Voice Skills In Business - Career Advice | Career Coach | Career ...

Today I?d like to welcome Frances Crum. Frances has been a voice-work practitioner since 1992.? Extensively trained in Australia, as? a voice tutor, actor, director, writer and teacher, she has worked in schools as a Drama and English teacher; in adult and FE as an Oral Communications teacher creating and delivering courses; as a writer, and as a freelance vocal coach for individuals and theatre groups both in Australia and in England. Her advice is equally applicable to career change / career interview situations, in terms of how we present ourselves.?

The Lazy person?s guide to?well everything really, but in this instance your voice and business.

Why a lazy person?s guide?? Because given a chance most people are intrinsically lazy.

We slouch?
We leave things hanging around half done?
We avoid conflict and confrontation like the plague?
And scuff our feet when we walk?
We don?t use spell checkers when we write emails ?
And we rarely edit ourselves when we are writing on the computer?
We couldn?t be bothered giving the TV our full attention or the computer game either ?
And we either allow other people to do our research or we use the internet instead of reading a book?
We couldn?t be bothered reading ?In the forest of Rhetoric ? because it is too old or convoluted and no one reads things like Sun Tzu?s The Art of War anymore in case they need to think about it and form arguments for and against ?

And we mumble and slur our words ?

And we hope that others will listen even when we won?t ?

And we hope that we will be taken seriously?

Sound like a grouchy old fogey don?t I?? Perhaps I am, but I too have difficulty not being lazy (hence the ?we?) ? despair not there is a solution and it is a very, very simple one. It is not about developing a penchant for manic activity ? something again which I have been known to do as the twelfth hour looms closer.? Nor is it about time management and having alarms going off every so often to let you know that you are over time.? Nor is it about ?getting your act together?, or ?growing up? or any of those other words and phrases that everyone love to bandy around?

So what is it about?? And what has it got to do with the way we approach people in business?

It is about listening.? Yes but everyone keeps talking at me ? right? and telling me what to do and how to do it and? and? and? information overload and the next thing you have is the mad monk from Dirk Gently?s Holistic Detective Agency (the Douglas Adams book ? not the BBC TV series).? When I say listen I don?t just mean pretending to listen I mean really listening to yourself and understanding what you are telling yourself by the way you do things.

A lot of the above behaviours are habits ? admittedly bad ones which are culturally attributed to laziness. ?Because they are behaviours they can be modified and then changed over time replaced by more efficient and effective ways of doing things.? Many of these behaviours are born from rebellion ? the ?I don?t want to hear that?, or ?I don?t want to be told what to do? mentality.? Others are born from observing other people and emulating them either in the negative or the positive example and either succeeding with mixed results, or failing and then withdrawing.? I don?t include watching TV as a lazy behaviour because if you watch properly and allow your heart to listen you are taken on an emotional journey which will change part of you ? the way you think, feel or do something.

How do I listen to myself?

Step one ? tune in and ask yourself why you do that?? If the answer is ?Because it comes naturally? ? rethink.? Nothing comes ?naturally? ? except a few body functions including laughing, smiling, and crying. Everything we do is learned.? We learn how to behave, how to cope, what to do in emergencies etc.?

Step two ? when did you learn to do it that way? Asking ?when? opens up the situation and contextualises it without assigning blame ? very useful in arguments whether with yourself or others.

Step three ? Is it still appropriate either in your professional or personal life?

Step four ? Why haven?t I let it go?

Step five ? Is there a better way that will work for me instead of against me?? This includes your emotional and physical health as well as work health. Can I find a better way to do ?xyz? without so much wasted energy?

You may wonder what has that to do with business and ?my? voice?? It has everything to do with both.? The way we conduct business is based upon our training, experience, observation and our ability to distil all of this into a plan of action.? It requires us to seek and take advice at different points along the way as we need it rather than overworking and trying to do it all at once ? which can only be called inefficient ? in short it is about being Smart-lazy not just about being lazy and it is about not overworking.

Don?t forget an action plan is a lazy person?s guide to what they have to do which has been ordered in such a way as to ensure the most efficient use of time and energy to get the task done.

What is Smart-lazy in using our voices and our bodies for personal presentation at work?

Smart-lazy, when speaking and creating a good impression, is about being efficient and effective with our presence, personal appearance and voice.? No you don?t have to go around looking like a 1950?s overdone mannequin with ?not a hair out of place? looking like you are trying to sell hair products.? Neat, clean and fresh does count that is well groomed ? well that does mean for apparel ? check out what the norm (well ? maybe the upper end) is within the business/ community and adhere to it but tweak it to suit your personality and finances.? Your deportment/ posture ? should be upright not straight and try walking from your hips ? allowing your knees to rise not only avoids a trip to the boot-maker to have soles replaced it will also help guard against back ache and other problems ? it also makes it easier to walk ? you will walk lighter with less strain and walking with ease is Smart-lazy. Looking ?good? and being upright but flexible makes you feel good about yourself and that is something that catches the eye and affects your voice.

But you mentioned presence ? Yes some people appear to be born with presence and charisma but again it can be learned. See above about grooming and deportment. Next time you see someone try smiling ? slowly taking in their presence and letting the smile come up to your eyes ? allow the smile not a grin be warm and just for them ? then watch the difference that it makes to the way they respond to you.? Do something nice in a nonchalant way. Don?t make a fuss ? just be generous with your time and kindness and see the difference next time you meet. It is also about ? now here?s the theory that Bordeau called ?symbolic gift exchange?.? You go to someone?s party and you take them a present so they will come to yours and bring a present.? Good etiquette? Yes.? But it is also about good business and what you do and the way that you do it.? It is about being grounded, centred and allowing your energy to flow.? It is about being aware of others within the space and it is about knowing when to radiate and receive ? two very Chekhovian terms from acting. People hear largess when you speak.? They also hear concern, pride, shame, anger, love and caring.? Even if they can?t quite identify the emotion they can hear it, not to mention see it.

Now voice ? that what you are going to say is natural to you.? Your capacity to speak is natural.? It?s an a priori function of the body unless something has prevented it occurring, but the way we use our voices is purely learned.? We learn it from those around us: school, teachers, neighbourhoods, districts, our siblings, parents, friends, TV, our idols and heroes, and anyone else we hear.? We hear someone? we like or we don?t like their sound.? We hear someone and they sound either friendly or not.? We hear someone and they sound authentic and trustworthy or not.? I am not talking about the bias that goes along with dialect or accent here ? I am talking about the way voice is connected or disconnected to our emotions, our minds and our bodies.? The way it holds stress from pressures at work and the way we use our bodies and the way we hold ourselves.? An Argentinean adult student of mine gave it a name which nicely translates to ?the posture of the voice?.? As with all other postures is it upright and rigid/ inflexible and forced because maybe to be otherwise could be construed as lazy?? Or is it mumbled because of fear of rejection? Or is it fluid, dynamic and adaptable with a strong centre, easy to listen ? in other words Smart-Lazy.? People respond to voice on a subconscious level ? it is what is known as the metalinguistic element of speech. Actors use the metalinguistic element to create subtext and others use it to detect lies, falsehoods and evasions as well as answer the traditional range of ?do they like/dislike me? queries.? The metalinguistic elements can reinforce the message or work against it.? It can create a sense of warmth and charisma or coldness and disapproval.? You can learn to play with the metalinguistic elements of speech to make them work for you especially when under pressure.

Where does voice-work fit in to all of this? ?Voice-work deals with the metalinguistic elements of speech, not just enunciation, and it is about being Smart-lazy in the way you say things. It is about listening to your voice and your body so that you are not struggling with your voice when creating utterances.? It is about creating a clear unobstructed way of engaging the breath, voice, thought, and body holistically to express your self without fighting against yourself and causing physiological problems.? It is holistic because the voice is an integration of all aspects of our selves ? past, present and future, our experiences, hopes, dreams, longings, wants, needs.
Our voices are a gift from our authentic selves to the people who are listening as long as we are being Smart-lazy. But if we are constricted and overly proper which is usually about overworking part of the body it will be to the physical detriment of our voices and the truthfulness of the message.
Voice-work is about relaxing and breathing into a voice that is most suitable for your body without all the added socio-cultural baggage or the old judgmental notions of ?proper? and ?lazy?. It is about removing the blocks to using your voice holistically, fluidly, dynamically, efficiently and effectively.? Most of all the quality of the voice reflects the quality of the breath ? the ease of the breath and the use of the out-breath rather than its quantity ? the Smart-lazy breath is a gentle breath to the back of the lower ribs rather than high in the chest.

Developing a Smart-lazy approach is a matter of habit and as with all habits, it takes time to change from a bad one to a good one; and it takes time to change to the Smart-lazy way of being efficient and effective.? Oops almost forgot ? it requires an action plan too!

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