If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one to hear it, did it make a sound?
The sound of your voice tells a lot about your personality. Are you someone who is confident, in control, or are you someone who needs to be told what to do. It might seem unfair that when you meet someone for the first time, you are judged based on your voice first, then other parameters. But, you do the same to others. It is one of the many mental heuristics put in place by evolution.
Our ears are different from our eyes in that there is no “lid”, or an “off” switch. Our ears are always on. They must constantly deal with Signal to Noise problems. Realizing this, we need to make sure our audience is hearing what we are saying.
So the next question is, what can I do to make sure I am heard? Excellent question. I have put some thought on this topic, and based on what I have read, seen and heard, here are 3 things to help you be heard.
1. Breathing from the Diaphragm
Have you ever seen a baby sleep? When they are breathing, pay attention to their bellies – they expand and contract like a balloon. This is the most efficient way to breathe. You pull your diaphragm down and allow air to fill up your lungs completely, then deflate using your diaphragm again.
Proper breathing is the first step to proper speaking. This will facilitate point # 2 below. There is an excellent article on diaphragmatic breathing here.
In addition to these conscious breathing exercises, a couple of additional things you can do:
- Meditation: which is simply conscious breathing, while keeping your mind clear of any thoughts
- Swimming: helps with efficient breathing and forcing diaphragmatic breathing
As an added bonus, breathing from the diaphragm will passively improves posture, which will in turn improve confidence.
2. Location of Your Voice
When you speak, sound waves need to first bounce within your body before you send them outwards. This can happen in one of three places:
- Nose: very nasal sounding voice
- Throat: somewhat deeper than nasal
- Chest: very deep voice, public speakers and leaders typically speak from down here
Try this yourself, you can pick which of the above three areas your voice comes from. This will affect how authoritative you are perceived as.
3. Vocal Exercises
Like any muscle in the body, your mouth organ needs to be exercised for optimal performance. There are numerous suggestions on this by the experts (which I am not), but here are a few that I like.
Julian Treasure has made a career out of this subject. He is an expert on this and has several TED talks and books written.
You may bot want to be a public speaker, or the next great military leader, but being conscious of what you sound like is something we can all benefit from in our daily lives.