Are These Habits Undermining Your Voice of Leadership?

An Article On How To Unlock Your True Leadership Potential in 2020

It is over 10 years since I completed my PhD in business focusing on voice in leadership, which I called Vocal Intelligence. 

At the time, there was little understanding of the psychology of voice, little written and little in practice.

Guess what. . . little has changed also!

If anything, our awareness of voice is decreasing with the increased relevance of visual media in our world. 

As Steiner put it, one sun (visual stimuli) has eclipsed another (auditory awareness). 

But that does not make voice any less relevant. 

The issue is that rather than being consciously aware, we are now unconsciously aware and that is dangerous. 

Let me explain: 

I was sitting in a restaurant a little while ago and the waitress came past and asked if we would like a menu. 

When her mouth opened my eyes went wide with shock. 

She croaked rather than spoke and it was high and baby-like. I thought... ‘Seriously, is that permanent!’ 

Now you may think I was being cruel…. 

BUT, as I’ve mentioned previously: voice is a choice. 

You just have to wake up to the unconscious habits that undermine your true leadership potential.

They are habits, not natural phenomenon. 

Maybe leadership and having a voice of leadership was the last thing on her mind, but did she realise that her voice would be holding her way back if that was her wish. 

Research on fry shows that women who do vocal fry get 25% of the jobs against women who speak clearly.

You may ask… is this all about women? 

No, men have just as many problems. 

On the other hand, there are certain aspects to the voice of leadership that they satisfy more naturally. 

Leadership in western culture has three key vocal characteristics. 

Two of these everyone can do easily: speak more slowly and loudly. 

The third is more difficult for women and that is because the voice of leadership is low in pitch. 

Women’s voices are, on average, one octave higher than mens. This gives women a natural disadvantage.

There is no point stressing about it. 

We do not dwell on the weaknesses, but build on the strengths and they far outweigh one tiny problem. 

Far more important than pitch is the flow of air freely from the lungs to reach the people around you. 

This means not holding your breath in the first place, or jamming your throat to squeeze the sound or closing the mouth to block it altogether.

Here’s 5 major characteristics you have to avoid at all costs to unlock your voice of leadership:

1. Baby voice: speaking like you are speaking to a dog or a tiny baby. It is high in pitch, the sentences are clipped and there is little air flow.
2. Upwards inflection: this is where you go upwards in pitch at the end of every sentence.
3. Vocal Fry: withdrawing the air means the vocal folds don’t work properly and give you a soft gravelly croaking sound.
4. High squeak: often because of a visual learning preference, or cultural background perhaps, the voice will go high under stress. Don’t! 
5. Whisper: when you do not close the vocal folds properly, you get whisper. This sound is weak and does not carry. It also vocally damaging. 

Now you may be saying by now… great, I get it Louise… but how do I actually bring awareness to these unconscious habits when I just slip into my normal voice patterns in my day-to-day life?

It starts a commitment to actually wanting to upgrade your communication and leadership potential. 

Next, awareness and daily practice is key. I’ve said this before but you can practice on small children, dogs and friends/ colleagues... 

Also - there’s a highly trained communications expert who can shift things dramatically within 2 days (hint, hint: me! Send me a private message if you’d like to know more about my private coaching sessions). 

Change doesn’t just happen by an awareness, although it’s a good start. It’s through deliberate practice AND understanding how habits are formed and can be changed.  

(For those who want to dive deeper into habit formation - I recommend reading Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg) 

Here's to your success and unlocking your true leadership potential!

Drop a comment below on how you plan to upgrade your voice of leadership in 2020?

~Dr. Louise Mahler 

#voiceofleadership #influence #communication