The Transformative Power Of Intentional Communication In Leadership

Unleashing the influence of voice and body language

Leaders often underestimate how intentional they need to be in every aspect of their communication, including voice and body language. It turns out it’s a hazard of the job. Merely holding positional power can reduce your ability to perceive how your words and gestures impact others. Researcher Adam Galinsky calls it the “power amplification effect”. A raised eyebrow at the wrong moment or an offhand comment can spike fear in team members or sabotage trust – even impact the bottom line.  

It’s a lesson one CEO learned the hard way.
 

Years ago, a leader we’ll call Vikram was a new CEO. He came up from inside the company. Despite being groomed for the role, when it came time to promote him, there was a lot of internal discussion about whether he was ready for the top job. Ultimately, the board gave its approval.

They quickly regretted the decision after his first earnings call.

Because the report was by phone, the attending analysts and press couldn’t see Vikram, only hear him. When the call ended, the biggest news wasn’t the company’s lackluster earnings but Vikram’s tone of voice. The press characterized him as deflated and noncommittal about the company’s future.

The media reports undermined the company’s reputation and sabotaged any faith the board had in Vikram to steer the ship. When they hired me to work with him, the board was blunt: We can’t afford this to happen again.

It didn’t. Vikram handled the next earnings call like a seasoned CEO.

During our work in the intervening months, Vikram discovered a pivotal truth: Your voice and body are tools for delivering communication with emotional intelligence. If your tools aren’t sharp or used correctly and for the right tasks, your message will fail. There must be congruency between your gestures, voice, and intent. Without alignment, you risk being misunderstood and possibly alienating the people you most want to influence.  

Full-Throated Leadership

Your voice is a richly expressive instrument capable of broadcasting a wealth of information about you, your motives, and your social adeptness. The tone, pace, rhythm, and pitch of speech carry nuanced shades of meaning, creating a secondary level of communication known as paralanguage. Our brains are hardwired to perceive and trust these subtle vocal cues, prioritizing them over the content. In short, as Vikram found, how you say what you say matters.

You can use words to startle, motivate, provoke, deflate, or soothe. But along with word choice, your decision to punch up or downplay different phrases demonstrates your sensitivity to the situation and the listener’s needs. If Vikram had deliberately used his voice to underscore his genuine belief in the company’s robustness, the news – and the firm’s profitability – may have taken a different turn that day.

To Be Heard, Use Your EARS

You’re more likely to land important messages by adding variety and contrast to your speech. Listeners can habituate to what we’re saying and tune out – especially with a monotone delivery. To leverage your full vocal expression, remember the acronym EARS: Energy, Articulation, Resonance, and Stops. Let’s break it down:

• Energy refers to the volume and speed of your voice. Speaking at a comfortable pace, between 110 to 160 words per minute, helps maintain listener engagement. Think of velocity in terms of the message you want to convey. Faster speaking may suit lighter, humorous content, while slower speech often fits more serious, complex, or crucial information.


• Articulation involves the clarity of your speech – your consonants, vowels, and the words you choose to emphasize. A well-articulated message helps your audience understand and remember key points.


• Resonance gives your voice its unique quality, including pitch and tone. It's the color and timbre of your voice – crucial for projection and volume. Using your full optimum pitch range, where you're most resonant, makes your voice more attractive and easier to listen to for team members.


• Lastly, Stops are intentional pauses in your speech, allowing your audience time to absorb your message. Extended pauses can add gravity and confidence to your delivery. It’s like using your voice as a highlighter, emphasizing key points for the listener.

Embody the Message

Nonverbal communication helps our audiences understand what we’re saying and how to feel about our message, making body language a crucial pathway to building trust and rapport. The problem is that leaders are often bombarded with a grab-bag of instructions. Appeals to hold eye contact, smile, maintain an open posture, and use expressive gestures are nearly mantras in the leadership canon. While each of these suggestions can be useful for building rapport, they can also send the wrong signal in the wrong context.

It’s more important to clarify your reasons for communicating – to understand why you’re modifying your body language. Begin by asking yourself these questions:

1. What message do I need this audience to hear?
2. For this message to be heard by this audience, how do I need to show up?
3. How does this compare to my habitual way of showing up?

Then, to help your body move in concert with your objectives easily and authentically, remember three simple things:

• Intend to Connect – Begin by taking stock of the physical space and the message’s context. Ask yourself how big or small your gestures need to be. Where do you need to be relative to the person or audience for them to feel comfortable and you to be heard? Then lower your defenses – and theirs – by practicing sincere curiosity and openness. In response, your body will naturally make itself less threatening. You’ll find yourself relaxing, leaning in, nodding, and matching your posture to theirs.


• Be Purposeful – Are your gestures attached to the meaning of your words, or are they repeated over and over as a habit or nervous filler? Shuffling your feet, looking around, and waving your hands could signal you’re off-ground and disconnected from the audience. Breathe and reengage your intention to connect. Focus your physical energy on movements that underscore the reasons behind your message. Your gestures and posture will naturally become crisp, deliberate, and energetic when charged with a goal.


• Clarify Your Point of View – How you feel about your message dramatically impacts your delivery. Imagine you need to give a team member critical feedback for a missed deadline. If you’re angry, your gestures can show up as accusing or, worse, threatening. It’s okay to be upset by the delay, but what do you want to accomplish with the message? If you aim to set firm expectations yet motivate the employee, your movements will likely soften. Clarifying your intention aligns your nonverbal cues and makes them specific to the context.  

At the next earning call, Vikram still wasn’t visible to his audience, but he acted as if he was. Being congruent in his actions and intentions carried through to his voice and changed the tenor of the call. Exercising mastery over his voice and gestures not only helped Vikram deliver an on-point address but truly embody leadership.

Author Bio

Jacqueline Farrington has over 20 years of experience as a change-maker, empowering leaders and their teams to spark transformation and innovation through communications. She works with senior and board-level leaders at multinationals such as Amazon and Microsoft. Jacqueline blends her experience in the performing arts, vocal pedagogy, communications, psychology, and organizational and executive coaching to help her clients find unique communication solutions. Her new book, The Non-Obvious Guide to Better Presentations: How to Present Like a Pro (Virtually or in Person), provides actionable, practical concepts, tips, and tools to improve any speech or presentation.