention to your vocal presence.

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Process into StrategyVocal Presence put into Action asLeadership and NegotiationChristine Filip

DeconstructLanguage + Physical Demeanor = Vocal PresenceSharlene Vichness3

Deconstruct the roadblocks: linguistic, cultural, generational, style AND teach you how to read and adjust to the audienceI am going to put those tactics into action in the context of leadership and negotiation3

Your Vocal Presence

Harness Its Power to Assert Your Leadership

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Defining Vocal PresenceWhat it is and Why its important Deconstructing Vocal Presence Identifying its moving parts Mindfulness and Correction Becoming aware and changing behaviors

Voice Matters:Sounding like a Leader

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Examples Where Verbal Image does not match visual or titular image

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Vocal Presence =Language + Physical Demeanor

Volume Tonality Accents and Regionalisms Style Word ChoiceVISUAL AND VOCAL DISCONNECTS6

Show picture of elegantly dressed female executive. Give examples from tv or movies of horrible voices and ask if hearing that voice would alter perception6

VOLUMEProjection

Pace

Breathiness

Be Mindful of Your Surroundings and Purpose!

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Lets deconstruct and isolate various factors which have influence on your Verbal Image and how you are perceived by your audience.First is Volume. If I cant hear you clearly, I cannot evaluate your ideas. Soft voice can equal tentativeness or inexperience. (Bernadette)Improve by being mindful of the distance between you and your audience (my teacher voice vs. my one-on-one voiceSuggest an exercise or two7

Up-Speak Vocal Fry (Creaky Voice) Nervous Laughter Fillers, Tics Pitch EnergyTONALITY8

Use examples from common reference, self or tv/movies to illustrate each of theseHow to fix is more of an awareness and self-monitoring. Perhaps enlist the aid of a buddy to call you on slip-upsConsider Toastmasters to help with fillers and tics Toastmasters will not help with Upspeak, Vocal Fry, or Pitch. Not nice to correct things that might be perceived as a natural part of someone. Have to do this yourself. Record yourself, listen to nightly newscasts8

Clear CommunicationBeing Understood! Everybody Has an Accent! Word Completion Speed Space Between Words Syllable StressACCENTS AND REGIONALISMS9

If a strong accent or regionalism is a challenge for you, be sure to choose a model to follow who speaks well (broadcasters)Give examples of each category and talk about how and why each affects clarity.Completely able to self-monitor and improve with mindfulness and focus.For syllable stress, provide examples of clusters of similar pronunciation9

Words that demean or devalue: Just Im sorry So In my opinion I think Kind ofMindfulness of vocabularyWORD CHOICE10

Women can unconsciously sabotage the value of their participation or contribution to the discussion at hand. Keep the good content while eliminating the demeaning words.10

Look Me in the Eye Gesture for Impact Forward Lean Power Pauses Control Your Body Own the Room

STYLE11Experience the Magic of Presence!

Positive changes to style can involve culture differences. Talk briefly about each category and show an example. (pics?)11

VOCAL PRESENCE is a FOOTPRINT toInfluence and Lead Others12

CLEARCONFIDENTCOMPREHENSIBLECHARISMATICCONVEYAUTHORITY

Can we find or create some type of graphical representation?12

Add Vocal Presence to the power of your Content Positioning Negotiation Skills Gravitas Leadership Presence!

NEXT STEPS13

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Vocal Presence = The Language of LeadershipSurely, Whoever Speaks to Me in the Right Voice, Him or Her I shall FollowWalt Whitman

Christine S. Filip, Esq., PresidentBusiness Development Partners

PUTTING VOCAL PRESENCE INTO ACTION LEADERSHIP AND NEGOTIATION SKILLS

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Our Goals: Enhance Success in 3 Areas15

Enter the Internet age, globalization and migrations of people to new places of work and life. Vast gulfs of bilingualism, culture and multiple generations of just plain English permeate our work and personal lives, and are obstacles to communication. To be a successful professional, to persuade and negotiate, which is what most business speak is, you must pay attention to your vocal presence.

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Establish a Sense of UrgencyForm a Powerful Guiding CoalitionCreate a Vision and Communicate itEmpower Others to Act on the VisionPlan for and Create Short-Term WinsInstitutionalize the New Approaches using 360 inputLeadership requires a strong Vocal PresenceWhat Do Leaders Do?

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With colleagues, employees, and C Suite peopleLeaders understand how potential negotiation outcomes comport with the overarching mission of the business and use objective data to support the negotiationThey achieve equitable results by owning the information, especially the financial underpinnings of that informationLeaders negotiate with the right stakeholders before the critical meeting to evaluate the positions of those partiesThey understand the financial value of trade offs and concessions before they have to be madeLeaders Must Negotiate All the Time17

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Training for too many leadership behaviors showed that only 43 percent of CEOs are confident that their training investments will bear fruitSurveyed 189,000 people in 81 diverse organizations4around the world to assess how frequently certain kinds of leadership behavior are applied within their organizations.High-quality leadership teams typically displayed 4 of the 20 possible types of behavior; these 4, indeed, explained 89 percent of the variance between strong and weak organizations in terms of leadership effectivenessDecoding Leadership: What Really Matters McKinsey Quarterly Jan. 201618

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Solving problems effectively. The process that precedes decision making is problem solving, when information is gathered, analyzed, and considered. Operating with a strong results orientation. Leadership is about not only developing and communicating a vision and setting objectives but also following through to achieve results. Four Critical Leadership Behaviors: Mirror Skilled Negotiation Traits19

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3. Seeking different perspectives. Leaders who do well on this dimension typically base their decisions on sound analysis and avoid the many biases to which decisions are prone.4. Supporting others. Leaders who are supportive understand and sense how other people feel. By showing authenticity and a sincere interest in those around them, they build trust and inspire and help colleagues to overcome challenges.Four Critical Leadership Behaviors: Mirror Skilled Negotiation Traits cont.20

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Preparation is the single most important factor for a successful resultInterests and potential positions of the parties before the final negotiationProfessional and personal history of the partiesResearch completed regarding a. The financial impact of potential issues and resultsb. Objective data and valid research to use as benchmarks when evaluating issues, e.g., industry data, competitive analysis, financial modelling of proposed results, economic forecasts and any other objective data and standards that will affect the financial result

Strategic Negotiation Issues21

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Use a 3 step process of thinking together: 1. Finding out the rationale for the differing positionTell me why you believe thatI am sure you have a good reason for that position.Tell me your thinking.2. Referring back to objective data supporting both sides and3. Evolving a best result using trade offs or concessions with known financial values AND asking for Something In Return (SIR) of equal value for a concession or trade off

Remember: SIR

Strategic Negotiation Issues: Conflict22

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Dealing with difficult or opinionated people and disparate inputsMeet before the negotiation meeting: Know the Personalities + PositionsLeverage supporters beforehandBe flexible, solicit input and support your side with objective dataPre-plan for concessions within certain rangesTell me why.Tell me more and data you rely onIf all else fails: If we did this your way, how would we explain this result to (the CEO, our managers, the troops, etc.)

Strategic Negotiation Issues cont.23

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Sharlene Vichness, PresidentLanguage Directions LLCsharlene@languagedirections.com973.228.8848

Christine S. Filip, Esq., PresidentBusiness Development Partnerschristinefilip8@gmail.com917.733.5302

QUESTIONS24

W.H. Auden was partially right when he said that, "All I have is a voice." As a professional, one's success is heavily influenced by one's physical appearance, but one's voice is the song of persuasion and a game changer. Your voice, like a great tune, has composition, rhythm, melody, phrasing and emotional content carried by words that move the listener. Highly acclaimed songs persuade us to listen, affect our feelings and sometimes make us dance. In truth, each of us sings a different tune.Being successful at work requires our best "song" of persuasion in various settings, one to one, to a crowd, up the chain of command, down the chain, to insiders, outsiders, foes and friends. It matters dearly that we get that song right. Business voice is almost always a negotiation: multiple people with differing concerns trying to reach a useful solution that involves money.

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