Kate's Voice

Having executive presence means being able to speak clearly, with authority, to anyone, including those you want to influence, whether your superior or your constituency.  Much of this comes from experience.  You feel more comfortable each time you are in a situation that challenges you to speak with authority to an authority figure. You feel stronger each time you get a good response from an audience.  But can you create a voice that sounds like a leader?

What is a leadership voice? Three characteristics of leadership are strength, confidence, and clarity.  Your voice reflects how you feel and think. It is the voice of the mind.  If you feel strong, confident and clear, you have more ability to sound that way.  But there are certainly things you can do to cultivate these characteristics in your voice.

Strength:
Physical
In an article called “Executive Presence,” communication experts, Jan and Neal Larsen Palmer, talk about the way leaders act and speak. They suggest a physical presence that says “leadership” and recommend that you “Command and expand the space around you.”  To do this, practice sitting or standing “tall,” with your chest lifted and abdomen free to breathe deeply.  When standing, keep yourself grounded on both feet, but with your weight slightly forward on the balls of your feet.  When seated, sit on the edge of your chair with both feet on the ground as if you are ready to get up out of the chair.  Let your arms be open rather than clinging to your body.

The sound of strength
Stress key words. Speak loudly and with energy, but avoid yelling. Let your passion show up in your sound by incorporating your breath into your voice. Here’s how:  Take your breath in deeply.  As you speak, “excite” the sound by using more air in your voice. The sound you are looking for is not a breathy voice, but, rather, an energetic sound.

Confidence:
What you say:
Make statements. Mix up your inflection so that you sound inquisitive and open, but end completed ideas with a downward cadence.  Avoid using filler words like “and,” “so,” or “but” to begin sentences.  Avoid hedging with “I guess,” “I believe,”” kind of” or “sort of. “  Smile and use humor.  Tell personal stories.  Be transparent and authentic.

How you say it:
Use expression to color your words.  Pitch your voice using mask resonance to amplify it and create an appealing tone.   Vary the intensity, duration, and volume to keep listeners engaged.

Clarity:
What you say:
Know your subject and be very clear about the intention driving your communication.  Why are you speaking and to whom?  What is your motivation., your purpose?  Use structures to organize thoughts and ideas.  Tell stories rather than just recite facts and figures, but use supporting data when necessary. And Daniel Pink  suggests that you “speak human,”  rather than use “businessese.”

How you say it:
Use pauses to allow others to fully digest your content.  Keep your pace at 140-150 words per minute.  Contrast ideas with new color at the beginning of a new idea, and when comparing statements or concepts.

Finally
Make a commitment. Get a commitment.  Ask for the close.  Give a good close. Give a call to action. Look them in the eye. Be present.

In the King and I, Anna sings a song with her children about whistling a happy tune, pretending to be confident when she feels afraid. The last line is “ Make believe you’re brave and the trick will take you far.  You may be as brave as you make believe you are.”  I say, sound like a leader, feel like a leader, be a leader.  What do you think?

Want to learn more?

How to look authoritative from Olivia Mitchell’s blog, Speaking about Presenting

Leadership critical to transforming business speaking, from the blog, Great Speaking Coach

These aren’t soft skills, from Bert Decker’s blog on communications

Creating interest as a speaker is hugely important.  Not only does it keep your audience tuned in to you, but it also helps them remember you and your message.  That’s why Toastmasters lists Vocal Variety as one of the most important skills to develop as a public speaker.

I call this using “color” in the voice, and the general idea is that you can paint a picture that connects you to your listener and evokes an emotional response by using variety in the sounds you create.

But many people tell me they don’t know how to create that color.  Think of the following characteristics of sound as some of the colors on your palette , your words as the picture, and your voice as the brush. Being connected to your message and the meaning behind it is the artistic inspiration of you, the artist.   Use them together to create an image in your listeners’ minds.

Pace is the speed at which you deliver your words. You can speak swiftly or slowly and at varying speeds in between.  When you want people to respond with energy, pick up the pace.  When you want them to take in what you say and digest it completely, slow down. Create contrast and color by stressing some of your words by varying the pace of delivery.

Rhythm is a pattern of sound that is created by contrasts and alterations of different recurring sounds.  Speech can have patterns that are formal, as in a poetic rhythm like “iambic pentameter,” or such as occur with alliteration (a series of words that all begin with the same consonant.)  However, speech may contain informal patterns of sound, too. Use rhythm to create color in phrases.

Pitch is a property of sound that describes the actual frequency of the sound waves that produce a particular sound.  A faster sound wave produces a higher sound, while slower sound waves produce lower sounds.  Pitch is not determined by the loudness or volume of sound, but rather by the notes we use when we speak. Some people actually do sound a bit like they are singing when they speak, and others use so little variety that we call them “monotones.” Practice varying the pitch of your voice to create color.

Volume is the loudness or softness of your voice:. Are you whispering?  Are you shouting? If you speak too softly, you can project a weak image; if you speak too loudly, you may sound forceful, anxious, or even angry.  You can use volume to emphasize your words or ideas.  Contrast is an important part of color.  Try emphasizing your words by speaking more quietly at times, without diminishing the energy.

Duration of sound is how long each word hangs on.  Musicians use the term legato to describe a smooth sound that is drawn out rather than clipped short.  They work hard to blend the notes together in a phrase.  Staccato is the clipped sound.  There is space between the short notes.  You can do this with your voice too. Create color by clipping some words short, and elongating the vowels in others.

HOW TO PRACTICE USING COLOR IN YOUR VOICE

We all laughed when Lionel had the King shaking his face,  swearing out loud and rolling on the floor to learn to speak without a stutter in the oscar winning movie, The King’s Speech.  However, that kind of extreme experience is the best way, indeed sometimes the only way,  to change the way you’ve been speaking all your life.  In the case of color, exaggerate the color element you are working with when you practice.  And practice that exaggeration over and over.  Then go back to a more normal delivery but with the added color. To do this, select the words that you want to emphasize.  Try out the various color elements.  It’s also helpful to highlight the “color words” with a different color visually so that you rememer to emphasize them when you practice.

When you combine these colors with the skills of cadence, emotional memory, and pausing, you begin to create a very different picture when you give a speech or have a conversation that matters.  And just as each visual artist has his or her own unique style, so do you.  Using color is a beautiful way to bring out your authentic self while increasing your vocal impact.

Related articles:

Beware of being a presentation robot, from Professionally Speaking by Kathy Reiffenstein

18 Paths to Pathos, from Six Minutes, by Andrew Dlugan

Speaking Science: The sounds of sadness, on the Eloquent Woman

The case for expressive speaking, even on earnings calls, on Kate’s Voice