How Can You Present Yourself With More Passion?
Curt Skene’s In2Win! Career Coaching Supplement.
To present with passion you must believe strongly in what you are saying. Passion is not about blending in or being middle of the road. Passion is that edge that is noticed and often desired by employers. To communicate passion it’s not what you say but how you say it that makes all the difference in the world.
Passion is often described as a feeling of excitement, enthusiasm or compelling emotion towards a subject, idea, company, person, or object. When you speak, learn to use your voice to communicate the energy and unstoppable commitment you have. Words themselves mean little; most statistics indicate up to 80 percent of the message is how you say it! Learn to vary your speed and tonality to match the feelings you want to convey.
If you want to communicate energy and excitement then project your voice and speak a little faster. If you want to communicate intellect and empathy then speak softer and slower. Always be aware that your level of passion will be noticed and you will be judged on it. One of the biggest mistakes an executive can make is to go into an interview lacking passion.
When they do they come out flat and appear to lack interest in the opportunity. Conversely, too much passion can be just as damaging because of the risk of appearing overbearing and tiring! Always match your level of passion to your audience. As rapport is gained and that important connection is made only then can you raise the passion in the room!
Enthusiastic delivery is a skill. Practise it regularly so it appears naturally when the stakes are high.
Why I Wrote This Page
Because listeners extract confidence and competence judgments largely from vocal variation, pitch, pace, emphasis, independent of the actual words being said.
This is measurable: two people can say the identical sentence and be judged completely differently based purely on delivery. A flat, monotone “I’m excited about this opportunity” communicates the opposite of what the words claim. The tone is what people actually believe, not the sentence. This is why passion isn’t really about the words you choose. It’s about whether your voice matches them.
This is trainable the same way fluency is. Passion in delivery isn’t a personality trait you either have or don’t, it’s a set of vocal habits you can practice deliberately.
Action Steps
- Record yourself describing something you’re genuinely enthusiastic about, then listen for the vocal patterns, pace, pitch variation, and try to bring those same patterns into your interview answers.
- Practice deliberately varying your pace, faster for energy, slower for gravity, instead of speaking in one register the whole conversation.
- Match your passion level to the room. Too much energy can overwhelm as easily as too little can fall flat.
In2Win! Afterthought
Curt’s current observations and updated guidance will be added here.
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