I put this question to all the social networking executive groups to which I belong. Here is a response with which I totally agree. Many of our professional voices on American radio, TV and many of our celebrities don’t seem to be concerned with maintaining the high speaking standards set by Edward R.Murrow, Diane Sawyer, Walter Cronkite and James Earl Jones.
“Poor speaking voices, overuse of "ya know", stammering (even Obama does it) and redundancy (What we're gonna’ do is we're gonna’.....) are irritations for me. Sadly, the lack of concern over the appeal of one’s voice is prevalent on local and network TV. There's a celebrity chef who I don't watch because of his abuse of the language (I quoted him above). I don't listen to the news on one particular local channel because of the hard edged voice of one of the female reporters. Many young female celebrities have high pitched, thin, whiny voices and I wonder why their manager or publicist doesn't notice and send them to a voice coach. I turn off the late night talk show when one particular female animal trainer comes on as she has a hoarse, raspy voice, talks very loudly, and has a frenetic quality that I find very unappealing. Yes, I think it is very important to have a modulated, trained voice and a solid command of the language”. PR specialist.
I couldn’t have said it better. Many of us watch CNN, FOX and MSNBC and feel assaulted by the machine gun, slurred speech style of not only many of the reporters, but also many of the pundits and guests. What about the cross talking and vehement disagreement among expert panelists and hosts? Do you like their shrill and harsh sounding voices? I switch the channel.
What about speaking to engage the listener? What about speaking clearly and at an easily understood rate that can be understood and digested fully? The manner of speaking of any public reporter, host, expert, or foreign journalist, sends an important message. Too often their voice tone, vocabulary and speaking style sends the message that they don’t care about the listener. Just tonight on a well-known and respected international news hour, an American expert said that a prominent middle eastern dictator was no doubt listening to his response and he was choosing his words carefully.
What does this mean to the success of business professionals across the world? It means that the high speaking standards of the past now need to be maintained by the business professional community. Many business professionals have a personal voice and speaking skills coach. Effective voice and speaking skills are that important to business success.
A well-articulated, confident, polished and easily understood speaking voice combined with a good vocabulary communicates a strong, positive and powerful message to employees, clients, customers, stake-holders, investors and the media. Are you ready to discover how you can improve your speaking voice by signing up for your 20-minute free voice analysis, http://www.voicepowerstudios.com/analysis.html or call 1-877-783-2455
