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Authentic Voice communication and presentation skills with Alexander Massey Oxford |
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Defining
the real problem - Case Study 1
How Charles, a Sales Director of a global company, discovered that successful 'projection' is not always about how much noise we can make. Charles (not his real name) is the Sales Director of a global company. One of his responsibilities is to communicate with senior Directors and Chief Executives - the power brokers - of other companies in order to win new business. And he also has to make his voice heard within his own Board of Directors. Charles came to me with a very specific brief. "I need to learn to project my voice so that people hear me. The problem is that I mumble too much, and people don't pick up what I'm saying. This has been going on for months, maybe years." "What do you mean by projecting your voice?", I asked, which may seem a strange question to come from a voice and communication coach. But it's important to check whether when we use the same words we mean the same thing by them. And it's always worth reviewing whether the first diagnosis is accurate. There's a story of Albert Einstein being asked by a journalist, "Professor Einstein, if there was a huge meteor hurtling towards the earth that was going to hit in 60 minutes time and wipe out everything, what would you do?' Einstein is said to have replied: "I would spend the first 55 minutes defining the exactly what the real issue was, and then I would take action accordingly." So, what was Charles' real problem? Did he not speak loudly enough? I could hear him easily enough. So did he need to be louder, more resonant, slower, or speak with clearer diction? None of these seemed to be an issue, and Charles was sure that his voice in our conversation was performing no differently than at other times. Had others told Charles he mumbled? If so, what did they mean? No, nobody had told him he mumbled. But Charles was sure people didn't readily pick up what he was saying. "Well if, say, I'm in a meeting, and I say something that I think is really important, for example I suggest a good idea - I know people think it's a good idea because you find that two minutes later someone else is repeating exactly my idea, and it obviously was mine, but nobody seems to realise that I suggested it in the first place." So in fact, Charles' ideas were getting heard, and very successfully. The real problem was that Charles's ideas were not being attributed to him. Did that matter, as long as the ideas were being considered by the group, even being adopted? "I want to move my career on. I've only got 15 years left, and I want to get to as high a level as possible, maybe even do the conference circuit. I need people to recognise the contribution that I make in these situations." It became apparent that Charles felt there was much at stake in these key meetings that rested on his ability to voice his ideas, and make sure everybody knew whose voice the ideas came from. So Charles had focussed a lot of attention around his capacity to speak well, and was putting enormous pressure on himself to 'perform' - on his voice depended his aspirations for personal advancement, career success, financial reward and security, and even happiness. Voices rarely perform at their best under such circumstances. This was not so much about how Charles projected his voice, as how he projected his competence. Once the problem had been more accurately defined, he was able to make more effective interventions. For example, at meetings, instead of just saying "How about trying x?', he would preface his remarks by saying, "I have been thinking about how what we've been doing isn't quite working, so wanted to suggest an idea I've come up with." That would draw people's attention to him as the speaker, and the originator of a suggestion, and then he would make the actual suggestion. This may seem a small adjustment, but in a room of strong personalities, all used to being leaders, it sometimes takes specific, directed behaviour like this to change the course of a discussion, and ensure that credit is assigned where it is due. Too often we are reluctant to let the facts distract us from our opinions (!), but Charles was willing to revisit his own diagnosis of his problem, and establish a much clearer picture of what had really going on for all those months and years. And because of the clearer diagnosis, it became possible to devise an appropriate solution within just a couple of hours. Click here to learn what happened next
for Charles.
(Case Study 2 - Charles works on the issue of sounding 'convincing') |
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Alexander Massey - Communication and Presentation Skills - Oxford Telephone: 01865-716571 -- Mobile: 07771-988207 Email: alexander@AuthenticVoice.co.uk -- Web: www.AuthenticVoice.co.uk www.OxfordCommunicationAndPresentationSkills.co.uk |
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