The Importance of Educating Your Voice

Everything in the universe is vibration

Many leaders struggle to control their voice volume and strength; for others, the challenge lies in being heard or knowing how to interrupt those with extroverted voices; for some, it’s a physical challenge involving body and breath control; and for others, it’s about capturing the attention of their team during a synchronous meeting or, for those who also teach, the attention of their students during a lecture.

In any of these scenarios, the voice —the sound of the voice— is the channel that transmits not only the message but also the non-verbal cues that color with emotion what the leader is trying to convey.

When we speak, we always elicit an emotional response from our listeners based on their personality tendencies. This response, this bias, can either facilitate or hinder productivity and relationships within the team, a commercial relationship, or being chosen for that long-awaited promotion, to name a few examples.

Hence, the importance of educating your voice to minimize the inherent ambiguity of social interactions and gain some control over the emotional response you hope to evoke in others, thanks to your communication strategy.

Simon, with an introverted, methodical, and highly analytical personality, is a leader in a company that sells SAAS. During the pandemic, like many other companies during those years, his company had to promote several programmers and technicians to leadership positions. Simon then went from working almost alone to leading a team of eight people, including some commercial profiles.

“Yupa, it’s hard for me to make myself understood… especially with the salespeople on my team. In meetings, while I'm giving guidelines, assigning tasks, or asking for opinions, they get distracted… I know they don’t intend to disrespect me, but I’m convinced something isn’t working because they just don’t listen. My analysis is that while I'm talking to them, their thoughts are elsewhere, and when they return to the conversation, they ask questions that, theoretically, should have been clear… it's very frustrating."

What Simon describes is, unfortunately, very common in any organization in any sector. Over time and with a lot of training, Simon understood that the challenge was to become the main focus of attention for his extroverted sales team, and for this, he had to consciously manage his non-verbal communication, especially his voice.

Psychoacoustics, Persuasion, and Leadership

Everything in the universe is vibration, and although this may sound esoteric, I’m referring to the material world governed by physical laws (many still awaiting understanding). One of the most beautiful aspects of science, in my opinion, is the ability to “see” what the world is made of. While we, as humans, live our life experiences through the narratives we are told and tell ourselves, the value of science lies in the fact that “data beats narrative.”

From what we can learn from the data, the acoustic vibration of sound is one of the most fascinating phenomena in physics because just as a vibration can shatter a glass or move a building, a vibration can generate responses in our body and emotions.

Sound is vibration, and everything vibrates; therefore, everything, in some way, is sound.

Psychoacoustics studies these phenomena: a discipline that combines physics, biology, psychology, and neuroscience to explore and understand what happens in our brain when it is exposed to a sound, a vibration.

I dare say that you like music too. Regardless of the genre, we enjoy music for everything it produces and activates within us. Whether it’s a thrash-metal playlist for running like the wind, some funk and salsa to decorate your new apartment, or Deva Premal’s best mantras to immerse yourself in silence and stillness, music is an emotional activator and a facilitator of social experiences, like those in a concert or a bar.

Music connects minds and emotional states around specific vibration patterns. I know, it sounds very cold for all the warmth and excitement music can bring.

Thus, the vibration of sounds alters our emotional state by turning on the faucet in our brain for one biochemical cocktail or another. In this context, we prefer the sound of certain voices over others. Just as you enjoy music that “vibrates” with your emotional state (or the one you seek to activate), you prefer voices that are relevant to your brain, personality tendency, and archetype, according to your active emotional state or the one you seek to activate. Again, this underscores the importance of educating the voice.

When two waves, two vibrations are equal, equivalent, harmonious, etc., their vibrations amplify and grow. In music, sounds that generate more harmonics are often perceived as more beautiful, “perfect,” and pleasant. Our ears and brains reward symmetry in vibrations.

Therefore, when we produce a voice (a vibration) that is harmonious, symmetrical, and equivalent to another person's voice (vibration), this communication reward from both brains translates into a pleasant sensation.

The familiar and known bring us closer (because the brain is a great energy saver), so it is expected that when we control our voice, its sound, we can create greater connection and even empathy with others.

Breathe

Sound is vibration, and it doesn’t exist without breath. Breathing is the foundation of the power of any vibration coming from your voice. When you breathe consciously (controlling posture, inhalation path, exhalation timing, and method), you can start to modify the sound of your voice to resonate strategically with others.

Moreover, one of the most effective (and complex) ways to actively listen to another person is to connect with their breathing rhythm.

The first major step in educating your voice is becoming aware of your breath, its rhythm, how pleasant or unpleasant it feels, your relationship with your body, and, of course, how much you like or dislike the sound of your voice. Only a few people enjoy hearing their own voice when they listen to it on a recording, and this acceptance is usually directly proportional to the level of self-awareness and personal growth the person has achieved.

If you are a leader facing any of the challenges mentioned at the beginning of this article, you should breathe and take charge of your voice and everything it may be evoking (both positive and negative) in others, to truly advance towards achieving results without sacrificing well-being.

Everything in your leadership style is a form of vibration