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Are you “happy” with your speaking voice? Do people “hear” you in the way you want to be heard? Do your messages provoke an emotional response in your audience?

These were some of the questions answered at a recent workshop I attended in London, lead by Stewart Pearce, Master of Voice at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Over a most amazing day, Stewart helped us find our “Signature Note” and to start to use our voices in new and powerful ways. I have been interested in the effects that voice tone can have on our ability to communicate and influence.

One of the many things I got from this workshop was the huge impact that our voice has both in face to face and telephone communication. If we look at the Latin roots of the word personality for example, we see that it comes from per-sona (through sound). If we can find our own unique sound, and communicate from that note, we connect with our audiences much more authentically and effectively.

In Stewart’s experience, many people “live in their heads” and project their sounds from that space, resulting in a “dis-integrated” and strident message. He demonstrated most effectively how bringing that note down into our bodies, so that we speak from the centre of our chest,leads to a “fully integrated” message which radically enhances our ability to communicate.

Stewart gave us some simple yet powerful tools to help us discover our “note” and I look forward to sharing these with my own clients in the near future.

Listen to any good speaker and you’ll probably find them using this golden rule time and time again. Even Julius Caesar used it! “I came I saw, I conquered. Simply stated, the rule of three says that three key messages is the optimal number for maximum audience recall.

Why three and not four or two or seven? Well, the psychologists have studied this in depth and beleive that most people can only keep five plus or minus two pieces of information in conscious awareness at any given time. That’s why we have to break long phone numbers down into three and four digit groups to make them easier to remember. In practice however, three seems to work best when it comes to presentations.

There are various ways in which this principle can be applied to presentations. I’m sure you will be able to think of lots so here are a few to get you started.

1. Try dividing your presentation or story into three acts. A beginning, a middle and a conclusion.
2. Apply the rule two the main body of your presentation and limit yourself to three (or at a push four)main ideas, concepts or messages.
3. If you have time, support of each of these messages with three pieces of evidence, examples or steps.

Presenters who ignore this simple but immensely powerful principle do so at their own risk! Clarity and simplicity are key for effective communication and you don’t want to overload your audience with too much content!

I ran a presentation skills workshop for two amazing young ladies today. Both were reluctant presenters whose nerves had previously been getting the better of them and and as a result their future career progression was effected.

They did three practice presentations over the day and the difference was staggering! One said that she was “Shocked at the progress we have both made in just one day!” Their confidence was boosted and their delivery skills were 100% better. I was so proud of them.

That’s why I love to teach presentation skills so much. Together we can achieve amazing results in just 6 hours.

I beleive that the difference is addressing both the physical and the psychological aspects simultaneously. Teaching techniques alone, without dealing with the underlying limiting beleifs and thought processes is like sticklinga plaster on a gaping wound.

I was giving a talk recently and one of the audience members shared with us the story of how he was part of a “dragons den” type even where a number of potential inventors were pitching to venture capitalists.The event was organised by Business Link and all the participants had been coached on how to put their presentation together professionally . The only problem was that every presentation was sounding the same! So, when it came to his turn, my presenter took a gamble and threw away his notes, turned off his PowerPoint and pitched from the heart.The result was that he got more enquiries from potential funders

than anyone else!Now I’m not saying that you shouldn’t spend time preparing and putting together a professional presentation however, there may be times when you need to “break The Rules” and do
something different. As he said - The investors were more interested in the character of the presenter than the content!

Of course all the preparation he had done in advance was not wasted because he had all the facts at his fingertips, it was just the delivery that changed and as a result he stood out from the crowd.

When could you take a risk like this and allow your authentic self to shine through?

Just home after leading a retreat holoday in Cazorla, Spain. It really is amazing the effect that our environment has on us. Stepping off the treadmil and spending a week amid the nature of rural spain created so much “thinking space” for myself as well as our participants.

• How does your environment effect you?

• What do you do to create the best environment to allow you to be creative or effective?

• Where do you go to create thinking space?