"A person's voice directly sketches a complete picture of a person in our minds. We immediately have an idea whether we feel interest or whether we encounter defensiveness within ourselves. How educated, how passionate, how successful someone is - we imagine we can tell all these things when we first hear a person speak." So claims speaker and coach Dr. Monika Hein. The experienced trainer knows: "That's why it's crucial in private as well as in professional life how your voice sounds."
And even more important: How do we actually want our voice to sound? Do we always know exactly what our voice does to the other person? Dr. Monika Hein: "Just listen around in companies. Sometimes it's pretty scary how Executives talk to their employees. Some tones are more likely to frighten than to make others feel joyful." The expert has studied the human voice. She has trained many actors and singers. In this magazine article, she tells you how the right vocal technique can make you even more successful.
What ideas and strategies are there for using your voice in a targeted way? Can you look at your voice analytically and train it - or do you use your speech organ more intuitively? Dr. Monika Hein: "I know exactly what image I want to create in my listener - and my voice reacts to that." So we talk about intention and intuition. The expert says, "The job of a voice coach is to show the student to break his bad habits. The teacher should show the student what prevents his natural instrument from developing to its fullest."
What prevents you from becoming audible? What prevents you from using your voice in such a way that you can inspire people can? Why does your voice often not work as you would like it to? Dr. Monika Hein: "There are many different reasons for this. On the one hand, it may be that in Hectic are. Or that the daily work routine stresses us so much that our voice stops. Then there are Beliefs: Have you ever thought 'Nobody listens to me anyway?' These are beliefs that we don't even open our mouths with."
Also status differences, a low Self-esteem and many other factors lead to the fact that we do not become loud or audible - but sometimes do not dare to say anything at all. Dr. Monika Hein: "And then there is also the lack of knowledge about our instrument: Who actually knows exactly what they are doing? Our own experience is lacking at this point. We are not speech professionals, yet we speak all the time. We speak all day long in many, many situations. In that respect, it's very advisable to know the instrument we have in our throat."
We hear about the Bone conduction quite differently than over the air conduction. That's why we sound different in our ears - and are surprised when we hear a sound recording of us. Dr. Monika Hein: "What helps? Get to know your voice. Record yourself as often as possible in different variations. And try out what your voice can do - that helps immensely in everyday life and at work! And if you still don't like your voice, then you should get to know your vocal mixer."
The vocal mixer has seven controls that we can work with:
With each of these controls, the voice changes a little bit. Dr. Monika Hein: "The first control is the body or your posture. If you're slouching in your desk chair or executive chair, don't be surprised if you don't sound particularly motivating. Your body is your instrument. Straighten up! Your voice will sound completely different. Dr. Monika Hein: "Body tension contributes to becoming audible."
When we are emotionally upset, we breathe in the upper chest area and sound tense, tight and no longer completely free. However, when we breathe deeply into our belly, the sound of our voice also calms down. And that's exactly what we want when we communicate with other people in our professional lives.
Dr. Monika Hein: "We have a whole keyboard of tones at our disposal. This includes three particular parts in particular. We should speak in the lower third. It's not really known to most people that we should speak there. When we do, you can hear a small, subtle bass resonating. It sounds warm and deep." When you leave that bass, you slide into the middle part of the vocal range - and that's usually stressful for listeners because it contains a lot of treble and sounds shrill. And then there is another part on the keyboard - the head voice. Dr. Monika Hein: "When we speak there, dear ladies, we are not taken seriously." Her expert tip: Speak in the third part of your keyboard, the so-called indifference position. This transfers to your counterpart and makes your voice sound confident and powerful.
Dr. Monika Hein: "Articulation is what we do with our mouths. We have vowels and consonants. The consonants should be powerful and clear, the vowels need a bit of space. To pronounce the whole speech structure really clearly, you can train your tongue.
The last three controls are for speech shaping. The melody, tempo and intonation give your words an individual touch. Depending on the message you want to convey, you can play with them to create different effects.
Dr. Monika Hein: "There is no right or wrong - there are just free voices and less free voices. Small speech exercises will help you get a free voice. My tips are: Get to know and love your voice. You only have the one. Meet your conversation partner with respect, compassion, love and humor. And last but not least, it doesn't all have to sound pretty. Your personality shines through. The word person comes from Latin and means "to ring through". Let your personality ring through. No matter what we say and to whom - in the end, a feeling always remains."
