Speaking Out with Speaker's Roundtable
Volume 3, Issue 36 August 9, 2004
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* In This Issue:
* A Note From Speaker's Roundtable
* Wordless Communication
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* A Note From Speaker's Roundtable
Dear Subscriber and Friend;
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Welcome to....
* Wordless Communication.
by Nido Qubein
Most of the communicating sales professionals do is
wordless. The moment you enter the presence of another
person you start communicating. Your physique, your
clothing, jewelry, voice qualities, facial expressions, posture
and many other factors pass along important information.
They give information or clues as to social, marital and
financial status, your sex, and personal taste.
When you speak, your voice speaks in ways that go beyond
words. Your accent may give away your national or regional
origin. Your tone of voice will tell people whether you feel
elated or sad, excited or bored.
Through verbal communication, people learn about your
thoughts, ideas, products, and services. Through non-verbal
communication, they learn about your feelings.
About 93% of your communication is non-verbal. Much of
it is unconscious, but you can bring a great deal of your
wordless communication under conscious control.
Often, how we say things conveys more meaning than what
we say. In fact, voice quality is said to convey about 38% of
your meaning.
When George Bush ran for president in 1988, he hired a
voice coach to help him lower his voice an octave. Why?
Because the candidate's high-pitched voice had helped saddle
him with the "wimp" image, even though Bush had proved his
valor as a Navy combat pilot during World War II.
Fairly or unfairly, we impute strength and confidence to
the person who speaks with a low-pitched, well-modulated
voice. When the voice rises to a high pitch, we sense
excitement, panic, and lack of control. That doesn't mean that
we should all go around cultivating baritone voices. It simply
means that each of us should use the lower end of the voice
range when we want to communicate calmness, confidence and
competence.
We convey feelings, moods and attitudes through a variety
of voice qualities, which are sometimes called paralanguage.
Among these qualities are volume, pace, intonation, stress and
juncture.
Volume and Pace
Volume and pace should be used in a careful, controlled
way. These qualities can work in unison to achieve powerful
effects, especially when selling and persuading from the public
platform. You can let your voice rise to a crescendo, the pace
and volume quickening until you reach a peak of excitement.
Or you can drop to a dramatic whisper.
Volume should always be great enough that you can be
heard by everyone you're trying to reach with your voice.
When addressing a group through a microphone, that generally
presents no problem for you. When speaking without a
microphone, keep checking the people farthest from you for
signs that they're straining to hear, or indications that their
attention is straying.
Pace should be adapted to the message. Some simple but
telling points can be made effectively in rapid-fire sequence.
Others can be made by slowly drawing out the words, or by
long pauses to let the points sink in.
Intonation
Intonation refers to the voice pitch. We usually speak in a
range of pitches from low to high. The range between high and
low intonations varies from individual to individual, and from
one linguistic population to another. The English generally
have a greater range than do Americans.
Stress
Stress is another important element of paralanguage. The
way you emphasize words can change the meaning of your
sentences.
As you speak, be conscious of the effects of sense stress
on the meaning you're trying to convey. Use stress to help
your listener understand the sense in which you use words and
to show which words you consider to be important.
Juncture
Juncture refers to the way vowels and consonants are
joined in the stream of speech. If you listen to someone
speaking in a foreign language, it sounds like a continuous
flow of syllables. That's because you haven't learned to
recognize the signs that tell you where one word stops and
another begins.
Speakers of other languages have the same problem
comprehending English. As I've spoken on different
continents, I've formed a great admiration for the translators
who have had the task of rendering my speech into other
languages. Once I was translated simultaneously into seven
different languages. Either my juncture was good or my
translators were superb. The audiences laughed at the
appropriate points and applauded at the appropriate points.
Inattention to juncture can make your speech indistinct or
hard to understand. If you tell a carpenter to build a
greenhouse, make sure that you don't end up with a green
house. The difference in appearance and cost can be
substantial. If you ask your secretary to get you the night rate
and have it on your desk the next morning, be sure it doesn't
sound like "nitrate." Otherwise, you may find a sack of
fertilizer in your "in" basket.
Nido Qubein
Member: Speakers Roundtable
Web site: http://www.speakersroundtable.com
Email: office@SpeakersRoundtable.com
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