THE BUSINESS VOICE

Do you know how important voice is to presence? A thin reedy, withheld voice does nothing to engage us; a flat monotonous voice puts us to sleep; someone who speaks way too quickly, drenching us in a torrent of words, has us tuning out through sheer exhaustion! None of these voices have presence. And yet, it is very common on online platforms (and actually on the telephone) for people to speak too quickly (are they trying to get it over with?), to have dull, flat voices (are

You might think body language is less important to presence in the virtual environment, after all people can only see your head and face, right? Read on… Positive, confident body language raises your presence in the real world and also virtually. If your body language suggests a lack of confidence or enthusiasm; fatigue; lack of interest or arrogance then you will not have presence and will not engage people whether you are standing in front of them, sitting with them around

Last time I looked at how to set yourself up for great presence. That was the easy bit! Now we really get down to the essence of presence… Engaging communication, rapport, ‘chemistry’ all rely significantly on eye contact. When the speaker doesn’t have good eye contact you feel he or she isn’t really interested in talking to you (like that person who constantly looks over your shoulder in the pub?), or perhaps that they don’t care or are embarrassed about what they are saying

Whether you are leading a virtual meeting or just attending, the more presence you have the more you will be listened to, the more you will be remembered. The more impact you will have. My next few blogs will look at how you achieve presence virtually. A few considerations to set you up for great presence: What is behind you? An uncluttered background is important to keep the focus on you. So, remove the laundry basket, the dog’s bed, your unmade bed! Even a busy and untidy

Even though, as I write, restrictions are easing, we continue to spend a considerable amount of time working from home, and there is I think an anticipation that this will play a significant part in our working lives for the foreseeable future. Working from home has its challenges: many of the people I am talking to are complaining of the boredom and fatigue they are experiencing shut up between four walls, attending meeting after meeting on Zoom or suchlike, and working long