Member Article

It's all in the voice

With Dr Simon Raybould, Curved Vision TheatreThis Talk Tuesday is different because there’s no tip, just a comment on how important it is to get your voice sounding right in business. I’m in Scotland at the moment and the accents here are fantastic. I can think of one really fantastic chat I had with a shepherd. He explained to me the different calls for his dogs, both voiced and by whistle. His voice carried in two ways: firstly it carried over the moors, but secondly it carried in it the man’s love of the land and his animals. It was rich, warm, mellow - the voice of a man you could trust.Two days earlier it was a different story. I was training a group of business people, one of the group in particular needed to work on not sounding like a vicious Sergeant Major. Any good work he did with the people who wanted to buy from him was undone when his voice caused others - as a colleague put it - to ‘kick off’. So what was it that so warmed me to the shepherd but was missing in the businessman?The businessman’s voice carried no warmth or richness, just latent aggression; he expected trouble and consequently found it. People responded to what he implied as much as what he said. He was working far too much in his throat. The shepherd I would buy something from - the businessman I wouldn’t.Normal service – hints and tips – will be resumed soon: in the meantime, comments and questions to me at sme@curved-vision.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .