Lynn Espinoza is a broadcast news veteran with more than a decade of media, presentation and executive coaching experience. She has developed personal coaching sessions for Fortune 100 C-level executives, corporate communicators of all kinds, doctors, lawyers and leaders in non-profit.
Tone in the Final Stretch
Posted on May 7, 2008. Filed under: Latest News
If you’ve spent some time on my blog, you know that I believe that tone is one of the greatest tools of speech communication. While mine is not a political blog, I find that the political season provides an incredible speech-making laboratory. So I strapped myself in last night for what I knew would be a good night of speech-making, and a night when tone would necessarily rule.
Pundits had hedged their bets on the outcome of the races in Indiana and North Carolina. If Senator Clinton won both, she’d come out swinging. If Senator Obama won both, he would wear the mantle of victory and need to be humble and concillatory. In the end, he almost got what he needed, and she didn’t come close. Neither got what was required to (pardon what has become so cliche) “close the deal”. So the time had come for both to walk the tight-rope of tone.
I was struck by how similar the tones were. Because he didn’t say he won, and she didn’t say she lost, they landed in the middle and - for the first time in months - they sounded like they were on the same team. As a communications coach, I am always listening for the hidden incendiary words; the veiled threats. I heard none. It’s been a long time since both sounded respectful of the other. Both attempted to inspire, while not over-promise. In both speeches, the tone was appropriate. Both candidates used the powerful tool of tone to convey that the party really does have a chance to heal.
Did you hear it too?
One Response to “Tone in the Final Stretch”
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I ‘DID’ hear exactly that, Lynn. By the way, I love being a part of your laboratory!