Does Your Voice Say "Energetic, Intelligent, and Professional?"
How To Sound Like A Person People Want To Know
Your voice is a signature—a unique and powerful part of your professional identity—which says more about you than you may imagine. When people hear your voice on the telephone, in a meeting, a presentation, speech or interview, they make a all kinds of important (and sometimes quite accurate) assumptions about you—including your age, education, intelligence, maturity, capabilities, background and emotional state.
Do you like the sound of your own voice? A lot of people don’t. One reason may be, your voice literally resonates inside the cavities of your head, so you “hear it” differently than the rest of the world does. That’s why listening to your own voice-mail message sometimes makes you wonder, “Could that really be me?”
How important is your voice to your success as a professional? You can answer that, by considering the following:
• How much business do you do over the phone?
• How often do you have to speak to your boss, colleagues or employees in a meeting?
• How often do you speak in person with clients or customers?
Many of the most important people in your business life know you only or primarily by your voice, and even if they meet you in person, they are sizing up whether your voice matches the rest of your professional image. If speaking plays any part in your job, you need to know how to use it for maximum impact. How can you be sure your voice says what you want it to say about you? Step one is you have to be open to listening and learning.
Occasionally, I guest-host on the Morning Edition of WBUR, Boston’s National Public Radio.
When I began hosting the program, I (foolishly) thought this would be something I could do “in my sleep” (and there is a chance of that—since I have to get up at 3:30 A.M. to do the show!) I thought, those first few days, that after twenty years in television news, I would know how to come across the airwaves as pleasant, easy and natural. But when I listened to an “air-check” with one of the managers, I was disappointed, even embarrassed, when I realized my approach to “natural” sounded dull and half-asleep. Over the next few days I worked with this radio veteran to learn more about using my voice effectively.
What follows are some of the tips that will help you develop your professional voice.
Do You Want Your Voice To Really Say Something?
Tips From The Radio Pros
• Breathe from the belly: You need to fill up with air to power your voice. If you ever sang in a choir, you have probably heard about breathing from the diaphragm-that drum that stretches across the bottom of your chest cavity. When you’re breathing properly, your belly actually moves out—if your breathing is shallow, your chest and shoulders are probably moving instead, and that isn’t going to give you the power you need to use your voice effectively.
• Use inflection: If you want to come across as intelligent, interested and energized, use inflection in your voice. You can get all the words right, but inflection gives your talk meaning. You may get feedback from your colleagues that the client isn’t really “getting” what you’re talking about, the change you may need to make is using inflection to keep them interested and help them understand by emphasizing important words and phrases.
• Phrase for meaning: The way to keep inflection from sounding “sing-song” is to speak in phrases, not words – a good way to understand this technique is to listen to your favorite radio host. You’ll notice they say groups of words, not single words, and they change the pace – when they are saying something routine, they may speed up, when they want to emphasize, they slow down and use inflection and phrasing to get across an important point. You can close your eyes while watching television and listen to your favorite newscaster or talk show host and hear this, too.
• Be conversational: There may be nothing more annoying than someone who over-articulates – nothing more off-putting than a person who is ultra-formal. The secret to building credibility is to strike a balance between being professional and coming across as stiff. People will trust you when they hear “real” conversation – that means a balance between an educated approach to language, grammar and pronunciation, mixed with a conversational, easy-going style.
• Not too fast, not too slow: Pace makes things happen – you can convey emotion, urgency, control, professionalism, intelligence and a variety of qualities through pace alone. There are a hundred ways to say the simplest things, including “Hello, how are you?” You develop pace based on what part of the country or world you live in, where you grew up, the culture of your business, and a variety of other influences – but you need to be aware of it so you can manage it according to each communication situation.
• Accent, please: We all have accents—no matter where we grew up. This is true even of those of us who grew up in the Midwest. One of the first, most noticeable elements of your voice is your accent—people make assumptions about where you grew up, your education, intelligence, culture, and affinities. An accent can be a calling card—I have friends from the U.K. who believe when in the U.S., their accents win business. Accents can be tough if people don’t understand you—Americans are notoriously lazy listeners—so if English is your second language—or if you have a very heavy regional accent, you may wish to seek out an honest opinion about whether you need coaching to be clearly understood.
• Practice with a tape recorder: As difficult as it may be to listen to the sound of your own voice, it’s the best way to evaluate how well you use it. Tape record your voice on a phone call, during a meeting, or a practice session for a speech; play it back not for content, but simply to hear your voice—tone, pitch, inflection, accent, breathing, phrasing, and word choices. If you don’t like what you hear, make a note of what’s bothering you and do something about it. Keep using the tape recorder until you like what you hear.