v-Fluence Blog

Our Virtual Selves: Walk the Talk

Associate Sean Brittain and Senior Vice President & Partner Sarah Fuhrmann

An often-discussed challenge of working for a predominantly virtual company is the lack of face-to-face interaction with fellow employees and clients.  While v-Fluence has developed various methods to negotiate this obstacle, such as holding twice-yearly company meetings, purchasing office space in our base cities and encouraging regular dinners and social events with colleagues, our primary professional interaction both with colleagues and clients is via our "virtual selves."

As a virtual being, for whom most meaningful high-level communication takes place over the telephone, certain aspects of one's personality become all that we have to convey what we think and feel; for instance, voice and speech.  Body language is essentially niet in this environment.  For those of us who hate speaking in public (cough...okay, fine, I won't mention names), this comes as a blessing; however, it also means-sadly-that we lose Bob's excited hand movements, Lance's positive, smooth demeanor and Sean's sarcastic smile on company conference calls, virtual team meetings and brainstorming sessions.   Although most of us have spent time with one another face-to-face and can visualize these engaging character traits, new colleagues and clients typically draw their first impressions, visuals and interest based solely on what they hear.

While the scenario occasionally provides an opportunity for laughs (i.e. when everyone told one of our most recent hires Katherine that her client lead, Chris Jones, was monstrously tall with flaming red hair), for most it is a challenge.  

Many experts say that personality takes precedence when we communicate.  They argue that more than 90 percent of what's conveyed via face-to-face communication is nonverbal that a person's body language and tone are largely what express a sense of professionalism and confidence in what is being said. The upshot, therefore, for virtual beings: Focusing our energy on that remaining 10 percent.

Much like that first phone interview for a new job, each of us is confined to language, tone and our knowledge to convey our magnificent selves to colleagues and clients...at least until we post photos on our Web site or start using Web cams.

Faced with this communication handicap, I snooped around the Internet for expert opinions on ways to compensate for the lack of face-to-face time inherent to any virtual company, and advice on improving our primary communications vehicle--speech. Some of the best came from Douglas Anderson of Entrepreneur.com, who provides tips on posture, pace, pitch, and other elements of speech relevant to those of us working --the majority of the time at least--as professional "voices" of the virtual world.

More on these tips and others can be found on Michelle Cramer's GreatFX Business Cards — Small Business Tips blog. Don't miss the 5 Ps!

Share this post: