One of your most powerful tools is your voice – literally.

Not just voicing your opinion, but using your voice as an instrument.

This instrument can sound as beautiful as Mozart or as painful as fingernails on a chalkboard.

I’ll bet if you record yourself in a meeting or on a phone call you will be very surprised by what you hear.

Many of us have monotone voices. And to make things worse, we tend to mumble through our conversations. We speak quickly in hopes the other person/s will fill in the blanks.

If you truly want to have impact, if you want to be heard, you’ll need to make sure your words are heard before their meaning can have impact.

Go ahead and make a recording of yourself.

Listen to the recording and rate yourself from 1(bad) to 5(great) on the following aspects: Pace, tone, inflection, pausing, articulation, and volume.

Now select one of the lower rated items and focus on making a change just to that aspect for one week.

Modifying your use of your voice as an instrument will have a dramatic effect on your impact.

Understand that your voice changes depending upon the situation (context). And you should not try to use the same approach for each situation. Your voice will be heard differently in person across a table than it will be heard on the phone. You’ll need to adjust accordingly.

Just as a beginner learning to play the violin will make mistakes in the beginning, with practice the noise will transform and be heard as music. As you practice using your voice as your musical instrument, it too will soon be playing beautiful music – that will move people into action!