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The Sunday Times - January 20, 2008

Speak easy: it's a skill you can learn

Voice coaching can help you to address large groups or
communicate better with staff
LIZ LIGHTFOOT

Mick Nice has a cheerful, outgoing personality and a good sense
of humour but lacked confidence when he had to address 600
distinguished guests at a black-tie event.

All the training he had received, as he worked his way up
through the ranks to executive director and acting chief
executive of Basildon district council, had left him unprepared
for large audiences.

"As you rise up in your career you can miss out on whole areas
of training, and public speaking was one of them," he said.
"Some people can naturally perform, but I could see myself
coming across as a stiff cardboard cut-out with a script."

The speech to the business-awards dinner went well after he
sought coaching from Professional Voice, a company specialising
in executive-level communication. "I was halfway through the
training when I gave the speech and it made a big difference,"
he said. "I was more confident and comfortable - the more
relaxed you are, the more you can be yourself."

Being able to communicate with clarity and authority is essential
in the workplace of today, not only in formal presentations but
in all business speaking situations, according to Carol Fairland,
a senior coach with Professional Voice.

Local authorities, several government departments, the
Cabinet Office and the NHS all use the company's services...

...Voice coaches say they are seeing more clients from the
public services, perhaps because of the target-driven
pressure on central and local government, hospitals and
quangos to become leaner and more effective. The public
sector is increasingly in competition with private business for
contracts, which takes officials outside their comfort zone
and into the uncertain world of pitches and presentations....

...Many employees say they are embarrassed when they hear
their own voices recorded. Professional Voice's Louise
Crowley said this was because what they heard sounded
very different to the voice they heard in their ears. She teaches
clients to relax and breathe diaphragmatically, which helps to
relax the throat and free the voice so the speaker sounds more
confident and authoritative. The high-pitched, tight-sounding
voice some people experience when they are nervous comes
from constriction in the throat, which restricts the movement of
the larynx.

People think there are good and bad speakers when in fact the
voice is a flexible tool, say the coaches. You can sound any way
you want to. What then matters is what you say. Often it is not
what you say but how you say it that matters. Research has
shown that people retain only between 30% and 40% of even
the most sophisticated speech or presentation.

The Mail on Sunday - 1 July, 2007

You could talk your way to success Use a voice coach and
you could be speaking the same language as your bosses;
DUNCAN FARMER

"...There is barely a job advertised that does not ask for
candidates with excellent communication skills' - but if you
don't have them, how do you get them? Politicians, barristers
and business leaders have long been using voice coaches to
help them speak with greater confidence and authority, but
now other professionals are learning that it's not what you
say but the way that you say it that counts.... Speak easy:
Coach Louise Crowley, from Professional Voice says your
voice is a big asset."

Financial Times Deutschland - 21 November 2006
Giving Managers a Voice

SABINE MEINERT

Full article

"...It's often senior executives who don't take the time to
develop their vocal effectiveness and impact" says Simon
Cannon, Partner at Professional Voice, a leading provider
of Voice and Communication coaching in leadership
development programmes...

...A good example is that managers usually take far more
time concentrating on their presentation slides than they
do on preparing the vocal delivery of their content." A dull,
monotonous voice irritates most audiences -it is essential to
engage the listener so that the key messages are not lost..."

BBC News - 17 November 2006

"AT THE THIRD STROKE..." COMPETITION FOR A NEW
VOICE FOR THE BT SPEAKING CLOCK - RAISING VITAL
FUNDS FOR BBC CHILDREN IN NEED

For the first time ever BT was holding a competition, giving
people across the UK the chance to take their place in history
and become the new voice of the BT Speaking Clock. The
UK-wide competition raised funds for BBC Children in
Need - celebrating the Speaking Clock's 70th birthday in style.

The judging panel included Sir Christopher Bland, chairman of
BT, Nicola Loftus, general manager of Accurist, Brian Cobby,
BBC presenters Natasha Kaplinsky and Alan Dedicoat (the voice
of the lottery balls), as well as independent judge, Louise
Crowley,who is a business voice coach at Professional Voice.
Louise said that the panel were looking for a voice with "clarity,
character and one which is easily understandable".

Axion - 13 April 2000

People and business development in the legal profession
Partner patter

When axiom was invited to attend a voice coaching seminar
aimed at senior lawyers we said "Yes" - but as clearly as
possible.

".....one of the most useful things was learning how to
control the pitch of the voice to get peoples' attention and
hold it." Rating:****Highly practical with visible results

THE TIMES - 6 March 1999

CITY SUCCESS SPREADS BY WORD OF MOUTH

"Managers reach a level where they are thrown into the
limelight to make speeches in front of hundreds of people
and possess none of the necessary skills...

...New courses no longer assume that managers will absorb
gravitas and confidence when they are promoted to board
level. One company that has targeted this largely ignored field
is Professional Voice."

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY - 28 March 1999

"Most people when they feel uncomfortable, tense up and their
voice tends to stick to one tone. They add hand gestures to
compensate for this and quickly hit an impasse: the voice is
trapped. They start to sound dull, and lifeless. And people
stop listening.

Coaching also addresses clarity of speech - articulation and
enunciation, the voice dynamics - pitch, pace, speech
preparation, and projection of the voice in different
environments."

PR WEEK - 2 July 1999

Perfect Pitch: Expressing yourself clearly has much to
do with voice control as what you are saying

While current training programmes may focus on presentation
and message, one company is teaching business people how
to develop the most fundamental tool of communication - the
voice. London-based company Professional Voice, founded in
1977, runs courses in 'voice coaching'. While effective vocal
delivery is vital for executives in corporate communications,
it is only recently that voice skills have been taught in the
business world. Even proficient public speakers can benefit
from learning about 'pitch, pace and pause' and how to keep
an audience interested...

...Professional Voice has provided training for everything from
sales to communications departments. Programmes can be
given to groups over a 3 day period. There are also courses
for non-native English speakers.

FINANCIAL TIMES - June 30 1998

Now you hear

Business pitch: Voice Coach, Madeleine Cannon

What's it like to have your voice trained? We sent newly
appointed chief executive David Harker along to find out.

A few months ago I became a chief executive for the first time.
I had done a fair amount of public speaking and media work
before. but this was on a different scale.

Within the first few weeks of my new job as head of the
National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, I was
interviewed for the Today Programme, and spoke at fringe
meetings at all three party conferences and the TUC. Most
challenging of all, I had to give the keynote address to 1,600
delegates at the Citizens Advice Service's own conference.
It was exciting and, by all accounts, went well. But when I
got the chance of professional voice coaching, I jumped at it.
My coach was Madeleine Cannon, from Professional Voice.
She is an actress and speech teacher, whose clients include
managers, politicians and MBA students at Cranfield Business
School and Henley Management College.

I had three, one-to-one sessions, two at my office and one at
home. Privacy is essential: one feels self-conscious, anyway,
and it is so much worse if people keep popping their heads
round the door.

The first session began with my objectives. My self-assessment
was that on a good day, on an issue I felt passionately about,
1 was a good speaker. But I know that I sometimes drone on
and risk losing my audience. I wanted to be able to perform
consistently well. Breathing was the key, Madeleine explained.
Many of us speak from the top of our lungs, with hunched
shoulders and tense throat. It's little wonder that what
comes out strangled.

I barely spoke an intelligible word to start with. We worked on
breathing, as I learnt to use my lungs to the full, feeling the
expansion of the diaphragm and relaxing the shoulders and the
face. What came out were sounds rather than words. I was
taught to yawn deliberately before speaking; using breath from
right down in the abdomen, without tension in the face and neck,
felt powerful and strong.

The second session introduced the "pitch stairs". The speaker
who is able to make full use of their vocal range is able to
command and retain the attention of listeners, she explained.
At the bottom of the range, the low pitch is used for the dropped
aside which has the speaker's full weight behind it. High pitch is
used to catch the listener's ear.

For the third session I marked up a speech I had already given.
I could hear and feel many ways in which I could give exactly the
same speech with much greater impact.

Voice coaching is not new. Most actors have used it during
their training or in preparation for a big role. Perhaps the most
famous non-actor to use it was Baroness Thatcher, who
radically changed her voice and delivery as a result.

For business and organizational leaders and managers it is still
relatively new. Managers, who are proud of investing time and
money in learning many new skills, may feel that speaking is a
normal, spontaneous activity which should come naturally. Many
people have now done courses in presentational skills. Voice
coaching goes further and is a very useful complement to the
tricks and techniques that such courses teach.

Sunday Business - 22 November 1998

VOICE COACHING - Put some backbone into how you speak

"It is well known that any speech or presentation requires
good content and appearance and there are countless courses
in presentation and selling skills," says Marie Lester of
Professional Voice.

"Yet numerous managers and executives continue to fail to
communicate their message effectively, simply because their
vocal delivery lets them down."

© Professional Voice 2008