Women oftentimes have to face criticism for their voice. In case of women, the vocal tendencies like vocal fry and up-speak are regarded as unpleasant. A stand should be taken against these double standards. You shouldn’t feel bad for the quality of your voice! You shouldn’t feel ashamed for the qualities you’re born with. You shouldn’t change your voice just to be able to fit in, you should rather think of your voice as one of your strong points. Women’s voices are characterized by their strength and clarity, qualities that make their voice compelling.
Below are five points which you should keep in mind to get your voice heard:
- Confidence
The first thing which you should keep in mind is that you should have a proper amount of confidence in yourself. Irrespective of where you are speaking, be it in a meeting at office or at your home. You should be confident about yourself and what you have to say. You can also choose to rehearse speaking confidently. In order to make it happen, you should develop your mental strength and your determination for being heard.
- Strength of your voice
Women are often taught to speak softly from an early age. For this reason, they do not speak with the complete strength that their voice has. Chances are, you might’ve heard the same thing when you were a child or, chances are, you might’ve taught the same thing to a girl child you know. It is indeed a matter of great concern among women to not sound loud and strong.
But, this is wrong, you shouldn’t make your voice weaker just to be able to fit in with the stereotypical notions! You should speak in such a way so that the vocal power of yours is utilized to its fullest extent. Everyone possesses the ability of speaking loudly and clearly. In any meeting you attend, you should speak in such a way that it can be understood from the quality of your voice that you want to be heard. You should make your voice such that it can be heard from any corner of the room. You should get in the habit of sounding strong and confident. If you sound strong your ideas are also likely to be paid more attention to.
- Lowering the pitch
Lowering the pitch of your voice is something you can do to sound even more confident. It is not at all about trying to get as close as you can to the male voice. It will make you seem more connected to the things you’re saying. People often tend not to pay as much attention to a high pitched voice as they would to a lower voice. People tend to perceive those voices more seriously. So, you should try to make it a habit of yours to speak in a lower voice. You can try preparing a script or a note for rehearsal. With enough practice, it is likely that you would be able to speak in that way effortlessly.
- Speed
The rate of your speech or rather the pace of your speech is also important. If you speak slowly you’ll be able to convey your ideas to the audience better. While giving a speech you should speak softly, keeping in mind the fact that there are others in the room who are paying attention to what you have to say. They’ll also need to understand what you’re saying, so speaking slowly will give them the opportunity to understand what you’re saying, when you’re saying it. You can also think of it as if you’re helping your audience. You can slow down your speech by either reducing the number of words you’re speaking per minute or by taking longer gaps in between your sentences.
- Intonation
The last thing that you should work on is your intonation. If you continue to speak in a flat voice for a long time, it is likely that your listeners will get bored and stop paying attention to what you have to say. If your tone has no life in it then it may overshadow the content of your speech. To avoid this, you should put emphasis on words or sentences that are important.
Make your presence felt
You should take some time to highlight parts of your speech that are important and when you say those parts out loud, you should put emphasis on those words or parts so that listeners pay attention to those details. These are the five points you should keep in mind to be heard in a meeting.
