"There is a message in Your voice..."

Presentation Skills: Voice

There's a Message in Your Voice 

While speech is how you use words, voice is how you create sound. To your listeners, your voice is a part of who you are and what you believe. Follow these tips on using your voice effectively when you're giving a presentation.

Your voice is a bigger and more important part of your presentation than you may think. With your voice, you can mutter, whisper, or shout. You can roar, suggest, demand. You can state, announce, assert, declare, affirm.

Use your voice for maximum impact.
From the sound of your voice, your listeners will make judgments about your attitude toward them and the ideas you're presenting. They'll judge your sincerity and credibility in part by your voice. And in turn that will affect how they respond to you and your message.

It follows that to be a good presenter, you must take care of your voice and learn to use it effectively. (See our article, Take Care Of Your Voice, also in this issue.) The proper use of your voice can emphasize and strengthen every message you deliver.

Vary the elements of sound for emphasis.
If the pitch, volume, rhythm, and timbre of your voice never fluctuate, you'll be speaking in a monotone. And you'll risk losing your audience as a result.

"They'll judge your sincerity and credibility in part by your voice."

A monotone suggests to your listeners that you have little invested in them or in your message. It suggests you don't really care much whether or how your listeners respond.

A monotone provides too few points of emphasis, the kind that helps your audience comprehend your message. But you can supply those points of emphasis by making your voice more expressive. An expressive voice pauses and quickens ... changes pace ... lowers and raises both volume and pitch. It carries emotion ranging from certainty to doubt ... surprise to assurance ... delight to disgust.

Work expression into your voice by varying the elements of sound: volume, pitch, rhythm, and timbre. Try that now by reading this next sentence aloud: