Do you find yourself out of breath as you speak? Do you have trouble making yourself heard or projecting your voice as required? Chances are, you are running out of breath...
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Everyone knows that executive presence is more than just appearance and sounding authoritative. However, if you tend to be inaudible, sound squeaky or are unable to vary your pitch and project your voice powerfully ( when appropriate), it can seriously undermine your influence and impact as a leader. So paying attention to your voice and working to improve your vocal delivery is something every leader must consider.
A weak or squeaky voice and poor vocal delivery can seriously undermine your influence and impact as a leader[/ctt]
Breathe Correctly To Speak Powerfully
Voice coach Roger Love (@RogerLove1) says you must breathe correctly to speak powerfully. According to Roger, most people hold their breath when speaking. This is because they don’t know how to breathe out and speak at the same time. Also, most people breathe inefficiently - getting inadequate volume of air into their lungs. This gives them very little control on the way the air flows out.
It doesn’t help that people are breathing in through their mouth - which results in dryness in the throat and makes people lose their voice. This combination of feeling out of breath, dryness in the throat and inability to control the air flowing out results in a weak and squeaky voice.
Yet, as Roger demonstrates in this brief video interview with Raquel Baldelomar (@r_baldelomar), it is not difficult to fix. His suggestions on breathing effectively when speaking include:
- Inhale only through your nose. This ensures that the air is filtered, and also prevents your throat from drying up.
- Breathe deeply - imagine your stomach is a balloon that you are filling up when you breathe in
- Speak only when your stomach is contracting. This ensures enough volume of air that allows you greater control on how you sound.
A small yet very informative and practical video that you MUST watch. Here’s the link again
And while you’re at it, you might also want to check out Roger Love’s book Set Your Voice Free : How to Get the Singing or Speaking Voice You Want (aff link)
Image: terimakashi0 via pixabay
