More and more, people are becoming more conscious about how they speak and present themselves. In my work, we come across a lot of queries where senior leaders are being asked to refine their speech and style of language as a pre-requisite to their next level promotions.
Where geography is history and the world keeps shrinking, it is imperative for the speaker to ensure that s/he is understood across cultures. This is the arena of being a super communicator – a mix of heightened skill and the right attitude.
The essence of communication is very simple – to understand and be understood.
I look at this as a process:
Relax, breathe and then activate sound.
Relaxation
Relaxation is about being aware. Its at the core of good speaking skills. It is important to define stress while we talk about relaxation.
Stress is required. It is the minimum muscular tension required to do a particular activity. Stressed out is the over or under use of the muscular tension required to do a task.
When you respect the physicality of the human body, you are most relaxed.
Checklist for Awareness
- Be aware of your lower jaw. Move it to feel it.
- Be aware of how you are standing or sitting
- Do your shoulders fall naturally on your side?
- Is your torso drooped?
- Is your neck straight?
(to know more about the above mentioned points, click here)
- Are you breathing right?
- Are you nervous or anxious? Check your thumbs.
Breathing
Engage actively with your breathing. Hence an active interaction is required with the breath.
Be aware of your outbreath. Good speaking skills ride the wave of the outbreath.
Click here to read more about breathing.
Sound & Voice
Sound is physical in nature. It is not passive and neither should the approach be, to play with it. Your voice is a representation of you and depicts your state of mind, your breathing and your thinking patterns. When you speak or address a gathering, your voice and presence should be enough to have keen ears tuned in to each and every word that you have to say. If your audience is distracted, then as a super communicator, you may need to look at the WAY in which you are presenting your thoughts. Lacing the words on top of the outbreath is crucial.
One of the most important formulae of super communication – “ONE BREATH, ONE THOUGHT”
In the next couple of entries, I will share the next steps of voice work.
#syngrity, #warriorsjourney #conversations
