Personal Branding Tip: Lose the Tone in Your Voice, Don’t Channel Your Inner Seven of Nine
Intelligence, certainty, and confidence contribute to a successful career. How communicate with others, specifically speak to others influence how others perceive us. But what does tone have to do with our communications with others? Everything. If we have a tone like, let’s say Seven of Nine from Star Trek Voyager, then you can be sure that others will be put off in their first impressions of you. When you sound too intelligent, too certain, and too confident, we come off as arrogant, close minded, and not open to others input.
Why should you care? You don’t, unless you want to move up the career ladder or be a successful entrepreneur. I speak from experience. I admit that I have to watch the tone in my voice from sound too authoritative or condescending. I don’t know why my tone can sound like that, but it’s certainly not my intentions.
When know I’m going to say something with certainty, I’m mindful of how communicate my message to avoid sounding like Seven of Nine. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to channel my inner Seven of Nine. She’s a Borg that’s wicked smart. But she’s a little challenged in working well with others because of Borg intelligence and certainty.
What can you do if think you sound like Seven of Nine?
- Asks friends and coworkers if you have a “tone” that annoys them
- Ask them how it made them feel when you used this tone
- Ask them what topics or statements you were saying, when you used your Seven of Nine voice
Become aware of these circumstances of when you channel your inner Seven of Nine, so you can be mindful of the situations you’re likely to use this tone. By being mindful, you can avoid it all together, improving your personal brand as you deliver others from chaos.
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In some cases though communication can work the other way. Someone who is extremely confident, certain and intelligent might perceive you as being slow, uncertain and weak - it’s all perception.
All good personal brands need to be aware of the impact they have across all groups and if anything is being perceived as a weakness how to minimize it’s impact.
Excellent insight Paul. It’s a balancing act, as long as we don’t sound condescending to others. Thanks for your comment
Have to agree - condescension has to be the key issue. Surely intelligence and confidence can only be a good thing?!
I wonder though if gender is an infuence…are women who sound intelligent and confident more likely to be perceived as arrogant or condescending?
Good catch. I certainly didn’t mean to imply that we shouldn’t sound sound confident and intelligent. My point was to have be self-confident, but not sound like Seven of Nine! You raise a good question about gender possibly influencing the issue. I think women who are intelligent and confident can be perceived as arrogant. It think it comes down to the person and situation. I have friends of both genders that are intelligent and confident people, who speak with a tone of authority, but doesn’t come off sounding condescending. I think the key is just to not be and/or sound condescending.
Paul and Donna, thanks for adding value to this post to force me to be clearer on my intentions with this post. I just watched Star Trek Voyager, saw Seven of Nine and knew I had to write something about it after listening to Seven speak!