Tone of Voice

Going through your day, you may encounter people who speak with different vocal tones. In an elementary school situation, you could find motherese and authoritative tones, while teachers encourage and manage classrooms. In retail, the tone is may be helpful, but may be condescending.

My daughter took back some items the other day. The store clerk was found to be rude and snotty. Each of these tones could be in the filter of the listener, but it may be just what the speaker was communicating. As I have discussed, in the e-course, Ace Your Interview, it takes only 17 seconds to make a first impression and takes 27 interactions to overcome that impression if it's bad. Why does this matter? Because we live in a fast paced, competitive world and in order to get ahead, we need to make sure we nail that first impression. As a result, vocal tone is one of those things that can lead to an impression.

What makes up tone:

• Our default Voice
• How words are said

This first thing that makes up tone, it our default voice. This is how our vocal mechanism has been formed, but also is heavily influenced by our upbringing and culture. As spoken of in the video, Edith Bunker had a very distinct vocal tone. This is found to be offensive or comforting, depending on your history. For comedy purposes, she comes across as dingy and flighty. Her voice alone creates a characterization in the listeners' mind. The question for our clients is "Do you want listeners to think this about you?" Some simple vocal training can help change tone. 

Next, vocal tone can express feelings and opinions almost more than any words. We have all experienced someone saying a phrase that may be benign, but the tone cuts like a knife. In the video, I use the phrase, "You are going to wear that?". A small change in the tone will change the phrase from joyful and encouraging or condescending and will cut to the core.

Furthermore, I hope that you understand how important tone is in communicating. Since we find it so imperative,we have more information on nonverbal communication in the video Interview Do's and Don'ts.

Finally, I love meeting new people and am so grateful for you! Please keep in touch on social media; I am Kelly Archibald there.

Let's talk soon!

Kelly

Hashtags: #speechcoach, #voicecoach, #publicspeaking, #vocaltraining, #coaching, #howtointerview #firstimpression, #vocaltone