What’s your ideal tone of voice? I ask, because a friend told me this week, “You always talk in the same tone of voice, and I feel like I know exactly what I’m getting.”
It was a compliment. Honestly. I was bowled over. Particularly because I find that the writing I love the most—John Le Carre books, for example, or Shakespeare plays—often deal with the idea that a person is made up of multiple identities. Multiple voices. And multiple possible selves. To have reached the level where it seems like I’m a coherent person? That’s a major win, as far as I’m concerned.
And it all gets far more complicated, of course, when you’re thinking about tone of voice for an organization, and working with many people to create that voice. For me, though, that’s where the real challenge and purpose comes in. And it’s why I love doing this work.
Let’s take a key audience: Policymakers. When you talk with them, how friendly do you sound? How does that flex in your written communications? To put it another way: What’s the risk in being friendly? How might it interfere with your goals?
What about sales-y? Do you ever sound like you’re selling something? People often shudder when I ask them this question. Particularly in the social justice field. But my response is sometimes: How will your audience know what you’re offering, if you’re not actually, you know…offering it?
Why do people listen to what you have to say? What makes them engage with you?
It all gets rather interesting and purposeful, rather quickly.
And it can also get overwhelming. That’s why “tone of voice conversations” play out most successfully when they’re facilitated in groups, I find. Particularly by a tactful man from South London who’s led diverse organizations and individuals through this exercise time and time again.
As a result, maybe you can finally have that tricky conversation with your campaign director who is intent on addressing your board chair as “comrade.” Or with your development director who insists on including a fundraising ask in every tweet. Or maybe you can finally create a one-pager that says, “this is who we are and this is how we talk to our audiences — and this is how we don’t.”
The short-term goal, here, is for you to create such a thing in 10 minutes. A one-page document that outlines your personal tone of voice. It’s a starting point. A chicken, or perhaps an egg. For broader discussion.
You can get started with my free “tone of voice” exercise here.
At the very least, I hope it stimulates some interesting thinking…
