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For rising stars on the international business stage A fellow voice coach who works with actors called me once. “Susan," she said, "I’m working with a Hollywood A-lister on her next big role, which needs your accent.” My accent being "standard" English. “Can you record something for her to practice with please?” Doing so got me thinking about accents - not in the movies but in business. Your voice is as unique as your fingerprints and your accent integral to your social identity. One of the many things I love about voice is the diversity and richness of accents. And one of the many things I champion, is the importance of seeing accent bias as a diversity issue, which workplaces must tackle with as much energy and effort as sexism, racism or ableism. But in an international environment, where English is the spoken language of business, a strong regional or non-native accent can sometimes make it hard for others to understand what's being said. And that doesn't do you or them any favours. Regardless of your native language, if your success depends on communicating effectively in English, some simple things can make a big difference to getting your spoken English better understood. One of them is crisply articulating consonants, especially at the end of words. It's not as easy as it sounds, not least because the English language has groups of consonants with no vowel between them (think 'gth' at the end of 'strength'), but keep going because, as EY's Sankar Hariharan found, practice and patience pay off. Read Sankar's case study here. You could also try practicing a passage like the one I recorded for the movie star I mentioned earlier. It's called Comma gets a Cure and it's one of a handful of passages that contains a very wide range of English speech sounds. In this recording I read the passage aloud in my 'standard' English accent. An actor might use it help them mimic my accent for a role but it's equally useful for dialect researchers and anyone wanting to practice English speech sounds they find difficult. Give it a go and let me know if it helps. *Comma gets a cure: A diagnostic passage for accent study is copyright © 2000 Douglas N. Honorof, Jill McCullough & Barbara Somerville. All rights reserved. If you're eager to improve your spoken communication skills, check out my 1-2-1 Business Voice Coaching and Business Voice Masterclass

Speaking up at work is generally considered a good thing and organisations where all voices are heard and valued tend to thrive. Yet research* suggests that many hesitate to share what they think because they lack confidence or fear backlash. If this is you, next time you find yourself holding back, remind yourself that failing to speak up when you have something important to say is not what your organisation values or pays you for may stifle innovation, diversity and progress conveys to leaders that you have nothing to add and all is well. In a nutshell, your voice matters. So use it, and make sure it's heard. How? Here, using this digitally remastered version of his iconic 'I Have A Dream' speech, I pinpoint seven techniques Dr Martin Luther King Jr employs, which anyone can learn from. These tips don't only apply to making speeches and you don't need Dr King's status or a colossal crowd in front of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to use them. 1. He’s mindful of his surroundings. His platform influences his content, and his audience influences his delivery. At 00.39 come the words: “Five score years ago…” That language symbolically mirrors Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address a century earlier, which is poignant, given he’s speaking ‘in the shadow’ of Lincoln’s Memorial. Then there are eight seconds from 2:13, where his audience responds to what he says. He stays silent. It can feel unnatural not to speak for eight seconds, but with practice, pause - whether used to quieten an audience or for dramatic effect - is powerful. As the speech progresses, and audience reaction lengthens and strengthens, you sense King is using his pauses to funnel the crowd’s energy into his delivery. 2. He uses repetition to reinforce his key messages. “I have a dream”. King doesn’t use these words until 1:54. Then he repeats them at the beginning of seven successive sentences. The first and last words in a sentence are most memorable. It’s their placement in the sentence, as well as their repetition, that gives them power. But his ‘dream’ phrase, delivered in this structural arrangement is not the only one repeated. “Let freedom ring” is another. Indeed, he says the word ‘freedom’ even more than ‘dream’, which serves to cement the purpose of his speech. 3. He chooses words that paint vivid pictures in the minds of his audience. At 1:05 we’re imagining people “seared in the flames of withering injustice”, or at 1:37 “crippled by manacles of segregation and chains of discrimination”. His use of image-based, sensory language throughout makes his message more relatable, compelling, and memorable. 4. He expertly employs contrast not only in what he says but how he says it. Let’s start with what he says. Look again at the brutality of the language in bullet point 3. Then contrast it with his words at 2:33. These later words paint a unifying picture as we visualise “sit[ting] down together at the table of brotherhood”. His words tell us: Not that outdated reality any longer, but this visionary new one. And his vocal delivery mirrors his words. Just listen to the contrast between the opening minute and the closing one. King expertly weaves together and uses to his advantage different vocal elements, which we’ll explore now. 5. He builds urgency by quickening his pace. His leisurely opening is 92 words a minute but by the end of his speech he's clocking 145 a minute. He varies his pace, yet never sounds rushed. Conversationally we speak between 120 and 160 words a minute. That suggests he’s slowed his opening, so he can build speed without sounding rushed later in his speech. 6. He varies his volume for vocal interest. As King’s pace increases so does his volume. Yet he’s never so quiet as to be inaudible or so loud as to be indistinct. It’s a brilliant illustration of how you can vary volume to bring vocal variety. It’s also evidence that it’s not how loudly you speak but the vocal energy you bring that’s key. Listen to how he keeps you hooked until the end of every sentence and anticipating the next, between 2.22 -2.40. 7. His intonation gives his voice musicality. There’s musicality to his voice. At times, his use of intonation is so musical it’s almost like he’s singing. There’s no better example of how you can use the rise and fall of your voice (patterns of pitch), to create that musicality than at 5:10. Here King employs rhyme and repetition but it’s how he uses his voice to deliver both that is notable. He creates this intoxicating musical cocktail by beautifully blending intonation with his prose, pace, and pitch. Speaking up when you lack confidence or fear repercussions is easier said than done, I know. Nevertheless, I hope this post helps you rethink your relationship with staying silent and gives you some practical ideas to maximise the probability that when you say what's on your mind you're more likely to be heard. And if you have success stories to share, I'd love to hear from you. Martin Luther King Memorial Photo courtesy of Bee Calder on Unsplash *Research published by Academy of Management. Distinguishing Voice and Silence at Work: Unique Relationships with Perceived Impact, Psychological Safety, and Burnout. Elad N. Sherf, Michael R. Parke and Sofya Isaakyan If you're eager to help your team improve their spoken communication skills, why not book a Business Voice Masterclass or Vocal and Executive Presence workshop for them?

Executive presence is a blend of confidence, personal style and communication skills that conveys authority and inspires others. Essential in today's tech-dominated business world, it's not a birth right, it can be learned. People often come to me for help to develop their executive presence, but when asked what they mean, many struggle to define it. There's also a misplaced, wide-spread belief that you're either born with it or you're not. So, let's clear things up. For me, executive presence is a combination of personal style, communication abilities and confidence that conveys authority and inspires others. It's lighter than gravitas, (a weighty Latin word with unhelpful male overtones), more attainable than charisma. And it's a skill that can be learned. Why does executive presence matter? Three reasons: Uniquely human, it's something robots can't replace. People who have it make a better, longer-lasting first impression. It can help you advance professionally. How is executive presence linked to career progression? The link between executive presence and career progression is undeniable. Walking into and owning a room with authority and influence is likely to improve your career advancement opportunities because it signals that you trust yourself and have the confidence to take on difficult challenges and make crucial decisions. Your ability to convey executive presence will also set you apart when looking for a job or seeking promotion. First impressions form within milliseconds and influence our view of people for the long haul. They can even determine whether politicians get elected. In a world where tech is increasingly taking over human jobs, employers are actively looking for individuals with the confidence, communication abilities, and personal style to take on demanding leadership roles. How to develop executive presence To develop your executive presence, hone and blend the following four elements: 1. A confident, growth mindset 2. Open, expressive body language 3. Clear, articulate speech 4. Vocal warmth, strength and variety If you're not sure how you come across, seek feedback. Being mindful of your capabilities, weaknesses, and emotions in the workplace will help you gain a clearer understanding of yourself. Acknowledge what sets you apart and use it to your advantage while taking note of areas that need improvement. Fostering executive presence will help you build trust, rapport and respect with your peers, colleagues and superiors as well as motivate and inspire them. And, if you're looking for role models to emulate, check out Christine Lagarde, who, in my view, is a paragon of presence. (Image courtesy of Brinacor, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons). International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde sits in a chair on stage at a public forum organized by the Madeleine Korbel Albright Institute for Global Affairs at Wellesley College. Lagarde made headlines for her declaration that economic "inequality is sexist." She makes a "Merkel-Raute" or "Triangle of Power" gesture with her hands. The link between voice and executive presence How you use your voice can have a direct impact on how you are perceived by others. Your vocal speed, pitch, intonation, loudness and tone, all play an essential role in conveying authority when speaking. An upbeat, positive tone of voice can even lead to a better share price. A powerful business voice allows you to command attention and respect from those around you while expressing yourself clearly and effectively. Developing the right vocal techniques is key for any executive looking to project executive presence in their work environment or professional setting. No matter what stage of your career or your role, anyone can develop their executive presence. In my recent Make Your Mark with Susan Room® workshop for Imperial College Business School, I coached over 50+ experienced exec MBAs (technical leaders, project managers and analysts) to develop their confidence, presence, and communication skills. Here's what one participant had to say: “A wonderfully engaging interactive session with Susan Room on confidence, presence and communication. Many immediately implementable practical insights, as well as longer term food for thought. Highly recommended.” - Mark Jervis, Strategic Hardware Planner, Intel Why not start your journey by booking my Vocal and Executive Presence Workshop for you and your team? Delivered virtually, it’s 60 or 90 minutes long (you choose) and will give your people powerful insights and a toolkit they can use straightway. To find out more about how you can use your voice to develop your executive presence, please get in touch.

Our voice is a remarkable instrument. But how often do we use it to our advantage? Earlier this week, I was invited by Ruth Armstrong to give my second talk with Women in Banking and Finance (WiBF). Hosted by Citi’s Sarah Bennett (Citi Women London), the talk covered how we can sound confident (when it’s the last thing we feel) and how to voice our values to sound measured and professional, (instead of irritated or defensive). Did you know that how we think affects how we speak? This is because the vagus nerve, which is the major nerve that runs all the way from the brain to the lower intestine, has little branches that reach out, affecting the larynx (commonly called the voice box). What goes on in our brains - what we’re thinking - leaks out through our voice. Stress, medication, menopause and even dehydration can all negatively affect how we sound. If our voices ‘crack’ or ‘wobble’ in high-stakes moments, it can undermine the confidence we have in ourselves, as well as others’ perception of our competence and their confidence in us. How to push back and challenge effectively Citi is currently encouraging staff to ask ‘Why me?’, ‘Why this?’ and ‘Why now?’ before agreeing to attend a meeting. Meetings typically add to workloads, stretch intellectual, emotional and physical resources, and take us away from doing actual work. Asking these questions in audible, confident, warm tones is a great way to politely and respectfully question the purpose, frequency and length of whoever is convening them to think more carefully about your and their own use of that precious asset - time. Listening to your own voice During my WiBF talk, I encouraged participants to record and listen back to their own voices, speaking key messages that they’d like to communicate, not only in presentations but in everyday conversations with colleagues, friends and family. Recording affords the opportunity to experiment with Speed, Pitch, Intonation, Loudness and Tone; listening back to raise awareness of vocal habits and choices. Five tips to help you speak your own message Here are my top tips to help you overcome hesitation and share your wisdom, values, preferences and opinions with confidence, strength and warmth. 1. Breath is fuel for the voice Breathing efficiently and effectively has numerous benefits and it all starts with posture. Open the body through the shoulders, with the back tall, and release tension so the ribcage can expand and contract allowing the lungs to fill with air. 2. Hydration is key Stress and tension are among several factors that can cause dryness in the throat, and cracks and wobbles in the voice. Drinking lots of water and swallowing will lubricate the vocal folds, rather than throat-clearing which may aggravate them. 3. Warm up the voice In order to produce a clear, confident sound, the vocal cords need to be making contact along the length of the edges. Simple yet effective, just as we would warm up the muscles before a workout, we can warm up the voice by gently humming. 4. Vocal energy and the importance of being audible Speaking very quietly, mumbling and tailing off mid-sentence can make it hard for others to understand what we’re saying. Instead, improve your articulation and imagine your words flying through the air like arrows towards a bullseye. 5. Punctuating as we would a sentence Talking fast to get whatever you're saying over with sounds quite different to talking fast because you’re excited and/or knowledgeable. Either way, slowing down can help you and your listener/s. One way of doing this is to take a breath where a comma might be, and a longer one where a full stop might fall. I greatly enjoyed my time with WiBF and, hopefully, I’ve left the audience – as well as my readers – with some valuable tips on using their voice to make their mark. If you are ready to take your communication skills to the next level and unlock your full vocal potential, why not consider my Make Your Mark workshops and keynote, 1-2-1 Coaching Solutions or my Business Voice Masterclass.

Only 33% of girls want to lead – that’s according to The Girls' Futures Report published on April 2022, by The Girls' Day Trust. As well as being surprising, this stark figure spells bad news for business and society given the incredible economic benefits of having women in leadership. I'm pleased to read the report's multiple references to 'voice' – 11 in fact - but, as often happens, the word is only used metaphorically, meaning point of view: 'amplifying the voices of women and girls' and 'encouraging girls to find their voices', for example. As a business voice consultant, I couldn't agree more. What's missing from the report, however, and what schoolrooms and boardrooms around the world should be discussing, in my view, is how to equip girls and women (indeed anyone who wants others to follow them) with knowledge and skills to use their actual, human voice more confidently, strategically, purposefully and intentionally. Arguably one of our most powerful assets, the human voice is widely overlooked and underrated by organisations and individuals alike, as is the positive effect professional voice coaching can have on business and personal outcomes. More about that in future posts. For now though... Girls, I want you to know six important things: A lower-pitched voice may improve politicians' electability chances and the success of male CEOs, but may not work as effectively for females(unfortunately for Elizabeth Holmes) so don't waste time wishing you had one, or money trying to get one. Instead, explore how high and low your speaking voice can go and use that range of sounds to speak confidently and passionately about your thoughts, feelings, ideas and preferences. You don't have to be 'outspoken', fight for or disrupt things, (words used in the report, but which, I feel, go against the leadership style girls say they aspire to). Instead, speak up, champion and challenge things using a positive, upbeat tone of voice to move hearts and minds (and, maybe, one day, stock markets too). You can develop your speaking voice skills by observing and learning from female leaders who speak with strength and warmth: Ursula van den Leyen, Julie Sweet, Mellody Hobson, Laura Cha, and Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala come to mind. There are many others (find them on YouTube) and you'll have your own favourites. Notice how these women are 100% focused on their audience (not themselves). Their pitch (literal and metaphorical) is authentic: they are not trying to force anything up or put others down. They speak from the heart, with compassion, conviction, and concern. You can do that too. Varying the pace of your speech, pitch, tone, intonation and volume, and warming up your voice (by humming), will make you engaging, inspiring and memorable to listen to and help you avoid the teetering, tremulous tones of the 'Bloody Difficult Woman' and the patronising pauses of the Iron Lady. What do you think? Is this post useful? If so, and especially if you are a mother, father, aunt, uncle, sister, brother, teacher, carer - anyone raising a girl - please share it with others so that more young people get to learn how to use their actual, human voice. Follow me on LinkedIn for more vocal insights gleaned from my corporate years and my work today as a vocal consultant for business.

Last Friday, I joined Telegraph columnist, Allison Pearson, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of her best-selling novel; ‘I Don’t Know How She Does It.’ Lauded by Oprah Winfrey as “a bible for the working mum”, this landmark book highlighted, arguably for the first time, the many challenges women faced in the workplace during the noughties (many of which, I fear, continue today). By the time the book came out, I had left corporate life, defied nature (and top consultants’ unwavering assertions that I had ‘missed the boat’) and was the very proud mother of a two-year-old son. Reading the book helped me juggle mothering, freelancing, volunteering, and building a ‘grand design’ in the middle of nowhere with my architect husband, for almost thirteen years. It also made me realise that you don’t have to be high-powered and corporate to experience the dilemmas of working motherhood. Twenty years on, I find myself asking: ‘I don’t know how she does it vocally.’ Anatomical and hormonal differences mean women experience vocal health problems more frequently than men, regardless of their occupation. These problems include breathiness, hoarseness, voice instability and fatigue. They are more common in women over 40, are exacerbated by the menopause and often involve throat-clearing and dryness, which may negatively affect perceptions of confidence. I speak from experience, having been the only woman in the room for many years. And it’s not just females who suffer. According to ‘Voice Problems at Work: A Challenge for Occupational Safety and Health Arrangement’ by Vilkman E., one-third of the labour force works in a profession in which the human voice is the primary tool. So how do we ‘keep doing it’ vocally? Tip 1: Start thinking about the voice as a remarkable instrument, which deserves your care and attention. Tip 2: Sleep, exercise, drinking water and avoiding late night eating can help prevent voice problems. Tip 3: Warm up your voice daily, just as you would if you were stretching before a gym class. One of my favourite ways to do this is the ‘Hum and Gum’. Press your lips together and hum, playfully, moving your pitch up and down. Now imagine chewing a piece of gum or crunching a juicy apple. Listen to how the sound changes. The chewing part of this exercise warms your facial muscles so your speech sounds more resonant; the humming activates your vocal cords, producing a strong, clear sound.

Eighteen months ago, I had the pleasure of joining entrepreneur, coach, and prolific author Ashutosh Garg on his popular podcast, "The Brand Called You". Ashutosh was keen for me to explain what business voice coaching involves, and how it can change people's lives. Watch the video - (23 mins - full transcript below) In his latest book, "The 7 Chakras of Management: Wisdom From Indic Scriptures" Ashutosh uses storytelling and episodes from the Indic religions to demonstrate how the 7 chakras changed his life. I find the chapter on the throat chakra (Vishuddhi) particularly intriguing, as it reminds me of the profound impact of the human voice on leading and managing others. Do the Indic scriptures inspire and shape the way you manage and lead people? If yes, how specifically do they help you? I'd love to hear your thoughts and views. #Leadership #ManagementInsights #7ChakrasOfManagement #EffectiveCommunication #ProfessionalGrowth #PersonalDevelopment #AshutoshGarg Follow The Brand Called You Transcript with timestamps 00:00 - Introduction Ashutosh: Welcome to another episode of The Brand Called You. A vodcast and podcast show that brings you leadership lessons, knowledge, experience and wisdom from thousands of successful individuals from around the world. I'm your host, Ashutosh Garg. And today I'm privileged to welcome a very senior professional and, a jazz singer from the UK, Susan Room. Susan, welcome to the show. Susan: Thank you so much Ashutosh. 00:34 – About Susan Room Ashutosh: Susan is a business voice coach. She's an amateur jazz singer. So, Susan, let's start talking first about coaching. After a successful corporate career, what made you select coaching, as the way to go? 00:48 - What made you select coaching? Susan: Wow. Well, I think there are probably three reasons for that. When I was in corporate life, I had a wonderful time. The rewards were very high, but the costs were also very high. And I guess what I noticed was an opportunity to enable people, particularly women. So, I was often the lone woman in the room and I noticed there was an opportunity to coach other women, to speak up, to speak out, to be confident, and that caused me to leave the corporate world, to retrain as a coach. I also wanted to start a family and the type of work that I was doing at the time, I had an executive role in large multinational organisations, lots of travel - that really wasn't compatible with having a family. So yeah, some of the reasons why I stepped away from corporate life… 01:55 – What is a voice coach? Ashutosh: Wonderful. And what is a voice and executive coach? What kind of work do you do? Susan: Yeah, well, it's a new category actually. I think I probably can say I created it. There are a lot of executive coaches out there, qualified, hopefully most of them are qualified! There are a few voice coaches, professionally qualified voice coaches, but there are very few who, like me, have the corporate experience and are also professional voice and executive coaches. And what I do is coach people. I coach mindset, body language, speech and voice because for me they are interrelated. How we think really affects how we show up physically, verbally, what we say and vocally how we say things. So that's my point of difference, I think. Ashutosh: Fascinating. And for my viewers and listeners, could you share one or two examples of what kind of mistakes people make when it comes to their voice? Susan: Interesting. So, mistakes. As I'm a coach, I try not to judge and say people have made ‘mistakes’ or things are ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. I'm more inclined perhaps to help people raise their awareness around, for example, unhelpful speech habits. So, we are all creatures of habit. When we speak, we say ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’ and we use filler words and we might exaggerate occasionally, and we might undermine ourselves occasionally, but when we do those things excessively, those become unhelpful speech habits. So, raising clients awareness about the sorts of habits that are getting in the way of them coming across as confident and clear, that's at the heart of my work, alongside a number of other things. 04:08 – How do you coach a person’s voice? Ashutosh: Amazing. You also say that ‘voice is a stunning instrument that we seldom play’. My question to you is, how do you train or coach a person's voice? Susan: So, I don't train, I'm a coach and there's a big difference. I'm not training people to do specific things at specific times. I'm again raising their awareness about what the voice is capable of, helping them explore their voice, prepare it. So isn't it interesting, when we go into conversations, presentations, meetings, most of us are really focused on what we're going to say, but few of us really think about how we're going to say it? A lot of my work is rehearsing people or inviting them to record themselves saying what they want to say in different ways, and then listening back and hearing it and wondering which of these different versions of the way I'm saying it lands well with me. How do I want to come across and how do I want my voice to land? 05:19 - How has your background supported your own coaching philosophy, your style, and your values? Ashutosh: Very interesting. My next question to you is that given your corporate experience, given all the work that you've done in the corporate world, how has your background supported your own coaching philosophy, your style and your values? Susan: Oh, yeah, well, I guess my corporate background has made me very aware of the importance of adding value. And this is again where I have very strong beliefs around the profession of coaching. The coach training that I have done and the studies I have done. I have a Master's in Voice Studies from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. I'm a Professional Certified Coach with the International Coach Federation. This integrity, this professionalism is very much one of my key values and that comes from having worked in corporate life where professionalism and qualifications were very important. So, I think that has had a big impact on me. And knowing that corporates who are mainly my clients, are looking for return on investment, they are looking for work that really focusses on specific goals. It's very easy just to have a ‘nice chat’ about coaching, but for it to really work and transform business performance and personal performance, you need to work with very clear goals and have clear measures in place to see what progress is being made. So those are some of the things that underpin my philosophy, my style, and certainly have shaped my values. 07:02 - What are your own unique perspectives that you bring to a coaching relationship? Ashutosh: Very interesting. And what would you say are your own unique perspectives that you bring to a coaching relationship? Susan: Well, certainly the fact that I have sat in many boardrooms during my corporate life and experienced the cut and thrust of the boardroom. That I have also managed the people and the politics and the processes within corporates. It gives me a really deep insight into the challenges and opportunities that many of my clients face, whether I'm working one to one with busy professionals or with groups of executives. I think this deep understanding and hands on experience of the pressures and politics in organisations, certainly informs my coaching. Yeah, I think that would be my main response here. It gives me, perhaps not a unique perspective but also having been the only woman in the room for many years and understanding how sometimes it is challenging for women to make their voices heard. And not just for women, by the way. So increasingly I'm working with under-represented, groups in general. So shortly I'll be running a programme for LGBTQ+ plus colleagues at the Financial Times, where I do a lot of work here in London. So, it really is about understanding and having witnessed how people in the workplace often don't share their wisdom, their ideas, their opinions, because either they don't like the sound of their voice or they don't feel confident enough to speak out. Or maybe they even fear repercussions about speaking out and up. So I guess those are some of the things that, inform my work. 09:26 - How does culture impact coaching? Ashutosh: Amazing, amazing. My next question to you, Susan, is that based on my own many years of experience, culture makes a big difference in the way we interact with people. The UK is a melting pot for all kinds of cultures, religions, languages, et cetera. My question to you is, how does culture impact coaching? Susan: Really interesting question. Thank you for it, because I was discussing it with somebody just this morning. I think there are two answers to this. One could say that it's appropriate to find a coach who is a good cultural fit. Ashutosh: Correct. Susan: If you're working for somebody who comes from a particular, is of a particular nationality and religion and socio-demographic part of society, you may be tempted to think, well, they need to be coached by somebody who is like them. And I guess there are some strong arguments for that. I think, however, there are equally strong arguments to live and breathe diversity and inclusion by saying that the coach can be from any religion, from any ethnicity, from any nationality, as long as the coach and the coachee have a chemistry. As long as the coach is qualified to do the work, as long as both parties speak the same language and can communicate clearly and effectively. As long as the chemistry is good, those are the things that really matter far more than anything else. So, I think I'm really excited actually about the opportunities to mix and match coaches and coaches from all parts of the world. 11:16 - How does a coachee evaluate their coach? Ashutosh: Correct. Well said. A question that I've often been asked is how does a coachee evaluate their coach? What are your thoughts? Susan: So, my thoughts are that the coachee, with the coach's help right at the beginning of the relationship, sets some goals and we agree how those goals are going to be measured. How are we going to know if the coaching is working? And it could be something as simple as somebody is struggling to speak up. We agree that they will start to log the moments that they find difficult. They will then put into practice some of the techniques and insights that we work on together and then they will log how many times they speak up more confidently, more clearly, more concisely during a week, for example, so we can find very tangible measures of success and I think the coachee is going to evaluate their coach on those measures. So how well does the coach allow the coachee, help the coachee to reach their goals? But there's also more than that, because a good coaching experience often delivers a lot more than just what you've agreed the goals should be. You know there's a chemistry, there's a deeper work that happens that allows the coachee to leave the coaching relationship with the tools and techniques and a sense of confidence, really, then to own their time, their space, their potential. So yeah, there are some tangibles and there are some intangibles, I think. 13:07 - About Make your Mark with Susan Room Ashutosh: Wonderful, wonderful, great response. My next question to you is about your flagship programme Make your Mark with Susan Room. Tell me a little bit about this programme. Susan: So this programme is a 15 hour virtual programme which I deliver globally, particularly for the Financial Times, for example, for some financial services businesses in the US, based in London, based elsewhere. And it has four pillars. So we do some work on mindset because for me, speaking confidently, clearly being present, starts with having a confident mindset. We then work on body language because again, how we think is going to affect how we show up physically. We then do some work on speech because confident mindset, confident body language leads to confident spoken language. And then the final piece is to work on voice and listening because how we say something, how we say those words is a really important part of impact, building trust and rapport. Being confident and able to say the things that are on our mind, whether it's in the workplace or outside. So those four elements are at the heart of the programme: mindset, body language, speech and voice. Ashutosh: And this, you said, is a 15 hour programme which is delivered online? Susan: That's correct, yes, for groups of typically, executives. So, I deliver the programme for corporate clients. Later this year, though, I will be delivering, offering a number of courses, bite-sized sessions, workshops to the consumer market. So for private individuals. If any of your listeners are interested, keep an eye out on my website. Ashutosh: Absolutely. They’ll go and check out your website and register. Susan: Yeah. Thank you. 15:19 - What are some areas the younger leaders need to be coached in? Ashutosh: Interesting. Wonderful. One more question relating to coaching and then I'll move on. Today is the age of the young leaders, the millennials, the Gen Z's, and they're all getting into reasonably senior leadership positions in the corporate world. What are some of the areas the younger leaders need to be coached in? Susan: Great question. Again, thank you so much for asking me, because it's something I'm very passionate about. During the pandemic, I started running Make Your Mark for interns for my corporate clients, and I got a very quick and wonderful insight into what's on their mind and some of the challenges that they face as they leave academic life and transition into the workplace. And it inspired me so much, actually, that I've gone on to set up a new website, a new brand called Coachsters.com. And this is in partnership with another coach. We are offering coaching, voice and executive coaching to young people because we believe that they deserve it and that they can benefit so much from learning. For example, how to walk into a room, whether it's sitting in a virtual room or walking into a physical space, and really make an impact from the get-go. How to make eye contact, how to use their hands to amplify and embellish what they're saying rather than to display a lack of confidence or sort of withdrawing, a diminished body language which suggests they're not worthy and they don't feel they deserve to be there. So that is definitely an area that young people can benefit from. Becoming very aware of their body, how they can use it to communicate alongside their voice, the words that they choose. It's powerful stuff. And we're getting some fabulous results, which is really galvanising our resolve to keep doing more of it and to offer it to more young people. 17:38 – Passion for Jazz Ashutosh: Fascinating. Fascinating. So, Susan, I'm going to move to the next segment of our conversation, some questions for you personally. And let me start by asking you about your passion for jazz. I've just come back after spending about a week in New Orleans and Memphis, and suddenly my interest in jazz has got revived all over again. Tell me, what attracted you to jazz? Susan: Oh, well, I have to tell you that I am not a proper jazz singer! I've just had a lifelong interest in jazz and my husband and my son are very musical and we have a small recording studio in our house and we've always made music and performed together, but in a very low-key way. I think my interest in jazz comes from a couple of things. And now that I'm a voice coach, I engage with jazz in a new and different way. There's something very spontaneous about jazz, there's something very emotional. So I'm not a traditional jazz nerd. I'm more a sort of Ella Fitzgerald and smooth jazz singer. But I find that when you're singing jazz, you can interpret and allow your imagination and your voice to do all sorts of wonderful things to connect with people. And I think that is why I love singing jazz, albeit I'm absolutely not a professional. But I love it. I love it. 18:52 – What does success mean for Susan? Ashutosh: Wonderful. So time for two or three more questions. My next question to you is, what does success mean to Susan? Susan: Success for Susan is being happy. Doing things that I love doing. Living my life the way I want to live it, with great respect for those I love around me, who, I'm lucky to say, are very supportive of my ambitions and what I want to do in life. But for me, it's about being happy. And I think it took me quite a long time to work that out because my corporate drivers, when I was in corporate life, were more about status and identity and money and possessions and travel and how big and influential my network was. And as I move towards the sort of latter stages of my career, I'm realising that success for me is being happy, doing really rewarding work. Transformational work that makes a small difference on the world and a big difference to the people I work with. 20:08 – What inspires you? Ashutosh: Time for two more questions. My next one is who or what inspires you? Susan: What inspires me? My garden inspires me. That's probably a very English answer, isn't it? Because I do live in the garden of England. I live in the southeast of England where we have very lovely gardens, normally green. At the moment, they're looking very brown. Ashutosh: I know. Susan: I'm inspired increasingly by nature. I grow vegetables in my spare time. I love watching the birds outside my office window. I love planting and growing things from seed, so I'm inspired by those things. The things that are free of charge. Love, nature, going to the beach. 20:52 – Three lessons Ashutosh: Wonderful. And my last question to you, and this is for the many, many people who will listen to our conversation…what would you say are three lessons you would like our viewers and listeners to take away from your amazing journey and from our conversation? Susan: Okay. So, I would start with work on your mindset. Believe in yourself. You are capable of far more than you give yourself credit for. Ashutosh: Okay. Susan: The second thing I would say is find out about your voice. What it's capable of, how to warm it up. And if you're interested in hearing more about that, please get in touch. And the third thing I would say is, be compassionate with yourself. We are our worst critics. And when you reflect on the things that you say to yourself in your head, when you're talking yourself down, ask yourself, would you ever say that to a friend? And if you wouldn't say it to a friend. Don’t say it to yourself. Ashutosh: Wonderful. Susan, on that note, and your three lessons, work on your mindset. find out about your own voice and be compassionate. Thank you so much for speaking to me. Thank you for talking to me about your journey, about your own perspectives as a voice coach and an executive coach. Thank you also for speaking to me about your programme Make your Mark with Susan Room. And I'm sure a lot of my viewers and listeners would want to go and check it out when you take it retail, if I may say or use that term. Thank you once again for speaking to me and good luck to you. Susan: It's my great pleasure and I wish all your listeners the very, very best. And thank you so much for this opportunity. It's been wonderful. Ashutosh: Thank you. Voiceover: Thank you for listening to The Brand Called You videocast and podcast, a platform that brings you knowledge, experience and wisdom of hundreds of successful individuals from around the world. Do visit our website www.tbcy.in to watch and listen to the stories of many more individuals. You can also follow us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Just search for The Brand Called You.

Lots is written about leadership effectiveness, not least taking care of those in your charge. But where do leaders go to understand how to take charge of their voice and how many genuinely appreciate what a superpower the voice is? Not nearly enough, in my opinion. It’s second nature for effective leaders to evaluate their impact on business metrics, but they often neglect the impact that their voice has on others. I say this as a former C-suite executive that is now coaching leaders at some of the world’s foremost finance and tech businesses. In my experience, leaders spend far more time preparing what they'll say to investors, journalists and colleagues rather than how they'll say it - overlooking how things like voice speed, pitch, resonance, intonation, loudness and tone impact their message. Voice coaches understand that preparing how to deliver words can enhance leadership effectiveness. Supported by a growing body of research measuring vocal metrics, I want more leaders to understand the link too. Take tone of voice, for example. In a first of its kind study, researchers at the universities of Birmingham, Reading and California used algorithms to analyse the answers given by Federal Reserve Chairs, spanning eight-years of press conferences. They found a more upbeat and positive tone, led to a more upbeat and positive share price (The Voice of Monetary Policy, 2021). Similarly, researchers at Yale University, examined the persuasiveness of delivery in start-up pitches. Using machine learning, they were able to analyse the visual, vocal and verbal characteristics of founders by their pitches. By then tracking the investment decisions of venture investors, they discovered that founders who sounded passionate and warm when pitching, increased their funding probability. (Persuading Investors: A Video-Based Study, 2021). In a much earlier yet equally fascinating study, surgeons' malpractice claims histories were accurately identified solely from tone of voice. Researchers gave coders 10-second recordings of surgeon/patient conversations. Each conversation had its words removed, so the coders were only listening to voice tone. What did they find? The coders ‘significantly identified surgeons with previous claims compared with those who had no claims’. (Surgeons’ Tone Of Voice: A clue to malpractice history, Nalini Ambady et al, 2002). Such research would seem to suggest how we say something matters as much, possibly sometimes more, than the words we use. Yet how often do we reflect on the consequences of our non-verbal choices? Given how much time we spend speaking, it’s incredible that voice isn’t more prominent in leadership programmes. For leaders to be effective, others must listen and want to follow. Trust and positivity can be heard. Leaders are more engaging and effective when they better understand their voice and use it strategically, intentionally and purposefully. How can they do that? Curiosity about this very question prompted me to leave the C-suite to study voice at London’s prestigious Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, whose graduates include Sir Laurence Olivier, Dame Judi Dench and Kit Harington. I became fascinated by the link between voice and career progression and wanted to learn how actors use voice so I could coach leaders to use theirs most effectively. Royal Central taught me that an effective leadership voice is one that artfully draws upon things like tone, speed of speech, and volume. Knowing what these tools are and what they can do, allows us to choose and combine the right ones for the job. Just as we select our words, we have vocal choices that can maximise the effectiveness of our message and ultimately our leadership. My top tip for anyone looking to enhance their leadership voice is to get curious about your voice. Tone is a good place to start. It conveys your attitude to your words and those you're speaking with. If you feel confident, credible and care for those in your charge, that will come through in your voice. If you don't, no matter what you say, your voice will leak what you're feeling. Feedback generally increases leadership effectiveness, so ask people how you sound - particularly how your tone affects them. Tone is perceptual, so seek more than one opinion. If there’s wide consensus that some of your tones are unhelpful, take it on board. Some leaders have a real blind spot around this and, once aware, can take better charge of their impact, improving their leadership effectiveness in the process. And what leader doesn't want that? If you're an HR Leader, Chief People Officer, or Talent Development Professional, start your journey by booking my Vocal and Executive Presence Workshop for you and your team. Delivered virtually, it’s 60 or 90 minutes long (you choose) and will give your people powerful insights and a toolkit they can use straightway.

If you’re reading this sentence, then this article’s headline hooked you enough to read on and has demonstrated the most important thing about storytelling… Evoking curiosity. No matter how great a story, if it doesn’t evoke curiosity from the outset, there’s a good chance nobody will read or hear it. To hook people, the secret is to make them curious enough to want to learn more. And there are three things that make us extremely curious: 1. change 2. incomplete information, and 3. human behaviour. Great stories start where something has or is about to change. That invites curiosity because we constantly scan our environment for change to keep us safe. Great stories use change as a starting point. We want to know how a change impacts and how we should (or shouldn’t) respond. It is why murder mysteries are so popular: 1. Someone dies (change - and the ultimate threat). 2. Someone knows ‘who dunnit’ just not us (incomplete information). 3. Someone’s actions kill. Another’s bring a killer to justice (human behaviour).¹ Be they fact or fiction, we’re fascinated by stories because they give us insights into human behaviour and teach us about the relationship between cause and effect. There is much written about famous fictional opening lines and how they’re crafted to hook us. Yet the same principles apply in business storytelling. “When I broached the subject with my father, when I worked up the nerve to speak to him about my Crazy Idea, I made sure it was in the early evening.” Does Nike’s creator, Phil Knight, leave us with any doubt in the opening sentence of his book ‘Shoe Dog’ that, excuse the pun, there’s big change afoot? Aren’t we just a tiny bit curious about his ‘Crazy Idea’, why he’s nervous about telling his dad or why he must do so early in the evening? Or how about this from Gandhi’s autobiography… “The Gandhis belong to the Bania caste and seem to have been originally grocers. But for three generations, from my grandfather, they have been Prime Ministers in several Kathiawad States.” Change surely doesn’t come much greater than this. Hmm… I wonder how you get from being a grocer to Prime Minister? Hooked. That tipping point of change, coupled with a technique to powerfully share it, makes a story irresistible. It becomes possible to hook anyone into any story about almost anything. And that, of course, is what makes stories and their tellers so powerful and impactful within business. There are numerous techniques for opening a story to hook people. I explore 17 of them in my two-hour voice and storytelling workshop. Here are three, together with an illustrative example of how their tellers have successfully used them in a business context: Make a provocative statement “Some people say that we are not doing enough to fight climate change. But that is not true. Because to ‘not do enough’ you have to do something. And the truth is we are basically not doing anything.” Greta Thunberg’s provocative opening to leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2019. Pose a question “The room was full of the men and women who run the British government. The question these senior officials asked me is the same one that I have faced time and again. ‘So how did you do it?’” The opening to Sir Terry Leahy’s ‘Management in 10 words’ about leading Tesco from a struggling supermarket to the third largest supermarket in the world. Offer anecdotes This is Dame Ellen MacArthur’s opening in her book ‘Full Circle’ about transitioning from sailing to circularity... “I remember vividly how difficult I had found it leaving Kingfisher in February 2001. As I climbed over her guardrails, it felt like having a part of me I no longer knew how to live without torn out of me. It was not the fact that I had spent three months alone, but ironically the fact that I was stepping from the safety of her deck into an unfamiliar new world where hundreds of thousands of people were chanting my name.” Change impacts us all at some point, which is why strong stories are about how change affects people. How does a professional, team or organisation react to change and what is the result? But be they cautionary tales or success stories, ultimately what we’re looking for are clues. Insights about how we should adapt and adjust to replicate or prevent something similar happening to us at work. Good storytellers hook and hold our attention. They help us find meaning in our fast-moving world. They can change how we think, feel and act. It’s why story transforms business impact. It’s why, during his time as Pixar’s CEO Steve Jobs famously said: “The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller.” Susan Room offers an interactive two-hour ‘Professional impact: voice and storytelling workshop’, which powerfully blends business storytelling techniques with her expertise as a professional voice and executive coach. She’s already delivered 10 of these workshops for one of the best storytelling organisations on the planet, Financial Times – and they’ve been telling stories since 1888! If you are interested in running this workshop within your organisation, please get in touch. ¹ Inspired by the work of Will Storr. There’s an entire science behind what makes us so curious about story and what we need for it to satisfy us. Will Storr’s book, ‘The Science of Storytelling’ explores the psychology behind storytelling, including the psychology of curiosity. It’s a great read if you are interested in finding out more.

When compromised, our values can evoke strong emotions. It can be easy to react, but to retain professionalism and be heard we need to use our voice to speak up confidently, collaboratively and constructively. In this second audio interview, voice and executive coach, Susan Room, explores how we can get the best from our voice and ourselves when we’re ready to speak up for our values. Listen to the audio version below. Interview transcript Alex: Hi, I’m Alex Duff and I’m back talking with leading voice and executive coach, Susan Room, about how we can better use our voice to voice our values at work. Susan, we spoke last time about how to overcome some of those things that keep us silent, so what I’m hoping we can explore today is how we get the best from our voice and ourselves once we’ve decided to speak up. Susan: That sounds great, Alex. Thank you. It’s wonderful to be back talking to you. What we’re really talking about here is how we sound and show up when our values are being challenged. For me, when we’re invested in our work, we’re also invested in the organisation and the people we’re working with. So, if their values fall out of sync with our own, we might, understandably, feel frustrated, upset, even angry. And those emotions can blur our thinking and cause our voice to do unhelpful things - become high pitched, speed up, sound breathy, for example. There’s nothing wrong with emotions – they are very real and they need expressing. But how and when we do that matters, for me, especially in the workplace where emotions often run high, particularly at the moment, with pandemic pressures and all the other pressures the world and we as individuals are under. What we want to avoid, I guess, is speaking in a way that damages our professional reputation and relationships. Speaking confidently, collaboratively and constructively probably keeps us off the ‘drama triangle’. Actually, perhaps our next conversation could be about that, Alex? Alex: That sounds brilliant… Susan: ….just to go back and say… it’s much more likely to move things in a positive direction if we can speak with that confident, collaborative, constructive tone and style. Alex: I love those three Cs - how we, you know, use our voice confidently, collaboratively and constructively. Can you share any insights on how we go about doing that? Susan: Happily. I think it might help to consider them in reverse order actually. Alex: Okay then, let’s start with using our voice constructively. Susan: Well, interestingly, I’ve been looking at this…the origin of the word ‘construct’ is ‘to heap together’ or, perhaps the one we are most likely to know is, ‘to build’. I mention that because a good way to take the heat out of emotional conversations is to add something that builds on what’s already been said. So, I know when I’m feeling ‘reactive’, I try to pause and ask myself: “How will what I’m about to say build on what I’ve just heard to move things forward?” Because, you know, if it doesn’t, what’s the point of saying it? I’d only be raising my voice (and likely my pitch too) to add to the noise. If what I want to say does move things on, then I’ll go ahead and say it. And that will usually make me and other people feel good. That’s not really a silver bullet though, because my voice will leak information about how I’m really feeling. So, if I’m feeling judged or irritated or criticised – then people will hear that in my voice when I speak, if I’m not careful. So another thing I do is pause. I try and put myself in the shoes of the person or people I’m speaking with. I think: “If I were in their position and I was hearing this, how might I feel and react. How might I perceive me”? That’s a great question to reflect on! What I’m doing, in fact, is slowing myself down to move from a reactive state to a more responsive one, so I can think about my words and how I say them. You know, I may feel very strongly about something, especially personal values being compromised, but what I want to do is share my perspective or my problems with what I’m hearing or experiencing in a way that remains professional and builds a better outcome, at least in the workplace. I suppose what keeps me focused is the knowledge that I’m less likely to achieve a positive outcome if I sound, for example, accusatory or defensive. Let’s see. What else? Another thing I do, whenever possible, is give myself time to prepare and rehearse in advance, especially for conversations which I know might get emotional, and if the circumstances allow. Whether that’s possible or not (to prepare and rehearse), when I begin to think about who is receiving my message, it naturally leads me to consider the second ‘c’, in other words the collaborative point - how can I best use my voice in a collaborative way? Behind that I think is, I don’t only need to be ready to voice my ideas, insights or perspectives – I also need to be aware that the person or people I’m speaking with may or may not be ready to hear them. Implicit in this word collaboration is equality, which in turn, at least for me, implies respect, which needs to run both ways to produce rich conversations. So, while I might be ready to speak up right now, is this the best time and place for the other person to hear me? And then, given a constructive conversation is two-way, is now the right time and place for me to listen - genuinely listen, without judgment, to others’ values, opinions or explanations? I think this is incredibly important when we’re working internationally, because personal values are so culturally sensitive and diverse. We need to give others the opportunity to speak up, to hear what they say, to test our own assumptions and challenge our understanding around other people’s values – the values we hold are very personal, unique – they’re not universal. Alex: What you say about finding the right time and place holds a lot of resonance with me. I’ve written about this before but earlier in my career I was really horrified by a leader who refused to pronounce the name of a colleague properly and he did so in a departmental meeting and I immediately used my voice to call him out on it because I felt strongly it was disrespectful to deliberately change someone’s name. It was a name that wasn’t even difficult to pronounce. My comment was met by very awkward silence, followed by him waving his hand away with that nervous laugh you sometimes get. And he moved on with the agenda, just ignored the point. Despite it being such a long time ago, I often reflect on that moment. It’s really stuck with me over all these years. It definitely wasn’t the right time or place for me to voice my concern. I clearly embarrassed him in front of his team. Subsequently, he never truly heard the positive intent of my message, and he never did stop mispronouncing my colleague’s name. I mean, it wasn’t a complete failure because others in the team did do that, but if my purpose was to encourage that leader to lead by example – my choice of time and place was clearly off. I’d like to think today I’d handle that situation differently, to do as you’ve just suggested Susan, perhaps to have had a quiet word after everybody else had gone. Susan: Thanks for sharing that Alex. I absolutely can think of examples of that happening to me as well. I’m really careful these days about inviting people to tell me how to pronounce their name if I’m not too sure, rather than take a stab at it and feel embarrassment. So yeah, great example of how these things can play out in practice. Alex: That leaves the third ‘c’ and how we can have confidence in our voice and sound confident. A little earlier you said when it comes to talking about something potentially emotive, like compromised values, our voice can let us down. Can you give us any examples of what that might sound like? Susan: Of course. How our voice can let us down doesn’t always happen in the same way, at least in my experience. Sometimes we might feel breathless or breathy – almost as if we don’t have enough air in our lungs to finish our sentence, which of course if we’re speaking very quickly is probably going to be the case. That heightened energy which can make emotional conversations even more emotional. As can a voice that sounds wobbly, or shaky or unusually high pitched. I’ve even witnessed some people sometimes form a word, but it comes out without any sound. I can’t demonstrate that, unfortunately, because there is no sound, but I think many listening to this will have experienced it and will know what I mean. Alex: So, what can we do to prevent that from happening? Susan: One way is to warm up the voice before speaking. Just as you’d see athletes warming up before a race, or orchestral musicians warming up their instruments - tuning their instruments - if we’re going to speak with confidence, we need to have confidence that our voice will perform when it matters. Part of that is warming it up. Let me share a couple of exercises that are helpful for this. The first is a breathing exercise. I call it 'The Container' and it starts by visualising your torso as a container for your breath. Imagine your torso is a fuel tank and the aim of this exercise is to fill that fuel tank up with breath. You can do this just before going into a meeting and it has numerous benefits, because when we have more breath we are going to speak more confidently, we’re likely to calm our nerves if we are breathing more efficiently and effectively and we are also going to free the voice up so it’s going to sound more confident, more credible. So this exercise is a simple four step process – I hope you’re going to do it with me Alex, and our listeners too. You might want to do it seated, as we are now, as it can make you feel a bit lightheaded. Firstly, let’s put our hands in a dome shape, so the palm of one hand over the fist of the other hand, then place that dome at the top of the breast bone, above the tummy - that’s roughly where your diaphragm is. Now let’s roll our shoulders very slightly back just to open up the ribcage, keeping our spine nice and straight, and releasing any tension we notice in our muscles especially our belly muscles. Next, let’s gently breathe in, ideally through the nose, and, as we do, let’s push and flatten our hands down towards the belly, effectively simulating what the diaphragm does when we breathe in – it goes down to allow space for the ribcage to expand and fill with breath. OK. Now, we’re going to breathe out and as we do, slowly bring our hands back to the starting point, simulating now the diaphragm going up, and feeling the breath flowing out from the nose. If you repeat this for about a minute, you should begin to feel calmer and more confident. The second exercise, this is a fun one, I call ‘Hum and Gum’. All you need do is press your lips together and hum [demonstrates]. Like that. You might want to have a little playful hum [demonstrates], where your pitch is going up and down, and when you’ve started humming, [demonstrates], I want you to add to that the motion of chewing a piece of gum, which becomes [demonstrates]. You can hear how the sound changes while I’m chewing that piece of imaginary gum. Now, you might feel a little bit awkward doing this, and you’re probably not going to want to do it in front of many people! But enjoy having fun with it because doing this will warm up your facial muscles, that’s the chewing part, and also the vocal cords, which need to be making great contact in order to produce clear, confident, non-shaky, not wobbly, stable speech. So those are a couple of reasons for doing that exercise and that will definitely reduce the likelihood that your voice is going to sound wobbly when you speak. Alex: Thanks Susan those are both brilliant practical exercises. I particularly love the 'Hum and Gum'. They are great for prepping our voices to speak, but is there any element of voice that we should focus on to continue sounding confident once we’ve started speaking? Susan: Well, there is so much I could say about this. Gosh. There are different elements to voice and each one can help us sound more confident. There’s pitch and tone and pace and intonation and volume and resonance and many, many more. But if I had to pick just one, I guess it might be tone, because tone conveys our attitude to our words and to others. So, if we are feeling warm towards someone our tone when speaking with them will sound warm. Likewise if we are feeling irritated, our tone might be abrupt, sarcastic or angry. That’s really the tip of the iceberg; tone is very complex not least because different languages use it in very different ways. Generally though, we could say that tone can transform the meaning of our words and particularly it can distract a listener from what we are saying. If there is a mismatch between the words and the tone for example, listeners are far more likely to be focused on the tone and it won’t feel sincere or authentic. I think at the end of the day if we want to sound authentic, and convey respect for our listener and give them confidence in our message, then what we need is a confident, warm tone of voice. I’m really hoping some of the exercises and insights I’ve shared in this conversation with you Alex will help people listening to it achieve that. Alex: Thank you Susan. I absolutely think it does. And I think that feels like the perfect place to pause for now so thank you so much. Susan: You’re so welcome. And maybe over the summer we could explore some of these other vocal elements and how they can help us maximise our impact – our vocal impact – and also perhaps we could do something with the ‘drama triangle’? Alex: Yeah, brilliant sounds terrific. Speak to you soon. Susan: OK Alex. Thanks so much. I’ve really enjoyed today. Susan Room is a former corporate leader, turned voice and executive coach. One rare few qualified to provide voice and executive coaching, her unique approach and her Make Your Mark programme now sees her help others feel, look and sound confident – improving performance and happiness at work. Susan was interviewed by Communications Advisor, Alex Duff. If you're eager to help your team improve their spoken communication skills, why not book a Business Voice Masterclass or Vocal and Executive Presence workshop for them?

There seems to have been a series of news headlines of late detailing what we’ll call ‘lapses in leadership judgement’. When organisations and leaders lose their way, what they’ve often lost is the anchor to their values. Voicing our personal values at work has never been more important nor felt more difficult. In this interview, voice and executive coach, Susan Room, explores how to overcome our hesitation to speak up and voice our values in a professional and constructive way. Listen to the audio version below. Interview transcript: Alex: Hi, I’m Alex Duff and I’m talking with leading voice and executive coach, Susan Room, about how we can all better voice our values at work. Susan, before we get to how we do that, could I first start by asking you why it’s important we do it? Susan: There’s this great quote that says: “If you don’t stick to your values when they’re being tested, they’re not values, they’re hobbies.” I think it’s by American writer, director, and TV host, Jon Stewart. It’s powerful because it’s a stark reminder that when it comes to values, there’s often a gulf between what we think, what we say and ultimately what we do in the workplace. And that gulf can cause serious problems. We need to voice our values for two reasons: The first is that they act as a moral compass for the organisations we work with. But the second is personal, because failing to voice our values over time stops us being authentic, and I think that can ultimately destroy us. We spend so much time working. For many of us, work is so much more than a monthly pay check. What we do becomes a part of who we are. So, when our values persistently misalign at work it makes us desperately unhappy, or we leave. Alex: Is that something you’ve ever done – leave a job because of a values clash? Susan: Yes, three times actually. In my corporate life, I always picked my values over money even if it meant walking away from six figure salaries – which I did three times. When I finally left corporate life to train as a coach, I thought those values clashes would disappear, but they don’t. For me, whether you are employed or self-employed, the best working relationships happen when the values of those involved closely align. There have been instances for example, when a CEO or board director has invited me to coach individuals or multiple teams through a problem or problems they are experiencing. Once we get into it, I discover the root problem isn’t with individuals or teams – it’s higher up. When I hear people voicing anger and frustration because they feel their values are being compromised daily by their employers, I have two choices. 1. I can stay quiet, keep going, take the money and run (in coaching we call this ‘collusion’), or… 2. I hold the space for them to vent, then coach them to decide how they will change what they don’t like. I can also, only with their permission of course, share with those higher up generic observations and recommendations that move things forward. That’s what I do because colluding is not coaching. When things don’t align with my values I speak up, even if it is difficult and jeopardizes lucrative work. Alex: That sounds like courage. What is it you think we’re most afraid of when it comes to voicing our values? Susan: Thanks. I’m much braver now than I was in corporate life. Back then, I didn’t always voice my values as quickly as I would do today. To your question about what we’re most afraid of, I think it’s a couple of things. The first is the basic human need to be liked. Speaking out when our values are challenged can feel like going out on a limb. That metaphor says it all – going out on a limb. And secondly, it’s the fear of the fall out. Let’s not be naïve. Voicing our values isn’t always consequence free. And those consequences aren’t always financial – like walking away from an employer and giving up a good salary. Early in my corporate career I had a role that came with an office right next to the Chairman’s, overlooking the River Thames. ‘You’ve made it’, I thought. Then reality kicked in. I was constantly asked to do things that compromised my values. Eleven months later, just before I left, I was sitting in the typing pool (back then there were still typing pools). What I was saying and doing wasn’t going down well – at all. I was challenging everybody - voicing my values, and that felt good. What felt awful was that I was doing so in a very emotional way because I wasn’t as good at managing my emotions then as I am now. Before I walked away from the role and the money, I allowed that job to take a huge toll on me. Of course, this example pales into insignificance when compared to the Russian journalist who recently voiced her values about the war on Ukraine, live on TV, with her placard. Despite being embedded in the system for a decade or more and knowing there would be consequences, she chose to voice her values. Her kids are now saying ‘mum you’ve ruined our life’. Talk about having the courage of your convictions. Alex: Now I hear you say that, voicing your values sounds very risky. What are the upsides to voicing your values at work? Susan: For me it’s the magic ingredient – the secret sauce – for being and staying authentic - true to yourself. That matters whether you are just starting out or reaching the end of your career. And it’s particularly important for leaders because you are the person that others look up to. You set the tone and sculpt the culture. When someone crosses your values line, it feels unjust, and who wants to work for an unjust organisation? Voicing our values at work often means finding ways to say ‘that’s not okay’. Ultimately, we’re looking to make a situation and the world better. We want the brands we work for to say something positive about who we are. Alex: I can relate to that. Early in my career I worked as a communications advisor at P&O Ferries. It’s always been a brand I’ve been proud of. Over the years they’ve undoubtedly faced into some difficult challenges, but I always felt they did so with quite a lot of skill and decency. I left there 20 years ago, but these last few weeks, the way they fired 800 crew has left me feeling sad and angry. How they’ve treated people is a shocking example of leadership. I’m sad because the actions of the current senior team are so far removed from the business I so fondly remember and the lived values I saw while working there. But I’m also angry because a part of my professional identity, a part I’ve been so proud of for so long, has been forever tarnished. I feel severely let down by that, so I guess there’s no time limit on how the brands we work for impact our identity and make us feel. I’m interested though Susan, in something you said too about your own experiences earlier on in your career. You said when you voiced your values you were getting emotional. Isn’t getting emotional normal? Susan: Yes, it’s absolutely normal to feel emotions. It’s what we do with them that matters. If we allow fear, anger, disappointment and resentment to stop us from voicing our values, we just compound the problem. If we push through those negative emotions but allow them to dominate when we speak, then, arguably, we are venting, rather than viably voicing our values. That’s the mistake I made in that earlier employment. I was much younger then, I didn’t have the tools and techniques I have and share today to manage my emotions. I wasn’t able to voice my values in a professional, constructive way. Alex: That suggests there’s a way we can voice our values without getting emotional? Susan: There really is. I call it ‘Vent, then Voice’. Give yourself time and space, rather than react in the moment. Step away, process the emotion and reactivity, then act. It’s fine to vent; but do it with family, friends or in a confidential space - like with your coach or the recording app on your phone. That will enable you to move past the anger and frustration, then to engage rationally and constructively in a way that moves things forward. Alex: But how do we know when our values are being compromised? Susan: I think we intuitively know when we hear or see something that isn’t right. It’s often a physical reaction that doesn’t feel comfortable, like a tightening of the throat, heat in the chest or that sinking feeling in the stomach. Those physical sensations are powerful data that we ought to trust more. Typically, we rely on our five main senses all the time - taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing, but we also have myriad internal sensors within our body and these are picking up on changes in heart rate, blood pressure, temperature. We physically feel it in our body. It’s why we say things like ‘this just doesn’t feel right’ or ‘my gut tells me this isn’t working’. Let’s tap into that more, listen to what’s going on internally, then see it as an invitation to speak. Alex: You’ve talked about the reasons that prevent us accepting that invitation to speak up, so how do we find the confidence to overcome our hesitation and do so? Susan: It’s about saying no. That can be really hard, but there are ways we can get much better at it. Anyone that’s participated in my Make Your Mark coaching programme, has heard me talk about Ury’s positive no. That’s William Ury, who is an author, academic and negotiation expert and he has much to offer here. His positive no technique is really helpful when it comes to values because rather than thinking about saying no, which feels scary, Ury invites us first to think about what we are saying yes to. So, in the case of our values, we’re saying ‘no’ to something we don’t feel is right, but we’re saying ‘yes’ to what matters, what we believe in – our values. Business is about creating and adding value not just maximising profits. Yet when organisations lose their way, like P&O Ferries, what they’ve often lost is the anchor to their values. So, for me, saying yes to our values at work, feels more important than ever. We do that firstly by noticing those things we don’t feel comfortable with at work. Then pushing ourselves to find the confidence to speak up and say ‘no, that’s not right’, but doing so in a professional, collaborative, and constructive way - we speak our truth, stay authentic and make positive change happen. Alex: Thanks Susan. That feels like the perfect note to close on. Next time, I’d love to hear more about how we can use our voice to voice our values confidently, collaboratively and constructively. Susan: Thank you Alex. I've really enjoyed this conversation. Susan Room is a former corporate leader, turned voice and executive coach. One rare few qualified to provide voice and executive coaching, her unique approach and her Make Your Mark programme now sees her help others feel, look and sound confident – improving performance and happiness at work. Susan was interviewed by Communications Advisor, Alex Duff.

Aren’t TED talks amazing? It’s not just the content that captivates us, it’s how speakers share it; their storytelling, their body language and, critically, the way they use their voice. While we can’t replicate exactly how someone sounds (our voices are as individual as our fingerprints), we can replicate the vocal techniques they use to maximise our own impact. These techniques can be hard to spot when we’re absorbed in a great talk. That’s why I've selected five fantastic TED talks to pinpoint how each speaker uses one of five different elements of voice to best effect. This acronym is helpful for remembering each of the five vocal elements: SPILT. So, before any words are SPILT from your lips think: Speed, Pitch, Intonation, Loudness and Tone. As March marks International Women’s Day, I thought this the ideal time to examine five top TED talks from women. I use each speaker to highlight how they incorporate a different vocal technique. These speakers are women, but you don’t need to be a woman to replicate the techniques they employ - anyone who wants to enhance their vocal impact can benefit. Speed This interview from tennis icon, Billie Jean King illustrates how they harness speed to convey excitement and vocal variety. What’s great about this talk is that King is giving an interview. That’s a whole different dynamic to the classic TED style talk - as anyone who has ever been a conference panellist will know. Just look at how King takes their seat and adjusts their posture as they enter 0:20-0:23. It isn’t until 1:12-1:18 that we see what the readjustment does for them. They've planted their feet firmly to ground themself. That means they're not going to topple when leaning into the conversation. The position King has adopted here is what’s known as ‘BBC’ - Bum, Back of Chair. This position allows their spine to lengthen, and their lungs and diaphragm to expand, giving them fuller control of their breath. The speed of King's speech is generally slow enough throughout that we can catch all their words, yet it’s peppered with strong use of pause, further slowing the pace and punctuating the words – for example at 1:26-1:46. They also vary their pace to create a shift in emotion. Pick it up at between 3:22-3:47 to hear this pace change. Notice too how King combines this with a softening of volume when speaking the words “and now I have a daughter”. Combining different vocal elements can be hugely powerful and is something many strong speakers do skilfully. King uses short, sharp, sentences in different places to make what they say vocally interesting. At 14:22-14:29 they do this well by also employing the rule of three – a powerful rhetorical device commonly used by great speakers: “…To listen to these different woman, to listen to different people, to listen to President Carter…” Pitch My perception of Joan Rosenberg’s average pitch in her TEDx talk 'The Gifted Wisdom of Unpleasant Feelings' is that it’s quite low for a woman. There’s credible research to suggest that lower pitched voices convey greater competence and leadership capability than higher ones. But what’s interesting about those findings is that pitch is entirely perceptual so what’s pleasing to your ear may be unpleasant to mine. With that in mind I’ve not selected this TEDx talk because Rosenberg’s pitch sounds low to me, but because she offers a lovely example of how you can effectively use pitch to create vocal interest. Listen in at 0:52, then notice how she adjusts her pitch at 0:57 - as she impersonates her colleague. Keep watching and notice what she does between 1:01-1:04. She’s using her body language to draw you into her story but she’s also sharing a speaking secret, pausing her speech and visibly taking a deep breath. Just notice how much control that gives her over that next word at 1:05 ‘wow’. Rosenberg also uses pitch to convey her emotion. Hear how she elevates it between 2:22-2:35 when she shares her excitement about unpleasant feelings. In addition to illustrating pitch, Rosenburg employs numerous other vocal and body language tactics to great impact between 5:17-5:31. At 5:19 for example, notice how her body language mirrors her words? She’s leaning right in when she talks about staying fully present. And she says ‘present’ with wonderful vocal energy. At 5:26 she drops her volume to almost a whisper, before raising it again, together with her intonation between 5:28-5:31. Rosenburg’s talk is such a masterclass on how to give a great talk. It’s because she gets that right, that we hear her content – and who doesn’t want to learn how to deal with unpleasant feelings, so they no longer hold us back? Intonation Intonation is about the musicality of voice. The way your voice rises and falls, known as patterns of pitch, determines enormously how much others listen. We tend to switch off when a voice is too monotone or sing song. In her talk ‘How to make hard choices’, Ruth Chang uses varies her intonation to great effect. She opens with a strong mix of rising and falling intonation. She’s doing so to emphasise the choices we make between two things: This or that (0:14-0:19). "Think of a hard choice you’ll face in the near future. It might be between two careers – artist and accountant". If you keep listening to 0:22, you can hear she’s repeating that similar pattern of intonation. Then at 0:22-0:28 Chang breaks that pattern to position her next sentence as a question. Notice on screen how she even visually reinforces that with a question mark? Questions are the perfect place to hear rising intonation and her use of it here reflects the uncertainty we might face when asking ourselves questions to make hard choices. Questions, as Chang demonstrates, can be a great rhetorical device and bring vocal variety. Rising intonation when posing a question is a natural speech pattern. What isn’t is excessive “uptalking”. That’s when your intonation frequently rises at the end of a sentence to make it sound as though you are asking a question – even when it’s not one. Uptalking can undermine how others perceive your confidence. Yet it’s the frequency rather than its use at all that becomes problematic. Uptalking when used thoughtfully does have useful applications. Chang uses a lot of falling intonation in her talk especially at the end of her sentences. This technique helps her convey authority. You can hear an example of her voice falling and then remaining low towards the end of her sentence at 1:00-1:06. Chang peppers her talk with light humour. We hear the audience laugh in multiple places but pick it up at 3:14-3:35. Her rising intonation makes her humour gently obvious and breathes life into her words. It’s her mix of rising and falling intonation that helps engage her audience and gives confidence to her words. Loudness (volume) Can’t you just tell how much this trip to the International Space Station meant to Cady Coleman? She’s drawing us into her story from the outset with her clever use of volume. Volume doesn’t always need to increase to be powerful. Pick it up at 0:13-0:19 to listen to how she drops her volume to almost whisper the words ‘in space’. As she helps us visualise what it was like to take off in the Soyuz capsule, listen not only to how her volume increases (3,2,1 lift off), but also to how her pace quickens (faster and faster and faster) between 0:47-1:01. She’s offering brilliant insight here into how powerful it is when what you say aligns with how you say it. Coleman does this too frequently for it to be chance. If you keep listening from 1:01-1:09 you can hear how she employs the use of silence for dramatic effect, before the word “ka-bunk”. Tone Like pitch, tone conveys our attitude to our words and to others. For example, our tone might be warm, abrupt, sarcastic or angry. I’ve selected this wonderful TEDx talk by Vanessa Van Edwards, not only because it offers some great examples of tone but also because of what she’s speaking about – what makes a great TED talk! To get a sense of her good use of tone first though, start watching from 1:16. Are we left in any doubt when she says the word ‘shoes’ at 1:32 that her tone is anything other than warm? Isn’t it that tone and her body language that follows (until 1:39) that leaves us feeling she’s open, fun, and approachable? Contrast this with her change in tone between 2:12-2:32. Listen to the way she says, ‘you get more and more distracted because you don’t see them’ (2:25) and ‘can’t she just bring her hands off from behind her back?’ (2:30). The frustration in her tone is palpable and mirrors the frustration of her words. The research Edwards and her team carried out, which led to her giving this TED talk is fascinating. In this talk she shares their findings for why it is some TED talks go viral and others don’t. With her talk viewed 3.5 million times, it certainly seems she’s identified some secret worth us knowing – probably worth watching this one in full! So, there you have it. Five elements of voice illustrated by five TED talks. What I notice all these super speakers have in common is that they each elegantly combine all five vocal elements to connect and create a conversational style. In doing so what they each secretly share is that giving a top talk isn’t about talking at someone, it’s about talking to them. It means giving a great talk is never only about what you say, critically it’s also about how you say it. If you're eager to help your team improve their spoken communication skills, why book me to run a Make Your Mark event or Business Voice Masterclass for them?