Mar 19, 2020
Six Ways Leaders Can Find Their
Voice
Why are so few business leaders good communicators, given all
the education they have received, starting at varsity and then
later, through their organisations? Here are six things
to work on.
- When we speak using a monotone delivery, placing equal stress
on each word, regretably, our audience just tunes us out.They start
to look for other points of stimulation, such as how we are
dressed, our body language, our voice quality – almost everything
except the actual key message content.
Leaders need to match their vocal variation and facial
expression to the message being delivered. Congruency means
emphasising key words or phrases, through either adding or
subtracting voice projection. Whispering is as powerful as
yelling, as long as the message content is aligned with the
delivery mechanism.
- Leaders are often notable for speaking while exhibiting a
“wooden face”, meaning they maintain the same facial expression
throughout their talk. Good, striking, even exceptional news is
greeted with the same expression as announcing disaster, doom and
gloom.
The simple rule is, if it is good news, let your face know and
smile or show happiness. If it is bad news, look serious,
worried, upset or fearful depending on the content and
context.
- Voice speed can be an indicator of confidence or terror. Most
of us, when nervous, tend to speed up and our ideas can rapidly
begin to overtake each other. Pausing is needed to allow the
audience to process what they have just heard.
- We can also speak using our body. The turn of our head allows
us to become inclusive and capture all of our audience, no matter
where they are seated. The front, middle, back, the sides – the
leader makes eye contact to engage with people in all parts of the
room. Eye contact means actual engagement – looking an
audience member in the eye and speaking to them for around 6
seconds. Less than that makes for a rather fleeting
perfunctory type of engagement. Locking on to their gaze for
much longer starts to burn into their retina and becomes
uncomfortable.
- Pointing our feet straight forward using only our neck to
swivel our head and engage the audience is projecting confidence,
credibility and solidity. Often times, speakers are unconsciously
facing their feet such that they are favouring only one side of the
room. Slouching, standing off balance or nervously striding about
the stage may not be projecting the professional image leader’s
desire.
- We either overemploy our gestures or we don’t deploy them at
all.Behind our back, resting on our hips, thrust deeply into
trouser pockets, held protectively in front of our body are the
usual suspects in the crime of neglect of our hand’s communication
strength when speaking.
Leaders need their own voice to fully reach their audience, to
persuade, to inspire, to be credible and memorable. You are
the brand and what you say and how you say it matters. Be
congruent, authentic and be the professional you.