How do you think you sound when you are speaking in public and under pressure?
Do you like how you sound when you are under pressure?
(Image credit: Anatomy of the Voice, by Theodore Dimon and illustrated by G. David Brown)
I hear a lot, “I don’t mind speaking, and I am good at what I do but I don’t like the sound of my own voice.”
A few things to unpick here.
Your voice is an expression of who you are like no other.
If you don’t like your voice…
Why should the audience?
Why does this matter?
Because how you are feeling will permeate through and lessen your credibility with an audience.
If you don’t like your voice while you are actually speaking, some of that dislike will be subliminally picked up by your audience as some sort of undermining of your message. You will sound as though you don’t mean what you are saying whole heartedly.
93% of the impact you will have on an audience will be based on how you sound and look, in terms of vocal tone and body language, particularly in the first two minutes of any speech or conversation.
How you sound underpins your credibility with what you are saying.
Secondly, if you are ‘hearing’ the sound of your voice, that implies that you are not relaxed, or at one with it enough, and so you will not be having your full focus on the audience.
That means you will either sound nervous or have to ‘put on a mask’ to blast your way through and cover up your nerves. The danger is, you become strident and dull, which also turns off an audience.
The role of the speaker is to be totally there for the audience.
And thirdly, how fab would it be if you didn’t waste any time worrying about how you sound or how you look. How freeing would that feel?
How brilliant would it be if you could simply get up there and speak in the actual room or on screen without any qualms?
How brilliant would it be if you could take control of your thoughts and emotions and didn’t judge yourself negatively, either after or during speaking, either in a meeting, one to one or giving a presentation when you feel under pressure?
How brilliant would it be in you were enjoying speaking and not enduring it?
Get in touch if you would like to be at one with the sound of your own voice.
By Fiona Whytehead
Founder and Director, Locus Coaching
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