The Professional’s Voice

Most of us are a little vain about our appearance– pretty rare the individual who, before an important meeting or zoom call, doesn’t spend at least a minute in front of the mirror. Yet few of us give much thought to our vocal presentation.

The truth is that our voices say much more about us than do our faces, yet many of us, particularly professionals, have cringe-worthy voice patterns. Even with zoom and similar apps, the voice still dominates our interactions, and if we sound whiny, petulant, monotonous, or immature, we lose.

Talking like a hillbilly or Darth Vader may be interesting, but on a conference call the only thing participants will remember is that you sounded weird, not what you said. How you speak is at least as important as what you say.

There are many vocal patterns that simply kill us. Here are four examples.

1. Vocal fry. This creaky, crackly sound is an odd affectation apparently invented by Valley Girls in California. It’s not way kewl. Some speculate that young female professionals affect the fry to sound more masculine or authoritative, but when a voice leaves you waiting for “Daddeeee, can I have the car to go to the mall, Dadeeeee?” you just lose respect. I’m not aware of a single significant female leader who does vocal fry.

2. The perpetual question. This comes out of the classroom, where both teachers and students engage (correctly enough) in questioning one another to learn something. But when you’re on your feet in the courtroom, or pitching a building design to a client, it’s simply off-putting to insert the questioning voice-raising on every fourth word: “We’ve chosen this design (?) because we find it is both modern (?) yet traditional (?). The perpetual question voice betrays a lack of confidence, the last thing you want to project when you’re advocating or selling.

3. Half-an-octave-too-high voice. Children speak at a higher pitch than do adults, and when an adult in a profession hasn’t made the grown-up shift, they risk having their important messages downgraded because they sound junior. It’s absolutely unfair, but just a fact of life that a judge will give you less respect if you sound like a twelve year old.

4. Rushing it. Speakers who don’t pace themselves and employ pauses always sound like they don’t believe what they’re saying, or that they have something to hide. Even if you’re time-limited, it’s better to edit your lines to remove excess words than to gabble away like it’s a footrace.

The pause is your friend, it allows both you and your listener to collect their thoughts as you progress through your presentation. Don’t waste it.

It’s important to take every opportunity to listen to yourself, even your voicemail recording. Do you sound modulated, confident, interesting, well-paced? Are your pitch, tone, and volume pleasant and confidence-inducing?

Ask others what they think. A little time spent on your voice and vocal projection could be the difference between mediocrity and success in a career.