Does Your Voice Change the World?
Your speaking voice is a powerful instrument that can motivate your listeners to follow your leadership, ideas, and values. If your words and your vocal sound harmonize to allow your listeners to hear the real you; then you will be heard, not only by one person, but by thousands. So, take the opportunity first, to self-assess your voice in terms of how others interpret the quality of your sound which gives you potentially infinite impact. Follow these two essential steps to get a handle on how to improve your vocal empowerment skills.
Step 1: Fix Annoying Sounds
Listeners are bothered by sounds with extremely high and low pitch levels and everything else in between. Do you know how your voice sounds? You are judged by the sound of your voice. Are you too nasal, too hoarse, too quiet, too loud, too monotonous, too breathy, too nervous, too arrogant, or too any other sounds that come to mind. There is no perfect voice, other than your personal best voice.
Your voice is an instrument where the sound exits the mouth except for nasal sounds of ‘m’ ‘n’ and ‘ng’ which pass through your nasal cavity.
A good voice exercise is to relax your body, take a deep diaphragmatic breath, and say «oo» as you exhale. Repeat, then go from soft sounds to gradually increasing louder sounds while aiming them farther away. Next, rehearse with the actual words you communicate at meetings, tele-seminars, or presentations. Record yourself and listen critically.
Enunciation seems to be a lost art as most people mumble, or don’t check on how words are pronounced. To stand out in your group be sure to attack the beginning and ends of your words, and slow down; so, there is no miscommunication.
Step 2: Believe in Your Principles: Your monotone will change to interest and inspire your listener if you show emotion in your voice and vary your inflection throughout. The most significant way is for you to sincerely believe in your message, cause, or point of view. For example, look at all the women across the world who marched for their beliefs on the day after Trump’s Inaugural Ceremony. It is the passion and purpose you have which will show up as you speak. This draws your audience to you.
Be consistent in your values and clearly state them for all to understand your cause or your company’s mission statement. Your voice is an amazing tool to make your audience empathize and act upon not only your words; but especially, on how you say them.
Follow these two steps to manage and fix your voice from all physical distractions as you incorporate voice fitness exercises; just like you would do with your golf pro, your fitness coach, or sport’s coach. Then humanize your vocal presence with passion to show inflection, variety of tone, rhythm, pace, and pitch levels. This is your definitive true voice power to change the world. You can do this!