There is an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal, with the same title, about the charismatic influence that your voice can have in your professional life. After analyzing the voices of leaders in countries such as Brazil, France and Italy, scientists have found that those who exhibited charisma “use their voices to dominate, awaken and influence a large audience.”
By analyzing the voice and speech patterns of various political leaders and CEOs, they discovered that there were two areas that strongly influenced the way these speakers were perceived by the public. Both voice depth and expressiveness were the two most common characteristics of charismatic leaders.
As an example, they found that “CEOs with lower-pitched voices generally run larger companies, make more money, and last longer at work than their higher-pitched peers, studies from the Fuqua School of Business have found. Duke University “.
Scientists also found that speaking expressively, which means varying your pitch throughout your performance, is just as important as the quality of your sound. I refer to this as color: the life, emotion, and animation that you express through your vocal variety, facial expression, and body language.
While none of this information was new to me, it is interesting that they seemed surprised by their findings. Let me ask you. Would you rather hear a deep, resonant voice or one that is high-pitched, squeaky, or shrill?
The title of the article, however, was misleading because they didn’t discuss how to train your voice to be more charismatic. I will do so. There are two things you should do to improve your speech and voice patterns:
- Use your chest cavity to boost and amplify your voice. Most people do not use their chest as a vocal resonator, instead they rely on their throat, larynx, mouth, and nasal cavities to do all the work.
- Speak with emotion if your voice is monotonous. If this applies to you, you must first give yourself permission for your emotions to be heard and seen. A flat or boring voice does not sell.
While this study only dealt with the male voice, the results they found hold true for the female voice as well. The most effective female announcers, for example, have voices that have a deeper tone and warmer quality than the average female voice. They sound authoritarian; they sound professional; And given the right tone, they can sound very attractive.