When Looks Don't Matter...Sensory Clues in Your Message

When all the visual cues of your oh-so-fine outfit, your winning smile, your searching eyes, your latest hair-do are not part of the message - what do people "hear" about you in the message? What stands out? What sensory clues are you giving outside of the actual message?

This past month I have been teaching an online class on organizational behavior. The only thing the students know about me and I about them is what we all write - and how we write. The "classroom" discussion presents a very different picture of many of them than their formal written assignments, and I got the initial impression that many of those in my class hadn't yet been through high school.

What would you think if you were "meeting" a person for the first time, and could hardly decipher their message? Consider this same situation if English is your second language - when understanding simple English is a challenge - much less all the latest language trends.

Text-messaging and quick emails to friends - the care-free casual grammar and mechanics of writing - are getting blurred with the professional image to the greater world. Does this matter? I'm still exploring where this is all going. I personally think so, if someone wants to move up in a competitive industry, or convince a client to go with their products and services. As a hiring manager, the first impression I got was the written message - not only what the person handed me in their resume and cover letter, but every communication that was part of their past career and online history.

Same thing on the phone, only in this case, it is a person's voice and spoken communication, rather than written. Geoffrey James talks about this in How to Build Rapport on the Phone. He refers to Daniel Goleman's “Social Intelligence”, which discusses how the most primitive parts of the human brain are connected to the ability to read the total message from a person's appearance and movements in order to determine how to react. If all of the elements of face-to-face encounters are reduced to text messages or voice messages, your writing and vocal talents will take on exaggerated importance.

So, without that terrific visual persona that you put together in the mirror this morning, are you distorting the message or projecting the image of yourself to others that you hope to?